Blog

QUIT.

We have a daughter who is an actress. I don’t say she wants to be an actress, she is an actress because every breathing moment she is growing, changing, pursuing, exploring, studying, working.

Acting is a difficult profession.

It is one where your employment is at the whim of someone else, completely, You can be completely prepared and talented and still not get the part. You go on dozens, if not hundreds, of auditions before you get one job.

If this is discouraging, then you shouldn’t be an actor.

I say the same to the writers in my life.

If a single rejection is enough to throw you off your feet; if a single bad review or three bad reviews or 30 bad reviews or 30 rejections are enough to make you quit, then don’t do it.

Don’t write another word.

Being a writer takes a lot of time. Time alone. It’s a lot of time trusting in your own ability to tell the story. It’s a lot of time looking to find someone that you believe has credibility to read your work and give you an honest opinion– someone hopefully outside your family.

There are many reasons why we shouldn’t write, but if you have a driving passion; if you have a force that makes you wake up in the morning saying, “I can’t wait to pick up the pen,” or ” I can’t wait to sit down at my computer to tell the story of these characters…” If the characters are with you day and night and need you to tell their story, then you should write it.

Don’t let anyone stop you from doing that.

Whether or not you make a living at it, tell your story.

Tell your story because there is one person somewhere who needs to hear it and, if you’re lucky, there are hundreds and hopefully millions waiting.

Don’t give up. Don’t quit. But if it really is too much, by all means walk away and find a fulfilling life for yourself because…

…it’s hard to be a writer unless you can’t not do it.

I was once told by a casting director: If you can do something else in your life, do it. Which is why I found myself at 30 wondering why I hadn’t started to write all those books I had planned and was spending all this time acting when there was something else I could do.

So I wish us all luck. I wish you luck with your writing. I wish me luck with my writing and my teaching and I wish us all to find our audience, our passion, and our drive to tell our stories.