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Friday, January 17, 2014

Making your luck

Today I met a creator. I don't get to say that often. This guy is a one man production unit trying to do the job of five people. I sat with him for more than an hour, just trying to get a feel for him, what made this guy tick.
He told me about some of his projects and goals. Not-so-strangely I found myself agreeing with a lot of what he had to say.
Within the first ten minutes of our meeting, I decided he wasn't a con man or trying to rip people off.
The trouble with a lot of regular folks is that they're looking for a paycheck... A Monday through Friday 9 to 5 sort of job. This creator gets paid for the completion of a project. When things are filmed, edited and ready to go out.
It took me several minutes to realize that I'm heading in the same direction. Some of you might remember the props I built for the local gaming convention a few years back. Same thing going on here: I would work my day job, then go build props in the garage. The end result was a cool statue that everyone loved and took pictures with. Too bad I couldn't convert all that to cash. Around the 45 minute mark of the meeting, we exchanged business cards and I made a few inquiries with some of my network contacts. I might throw my hat in this ring and see if things develop. I'll keep working at Lowe's, for as long as they'll let me. And I'll see if I can't develop a project or two. 
A writer doesn't get paid by the hour. (I wish we did.) For the last two years, I've dissociated myself with working for money, It's a mental thing. Sure I need cash to keep the lights on, but I'm not living for work so I can work to live.  It's a hard existence that only ends when you die.
I'm not playing that game.
The hard scrabble existence in retail is wearing mighty thin to me and I need to think of an alternative. It takes quite a bit of rationalization that we don't know everything, or more to the point, we can't do it all ourselves. I think I just met another piece to my puzzle, a man who could help me in taking my storywriting to the next level. I'll keep you all posted. If my book becomes a screenplay, this may be the guy to help it become a film.



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