writing – Haston Helping Hands

“You had a dream, you know great! When you were 8, it was adorable, at 18 it was inspiring, at 28 it’s officially embarrassing, I just want you to stop before we get to heartbreaking.” This is what a mother says to her child to get her to “grow up and give up on her dream” after she gets laid off from her job in television news in the movie “Morning Glory” (it’s only 8 minutes in so really not a spoiler. The movie is very inspiring to me and I recommend it to you any time you need a kick in your rear to get it in gear on your dream.

It’s fictional, yes but this scenario is too often played out in real life with our friends, lovers and acquaintances. Think about it, what was your dream when you were 8? For me it was to be a professional actress and I said it to anyone who would listen and some who didn’t. I was told by several people, you will never make any money at that, you should have a back-up plan. I also heard, well its such a competitive business and there are millions of people doing it and you will wind up starving in a garret eating tuna out of cans. I was dejected and depressed by this, and while developing a back-up plan to become a lawyer, (which never came to fruition, by the way) I followed my dream and have found success and money as an actress while making a living doing something else. I did this in spite of many people telling me I couldn’t because I had a solid support system telling me I could do whatever I set my mind to, and so I have. So as it turns out, what my friends and relatives said, isn’t true, I have actually made money working in theatre. Is it hard? Absolutely. Is it worth it? Absolutely. I want you to think about that and remember it the next time someone tells you that you can’t do something. They don’t know what you have in you, and they are predicting a future they can not possibly see. When someone talks to you about their dream, you have a tremendous amount of power, you can lift them up or you can crush them with just a few words, so choose them carefully and work to inspire anyone you can to do anything they want to do. The possibility in that is amazing. Who can you inspire today? What can you do to follow your dream at 18, 23, or 42? Give yourself grace for the past, but start now in whatever way you can! It’s not too late, I promise!

I don’t claim to be a professional writer, but I do enjoy it and I often turn my blogs into speeches which have been very successful. As an actor, I am always looking for wonderful dialogue to say on stage. I am deeply enamored with people who write well and one such writer is Aaron Sorkin. You may know him from a series called, “The West Wing” or “Sports Night” or more recently “Newsroom”. I love the way he writes. It is evocative of the 1940s which is a favourite era of mine characterized by “fast pace” and “rat a tat” ala “His Girl Friday” and “The Philadephia Story”. I love it so much that I was working on a monologue for an audition and in working on it, I wanted to be sure I had all the words right so I went hunting online for the script of the piece I was looking for in “Sports Night” (admittedly being lazy because I didn’t want to have to listen, pause and type) but I found the original uncut script, and while its not bad writing, it has a lot of extraneous words and character choices that serve to diminish the strong character profile as built by Felicity Huffman as Dana Whittaker.. but I digress. The point of this, is that may have been a first draft or a second, but the words that ended up on screen as said by the actor were so strong and concise and I think that is a missed lesson by writers because their “baby” is perfect and they toiled over it, and sweated over it and shed blood to create those stories and characters, but often it takes an outside influence or some distance to see how much better it can be by tweaking the original brilliant concept.

So what’s my takeaway from this? If a wonderful writer, like Aaron Sorkin, has less than majestic phraseology and he has issues getting it “right” the first time, what are you so worried about? If you want to write, get started today! If its bad, it will get better. If you are already a writer, great, keep writing!

This book that I have linked to below is all about abandoning your fear and “STARTING” to go after your dreams. Check it out!

http://www.thestartbook.com/?ectid=ja.lt.jm8

Tag: writing

Follow your dream at 8, 18 or 80! and all the years in between!

Rewriting is the best Writing