GITS turns three years old today
I had plans to do some sort of big hoo-haw about this, the 1,095th day in a row I have been posting to this site. But if you’re reading these words, chances are you pretty much know the deal. So instead, just some random observations:
GITS is about screenwriting, screenwriters, TV writers, and writers in general, to honor the work of creative souls who are called to something nobody else can do: tell stories.
It’s about providing solid information, an insider’s view of how to break into Hollywood and survive once you get there.
It’s about sharing insights into the wondrous and mysterious craft of storytelling, constantly seeking to upgrade our individual and collective creative process.
It’s about inspiration because God knows we, as writers, need all the help we can to get us from FADE IN to FADE OUT.
I’m not an A-list screenwriter. Never was. Doubt I ever will be. But I have had my share of experiences in the screenwriting trade. I offer what meager wisdom I have to you for free, to take or leave, no strings attached.
Being a total outsider who sold a spec script to break into Hollywood, I have always felt an obligation to be there for aspiring screenwriters. That is in large part why I created this site.
But the day in, day out experience of managing GITS is a challenge.
Since I posted this at 4:16PM on May 16, 2008, I have written and uploaded over 6,000 items on this blog. Why do I do it? I ask myself that. Often. And then…
I’ll receive an email from an aspiring screenwriter, someone obviously in love with movies who dreams in screenplay form, and thanks me for providing a tiny window into Hollywood.
I’ll hear from someone who sold a spec script and broke into the business, acknowledging how this site helped along the way by feeding their understanding and fueling their hopes.
I’ll receive a link to an article or a great suggestion for the site, a continuing sign of the growing GITS community (if you haven’t become a GITS follower, please do so today as it means a lot to me).
But beyond the positive feedback I receive from you, there is something more existential at work. It’s mostly a gut feeling. I guess the best way I can describe it is I do this because I believe I’m making something happen. I’m not sure from day to day what that something is. But I do feel a connection to it, some days quite powerfully. So for now, GITS continues to be a part of my personal journey.
I care about many things in life. Related to this site, here are some of them:
Screenwriting: Everything about it, the most visceral form of written narrative I know.
Creativity: The ups, downs, ins and outs of it.
Digging deeper and deeper into the very soul of story, trying to understand new ways to approach it.
Honoring screenwriters and providing whatever soapbox I can in a world which so often neglects our contribution.
Making better movies.
Writing better scripts.
Finding writers work.
Supporting independent filmmakers.
Adding to the conversation about this exciting and emerging era of digital filmmaking, which offers incredible opportunities for storytellers from all backgrounds to create movies.
And finally movies: Simply the most incomparable way I know to experience a story, be entertained, and provide a lens through which we can interpret this blip of time we call life.
I just re-read this post. Honestly it has got to be one of the least coherent / most disjointed things I’ve ever written. But you know what? It gets across one thing I hope you would take away today: my passion.
I love movies.
I love writing.
I love talking about movies.
I love talking about writing.
Thanks for sharing that passion with me these last 1,095 days.
Now go write that great story that’s inside you!