April 11, 2002
11:53pm Thursday

HUSTLE'S THE NAME OF THE GAME

The sheer amount of information on the net regarding freelance writing, screenwriting, copywriting, ghostwriting, novel writing, writing in general, is overwhelming. You'd think everybody and their brother either was or wanted to be a writer. I have one salient college classroom memory and it's that everybody passionately hated writing. You'd hear "You'll have a ten page paper due at the end of the semester on the subject of your choosing," and everybody would groan like their genitals were getting twisted in a vice. It makes no sense why there's such a glut. Do people think it's easy? That it's not really a job? That it's glamorous or that riches are waiting at the end of The End?

Periodically someone on one of the screenwriting message boards starts talking about how selling a script is like winning the lottery, about how the odds are the same. I'm sure some sucker who should instead be an accountant has spent days doing the math and figuring out how of X submissions to the WGA only Y scripts are sold and therefore Z percentage of writers are working which is roughly the same as America's yearly lottery winners. You know what? I don't care. I've never given a second thought to that way of thinking. Screenplays have nothing to do with statistics, they're all about story, and each one's an individual to consider or deny on its own particular merit. And luck's important, but randomness has no part in it.

Today I spent a long time in the post office mailing off ebay items, standing in line wearing my kick-ass shoes, listening to some super nerd on his cellphone talking about how he mailed off his headshot to his agent or some pretentious "hey everybody listen to me in the quiet of the post office!" crap. I heard him say, "Hang on while I fill this out. Um, how do you spell 'supposed'?" Methinks he should forego his modeling career which is destined to end badly by the looks of things and toodle right on back to school. And that was the highlight of my day, except for when I went to Vons and saved 43% with coupons.

Oh how I lament the demise of October Project. Much like the end of Felicity on television is driving me crazy in its prematurity, the fact that so many bands crash, burn and dissolve before they really should bums me out. I, by the way, heard a rumor that Felicity is going to end with Keri Russell in a mental ward. No, JJ, no - the injustice! I will list bands: October Project, The Banderas, Tears For Fears (new happenings are afoot, though)... suddenly I can't think of any and in fact while scanning my CD rack I see the majority of bands I listened to in 1988 are still together. Ha, what do you know. I'm complaining about nothing.

I'm ending my evening listening to Radiohead sing "Rhinestone Cowboy." Nice.