Tag: #writerslife

2019: NEW YEAR NEW APPROACH

“Topics of the year.”

narrowed down

The entire year of 2018 was about topics from a wide range of choices. This year 2019, I will be using my most popular topics and write about them over the year. They will be four topics that I will discuss once every three months. Meaning, finances was a big topics this past month. If chosen, I will write about finances for three months. Then I will move on to the next topics. My goal is to have one main focus, or three for my blog by 2020. So I want you all to continue to read, like, follow, share, and I will be keeping you posted.

Personal Website: http://www.faheemjackson.squarespace.com

Instagram Me: @theefaheemjackson

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SPEC SCRIPTS AND FINDING REPRESENTATION

cross-legged, internet, legs

“Seek and I shall find.”

I have been writing my screenplays since 2011 when I was first leaving undergraduate school. And initially, I had no intentions of actually becoming a screenwriter as a career. But the more I wrote the more ideas I generated. And that’s when it dawned on me that this could really be something. In the beginning I had no clue what I was doing, but I liked doing it. Didn’t care about it as a career at first because I was preparing myself to go to business school. Applying to graduate schools for my MBA, but still writing off and on. Now here I am nearly seven years later and I am working to find myself a literary agent in the year 2018. You might ask, why did I wait almost seven years to reach out. It’s because I wanted to get better as a writer. And yes, I have made amazing strides in my screenwriting.

I have made strides enough that I had the confidence to self-publish my first novel and book of short stories. I have written almost ten screenplays, and shot two short films from two short film scripts. My podcast that is written will come in 2018, as well as my photography; oh and not to mention my two blogs on Medium and WordPress. My days consist of so much writing that I surprise myself when I come up with new opinions, or topics everyday. But that defining moment will come in 2018 when I have to reach out and deal with the potential rejection letters from those that say no, or no response at all. Yet it does not scare me one bit. A s a matter of fact, I am more confident in finding representation than I probably should be. That is something that scares the hell out of me; my high confidence in my writing.

Even when things are not working, I still think that I can go on to be a great writer. I feel like I have so many stories to tell that people need to hear. And yes, that sounds rather arrogant to think that in a world population of approximately 7 billion people, I have something the world wants to hear or need to hear. But people who are artists: writers, directors, actors, musicians, comedians, painters, sculptors, etc., tend to be to some degree self-centered. It all depends on how deep you take that self-centered persona. People who tend to be central enough where the world should hear them out, where these people provide the world with insight into living a good life are very necessary in society. Albert Einstein is someone who had something to say, Gandhi had something to say, Martin Luther King Jr., Stephen Hawking, Ernest Hemingway, and the list goes on cross so many professions. Those who feel they have something to say that is of value to the world ultimately changes the world in which we live.

In the end, my journey to not only finding and securing an agent, but selling my spec scripts I hope to be a ten year process. I am already in year 6.5 of the journey and my writing has drastically improved from the first script I wrote. I broke all the rules with that script that are the do’s and don’ts of writing. Now, I have more structure as well as an understanding in how to tell a story. I’m still a work in progress before I can consider myself to be great, but I am working daily, weekly, monthly, yearly. By the age of 35 it is my goal to sell a few of my scripts on spec and have a best selling novel. Sounds like no time because that’s five years away, but I am 6.5 years in and already drastic changes from day one. Who knows what my skills will be in five more years.

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PROLIFIC WRITING: MY ROAD TO SUCCESSFUL WRITING

ballpoint pen, classic, coffee

“What feels like an eternity in my mind, has only been a day in real time.”

My writing career started when I first started to conceptualize a screenplay about a girl who is dealing with a stalker. Sending her reminders of her ex-boyfriend who was killed in a car accident the night they were together. Since then, I have written five more, two short screenplays (which one has been made into a short film and I am currently producing the second), contributed nearly 450 blog posts on my WordPress site, and wrote two books I self-published on Amazon. And even with that, I have yet to make a real living off of any of my writing. But then I looked back a few times at when I first started writing my work. And I see the year 2012, which makes me realize I have not been writing for long. That’s right, I have only been at it for six years. Actually not even six years, more like five and eight or nine months or so.

