One of the reasons why I wanted to start writing and posting daily was because I was reading A LOT, and writing very little. I usually read between sixty to ninety minutes in the morning, or until I read fifty pages, my arbitrary daily quota. However, on very rare occasions I find a book, or it finds me, that I cannot not tear away from. The writing is too engaging, the story is too brave, horrific, and amazing to look away; these are the books that are true and can not be faked. My truth as a writer is that I find it easy to make up stories. Fiction is easy, truth is hard, but just like the real atrocities happening all around us vs. the carefully and cutely crafted shows streaming on Netflix, etc., truth is not easy to write or digest, I get it, but I've never chosen the path that was easy.
Life-changing book.
Twenty years ago I was walking on the path to be a film and/or TV writer/producer, but necessity veered me off that path, (I needed to pay rent), so I took a steady job in visual effects. I didn’t understand it, and I never liked it, but I knew how to work hard and be a leader, and concurrently found love, parenthood, and an obsession with physical endurance.
I could’ve turned back toward the make-believe land of screenwriting and production a thousand times over the last ten years. I could've called on favors, started back at the bottom, or in the middle, (maybe), but my gut kept pulling toward my truth, I was made to move, not sit in a room somewhere in Hollywood eating Doritos sixteen hours a day brainstorming clever ways for the hero to win in the third act, instead I want to be the hero of my own story, and not attach my time and energy to the rainbow spectrum of script revisions, (white pages, pink pages, green pages, goldenrod, etc), but stay on the path my feet have been trotting all these years, pursuing my purpose of sharing my adventures in physical endurance.
However ridiculous it is, and has been to be so devoted to developing a craft that promises zero monetary return, recognition, or daily satisfaction even, it feels right, it feels true, and I want to be a writer that reveals truth verses one that provides entertainment.
Let’s GO!