Who am I?

I was going to write this long drawn out post about how hard it is to find the answer to that question. It was going to be all “emo chic” and what have you. Filled with illusions to all these grandiose thoughts that I thought sounded cool and intellectual.

Then I realized I can’t write that sort of drivel. That’s not me. And thus, the whole post would have been a lie, which, as far as I know, isn’t the best way to start a new blog.

So who am I? I’ll give you the straight scoop.

I grew up in a greater Detroit Metro area with a solid midwestern back ground. My parents were both born and raised there as well.

However, we moved from there to Charleston, SC my senior year of High School I’m not a big fan of Charleston, and as as far as I could tell it wasn’t a big fan of me, so I left and settled in Savannah, GA for two years while I studied film at SCAD.

A few things lead me to leave SCAD and I transfered to UCF in Orlando, Florida. Which is incidently where I’m writing this post from, but more on that later. I graduated with a BA in English, and met my future wife. We got married this past May.

I moved back to GA, Atlanta to be exact, and now work in IT. It’s not the most exciting work in the world, but it’s better than what a lot of my buddies do, and it offers me a lot of low stress down time.

Not to long ago I decided I wanted to get back to what my first goal in life was, become a film maker. It’s what I went to college in the first place to do. Sure, me and nine bajillion other people set out to do the same thing each year. 99.9999% of us won’t make it. But if you don’t try you’ll always wonder. I don’t want to always wonder, so I did something about it.

I finished the first draft of my first screenplay about three years ago. All 130 pages of it, and it was terrible. Actually, it wasn’t that bad, for a first script, but the goal wasn’t to win the next Oscar with it, the goal was to finish it, which I did.

A lot of people think it’s easy to write. Well, let me tell you first hand, it isn’t. When you stare at that blank screen, cursor blinking, a million things floating through your head, it’s really intimidating. But I pushed through and got something done. I completed it in a little over three days. Mind you this was a well fleshed out idea I’d had in my head for about five years, so it’s not indicative as to how fast I work.

Once I got that first draft out it didn’t seem so impossible anymore. Since then I’ve put together 4 screenplays, heavily outlined three others, and have notes on a bunch of other projects. I’ve moved from doing this as a hobby. I’ve, in the words of Merlin Mann, “gone pro.”

“Going pro” isn’t really that you’re a professional, it’s more of a state of mind. Its taking that step from doing something as a hobby to doing something as a prospective career. That in turn leads to why the blog is titled what it is, “My Other Career.”

To “go pro” and make the leap you need to do it every day, and that’s what I do, at least two hours a day. Either by writing directly, researching, brain storming, reading, or watching movies. And yes, watching movies counts. How are you going to learn if you don’t study how other people do it?

At any rate, I think some of my stuff is getting pretty good. I’m starting to learn how to think about my ideas in terms of screenplay structure (act 1, plot point 1, act 2, plot point 2, act 3), but I need help getting to the next level. Fortunately, my best friend is a screenwriter. And yes, he actually gets paid to do it. He’s “made it,” and he helps me when he can. But he’s busy, I mean, this is his whole job.

In other words, I can use him for guidance, but I can’t depend on him to teach me. Not right now at least. But that’s half the fun of a new career, whether it’s in the mail room or the board room, figuring things out on your own.

As I said, I’ve got some stuff I think is pretty good. I’ve got some stuff I think could be really good. But doesn’t everyone? I need to learn how to craft it into something that stands out, something that doesn’t look like amateur hour.

Which brings me to today. But to get to today I’ve got to back up to three days ago. I drove down from Atlanta to Orlando to go to the CUSA Championship game, of which my college, UCF, won. I left to go home yesterday morning. About 35 minutes into my trip my car overheated. I was on the Florida turnpike in the middle of no where, and had no idea what to do.

I managed to get my car towed to a SEARs and they told me the radiator had a leak in it. I went with them into the shop and sure enough they pumped it up and I saw the cracks running along the top. Damn. I called the guys I was staying with to come get me. While waiting for them to pick me up, I was about an hour away, I grabbed a coffee as a Books-A-Million and settled down with Syd Field’s “The Screenwriters Workbook.”

And that, my friends, brings me to this blog. “The Screenwriters Workbook” is basically Syd’s screenwriting class. Each chapter of the book presents the reader with an exercise. At the end of the book, and with all the exercises completed, you are left with a first draft of a screenplay.

Earlier in the day, while waiting for the tow truck, I’d gotten an idea for a screenplay. And here, in my lap was a book saying it would help me get it down on paper. Divine intervention? No. Just an amazing coincidence. But, it seemed like too much of a coincidence to pass up.

So here I am, on a brown leather couch with a cup of joe, cell phone, Macbook, “The Screenwriters Workbook,” and a good idea. This is how it’s going to start, and this blog will take me and everyone who wants to read it though my journey while I get the idea that hit me at the gas station down into script form.

Hopefully, if you’re reading this, you’ll get something out of it. If you don’t, I’m sorry. This is more of an exercise for me than others, but I’m hoping maybe someone out there that write might stumble upon this page and offer insights, suggestions, and tips that will help me along, and if possible I can offer some things of my own back to them.

Well, that’s that, my first post. Now, lets get to work.

-Steve