Embracing the Cliche
It took me a long time to admit that I wanted to be a screenwriter. At least verbalize it in the words, "I want to write television" (or some variation of that). The big hesitancy for me was that it sounded like such a cliche and I wasn't comfortable giving in to that cliche.Friday night, I went to the Act One alumni BBQ and somehow ended up on the alumni panel. (I'm not sure how or why Chris Riley asked me to do it unless they needed someone less impressive on there.) As I was sitting there talking and listening to other people talk, it dawned on me that wanting to be a writer isn't cliche--at least not in LA.
I realized that there are certain things that are regionally specific non-cliches. For instance, since I moved to CA, I've met someone who told me that from the time he was 2, he realized he wanted to be President of the United States. He said it in all seriousness and it took everything I had not to laugh. It seemed absurd to me that someone in their mid-twenties in California would seriously think they had a shot of becoming president (unless they were already on their way). But as I was talking to somebody last night, I realized that if I'd met someone in DC who told me that same thing, I'd have believed them and moved on. It wouldn't have seemed preposterous or cliched.
So maybe wanting to be a television writer in LA isn't cliched at all. In fact, it's common, expected, and achievable--in some place beyond my Ally McBeal world.
This may not seem like a major breakthrough, but I felt like I accomplished a lot by figuring this out this week.
posted by cinegod @ 1:16 PM
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