When I posted the other day that people should only write because they love it and with the assumption that they will never be published, that was based on the sheer volume of submissions made to agencies and publishers and the acknowledgment by editors and agents that most of those submissions are…not good.
Back in college, I asked one of my dance teachers about my odds of dancing in a company. I wondered if I was too old (the majority of ballet companies have incredibly young dancers who join while they are still in junior high and retire by thirty). She told me that if I wanted to dance in a company, there was one out there for me. I just had to be willing to go out and find it.
Similarly, I tell writers who truly do love writing, who love to read and tell stories, and who would probably make up their own tales even if they had no paper on which to write them, to go for it. Continue on in your quest because you will find an outlet for your work somewhere somehow. It may not be the blockbuster NY Times Bestseller you always dreamed about but it may be a short story in a magazine. Or perhaps your venue will be somewhere on-line - in an e-zine that has yet to be created. Or maybe YOU will create one!
Although my focus later turned to teaching dance, I have since found many opportunities to perform and even danced with a small company years after this conversation with my teacher. I continue to believe what she told me.
Your Hollywood connection thinking positively,
Leigh
