You'll Never Be A Writer by Michael Hauge & Mark W. Travis Video Lecture | Screenwriting: From Beginner to a Pro - Career Development

what do you say to an individual who's a
family member is not only discouraging
about a creative career but downright
just adamant that that's not the way to
go what would be something you could
tell someone they can't change their
family members mind they can't change
their support system and the structure
that's been built around it but yeah
that's a tough one I think it also
depends where that negativity is coming
from I think sometimes family members if
it's a younger person I watch to become
a writer there's the parent who says you
can't be a writer you can't be a
filmmaker you'll never make it you need
some fallback position go to college
become an accountant or something like
that that's growing I think out of real
fear a real love but also fear they want
the best for their child and they're
protecting them they feel and so that's
kind of the good reason to do that but I
think deep down sometimes friends
spouses family members even parents
sometime feel resentment towards someone
because deep down they once had a dream
to do something and either their parents
shut it down or they just got too
frightened so they're working as the
accountant I don't know why accountant
is always the job you pick is the boring
job I'm sure their accountants who are
passionate about it but they they made
the choice to play it safe and I think
the idea that someone close to them is
going to have the courage to break out
and do something out of passion that
they're committed to is causes
resentment and it sort of scares them so
they don't want somebody else to succeed
where they fail to have the courage that
they didn't either way if you're on the
receiving end of that I think it's very
difficult I get emails often from people
in those situations I find - it often
happens with spouses particularly women
who
- right and their husbands or
significant others don't honor it now
sometimes they aren't as blatant to say
no you shouldn't do this they pay lip
service to it but they treat it like a
hobby in other words I I do a lot of
work and lecture a lot to the Romance
Writers of America and there are romance
writers who are passionate about it
giving everything they can to this they
see it as a career some of them are
making money at it but yet it's like
their writing is always expected to take
sort of third or fourth place after the
kids are taken to school and the dishes
are done and if the husband wants to go
out or if they're gonna watch a movie
you know they have to sort of find
secret time to do that and that's very
tough my suggestion to those people is
as much as possible disengage from that
recently I got an email from someone and
they said I tell my friends that I want
to do this and they all laugh at me and
I tell my parents they discourage me and
my answer would stop telling them just
because the one thing about writing is
you can do it by yourself so just go
about your business just pursue your
dream on your own don't tell them you're
finishing a script find a writers group
find classes find other places where
there are people who love what you love
and have your passion get support from
them and just go about that on your own
and when you finally get that script
optioned then shorten the check and then
they might come around even before that
I think at some point you have to find
the courage to stand up and say look
this is not a hobby this is not a lark
this is my career I may not be making
money at it yet but this is what I want
to do with my life and I need your
respect for that you don't have to do
anything but you have to honor it and
let me make that a priority some of the
time that's tough it comes back to that
fear and courage thing but you're gonna
have to find that courage because it's a
lot less painful than not finding it and
40 years later or 30 years later looking
back
can say gee I wonder what would have
happened if I'd had done what I really
wanted to do and you wrote about a
similar situation on your blog right oh
yeah because I had recently gotten an
email like that and there was a young
man I don't recall it I I think he was
in college studying something that his
parents had wanted him to study and he
hated it and he told them as
passionately as he could I really want
to write I want to write and then I want
to be a filmmaker and they like we're
threatening to disown him and they said
you can't do that so he told the mark
and he thought I'll do it on my spare
time and I'll go ahead and do what they
want which is go to I think it was law
school or pre-law and he was so
miserable that he got an ulcer and he
according to his email and eventually he
started taking drugs he became an
alcoholic he got on drugs he had to go
into rehab and he almost died and that
finally was the wake-up call to him and
he said I can't I can't I literally
can't live like this I'm not going to
survive this so that gave him the
courage and the support because of the
rehab in the and the program and so on
to finally go after the thing he wanted
to go after it's it's a tough thing it's
a very tough sad situation but at the
end of the day you got to do what the
hero of a movie has to do and that is if
you want it bad enough you got to
overcome those deep-seated fears and
somehow find the courage to step up
you