“Why I Write” (GITS Reader Post): Jeff Eyamie
It’s been inspirational watching this blog evolve into an online community of writers for and about screenwriting and the creative life. From Jeff Messerman starting up The GITS Club peer review site to Rob Fuller becoming our first contributor with “Rob’s Finds” (Fridays at 2PM EST), a weekly journey into wild and crazy movie-related sites to the many, many emails I receive each week from readers forwarding articles, interviews, and reports they think will be of interest to GITS visitors.
Recently GITS reader and screenwriting student Jeff Eyamie sent something to me that I thought was great — basically answering the question of why he writes. Here it is:
Living The Dream
In early 2007, at the age of 33, I had accomplished a lot. Met a lot of challenges. I had the family set up. I was working as an executive in communications for the Canadian government. I could afford to go to Pittsburgh and finally see my beloved Steelers play. I had done so twice. I owned a house and a rental property.
Something came over me that spring. I realized that I wanted to turn my focus inward. Now that I knew I could do it, did I want to? Was I happy? The answer was most emphatically no. The song of change began to play its opening strains.
I started to change lots of little things. I quit soft drinks and fast food and lots of other little habits that I thought weren’t good. Played sports instead of watching them. It didn’t quiet the song of change. The woodwinds were joined by baritone brass.
Fast forward a few months and I found myself alone in a hotel room a mile from my house, obsessively scribbling down a list of every fantasy I had ever had. I needed to know what was real and what was just an escape fantasy. I can’t express the urgency with which I needed to find out; the tympanis proclaimed it, though.
I reached a crisis point in 2007. When I emerged from the crisis, I knew one thing: I needed to take a shot at something big. I need to tell my stories, just as I always have been trying. That’s the dream. It’s always been the dream. But it’s also a march I’ve been on, metered out by the endless snares of the marching band in my heart. Except in 2007, I realized that I was the conductor. No more safe ways and compromises. The hobgoblin of the amateur writer is prudence. It was time to transition. Time to do what will make me happy. That’s everyone’s dream, isn’t it?
I have a plan to go with this: work hard at it for 10 years. Find a mentor. Network and create opportunities. Never lose sight of the vision. If I do this and I don’t get anywhere by 2017, I will try to dream of something else. But I’ve told people, in moments when I’ve hit a closed door, that I’m going to keep banging my head against the door until something breaks — just hope it’s not my head.
I have a definition of what “living the dream” means to me. Do you?
Here’s mine: make enough money to eat while spending my time crafting visual stories.
Those words are carefully chosen. If you’re sustaining yourself by writing full-time — even if you can’t afford things — that’s living the dream to me. Writing for soaps? Living the dream. Straight-to-DVD? Dreamy. Not the Shane Black/Joe Eszterhas dream of the eighties and nineties. I have no intention of directing. I’d love to be a millionaire. That’s not the dream, though. The act of writing and creating and being able to do it all the time — that’s the dream.
As people who aspire to something, I ask you: what is living the dream to you? Do you know the dream? How much courage do you have to chase it? What’s stopping you?
I have no idea why I wrote this today, but I felt compelled. Maybe because the energy of this seminar has been so great. I’ll leave you with a quote. It’s from a song by The Tragically Hip, an iconic Canadian band, but this is an obscure song — The Dark Canuck. Anyway it goes:
“If on the outside there’s no demand for what you do,
And on the inside there’s an army waiting for their marching orders from you
Come sit on my swing seat
Come sit on my porch
After ten at night, smoke your cigarettes if you like, of course
You can cast your doubts, turn ’em inside out, hang ’em upside down
’Til their art falls out.”
Maybe we’ll cross paths sometime as we chase rainbows. Or maybe you’re living the dream already — would you know if you were?
I really like the spirit of Jeff’s thoughts as well as his articulation of them. And what a great way to end his piece with that memorable line from the song: “You can cast your doubts, turn ’em inside out, hang ’em upside down, ’til their art falls out.”
Jeff’s words inspired me to do two things. First, go to iTunes and buy that song by The Tragically Hip. The second thing that came to mind is this:
What about asking GITS readers to think about why they write and send along their thoughts ala what Jeff did?
Depending upon the response, we could have a regular weekly post — “Why I Write” — featuring a different GITS reader each week.
Would anyone be interested in taking the time, like Jeff did, to ponder why it is you write, draft something, and send it to me for possible posting on GITS?
If you’re interested in writing something, you can email me:
scottdistillery@gmail.com
I’d also be intrigued to see how many people would be interested in reading a weekly post like that from GITS followers. If so, please provide your reactions / thoughts in comments.
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