So what is it; why does it feel like I have been at it for years longer? Is it because I want it so bad that it is taking so long? Or could it be that five and a half years is nothing in the grand scheme of things. I have researched and found that the average screenwriting career is a ten year journey. You hear about novelist not receiving critical acclaim for their books until they are ten to fifteen years in the game. So for me, my little five and change is nothing. But where am I ranked so far? How do I know how much traction I’m really gaining? Of course I have showed my work to friends and family, but that’s them. How will I know what the market like in my writing? And yet again the question is, “Well, how much have I written?” To a lot of readers, two books are not good enough.

But look at the age in which I started. I was 25 years of age once I started writing, and now I am about to be 30 years old at the end of the month. And in society years it’s like, get your life together. But in writer years, it’s like oh stop it, you got time. But nonetheless, I’m putting in the work. I’m churning out material and putting myself in a position to let things happen to me. After I complete my next short film, I plan on finishing my comedy trilogy I wrote. In addition, I’ll try to punch out another, a drama I have been contemplating for a while. These are the four scripts I will try to sell, which will bring me up to nearly ten full length screenplays. It just hurts to see so many people around you doing what you perceive to be more in life. But for whatever reason, I never stop, and I always move on to the next story. Their lives never make me want to stop doing what I am doing.

And for that reason, I continue to write and write. I’m even shocked sometimes when I look at my blog and realize I am at yet another milestone for it as well. I have hit nearly 450 posts, close to 5,000 views this year, and nearly 1,000 visitors this year. Then I think to myself, “Some people have had their blogs for way longer than myself and can’t turn out much of anything. And still, with all the challenges, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. If not for writing, I would be constantly stuck in my head. Because in the end, writing allows me to be honest in a society where you can’t be honest. You’re aloud to say things that would otherwise turn people away from you. It’s the freedom why I don’t want to stop. I can’t open my mouth and say as I please, but I could write what I please. And as long as I can’t talk without using my filter, everything will be channeled into text. In a solidarity space, where no one can control me, but me.

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THEIR LIVES AND MINE: WHY DO PEOPLE’S LIVES MY AGE SEEM MORE INTERESTING THAN MY OWN

Related image

“I wonder if they are ahead or am I just paranoid.”

You ever get the feeling like everyone is doing more than what you are doing? Like their lives are more interesting than your own life. I will go onto the internet and scope out the people in my age group who are getting married and buying their starter homes. Or, looking at their snapshots of them on vacation. But my life has taken a different turn. My interest has no real pathway to take and you can land in your position at any moment. And that goal that I am pursuing is a writing career. It takes years and years of consistent writing, but hopefully it works out.

And see, hopefully is the word of the day. Most people don’t set out to pursue a career in what they really want to do because of the fear they’ll never make it in life. No one want to set out to attain something just to be disappointed in the end. You work at your craft, all the while people your age are seeming to be doing something much more interesting than yourself. They go out to bars and nightclubs, and take on monogamous relationships. But if you’re traveling an unconventional road, you may not be able to take part in too much fun. Especially early on in your career pursuit.

Well why, why can you not take pleasure in your youthful activities like everyone else? And the reason being, when you go to school to become a doctor, engineer, lawyer, academic, or any other profession, you have somewhat of a path. Unconventional careers like screenwriting, playwright, author, and blogger don’t really have a path. Of course there are people who provide you with how they did it, but that is just how it worked for them. You have to take their advice and carve out a way to make life work now for you. September 20th will mark my 30th birthday, and I don’t feel like the average guy my age, but I’m not willing to give up my pursuit.

You would think a guy my age would be doing the typical things everyone else is doing. But, I don’t want to get married or have children. I’m not interested in buying my first starter home, nor do I want to indulge in partying on the weekends. So for me, pursuing my career choice is easy to the extent where I can focus on this one thing. There are moments I walk pass the bars in New York City and see people my age engaging with each other, But I made my mind up that I wanted to be a great writer. I wake up and on days I’m not working I am blogging. Then I write for draft of my second novel and short stories book. But let’s not forget my screenwriting and filmmaking.

And the only reason I added filmmaking is because there are projects I genuinely want to do myself. So what now, I have a long road ahead of me. Most guys my age are focusing on long term relationships as well as women who are seeking husbands for marriage. But I am already thinking about film, theatre, and book ideas for the next few years to a nearly a decade from now. In the end, I really don’t know what the average guy my age is doing because I am so focused on my own goals. I’m pretty sure they’re having a social life and dating. As for me, I would much rather utilize my time pursuing what I love than fitting into what the crowd is doing.

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