TDL’s Sports, Wrestling, & Otherwise

I finally started writing again. This time with an actual fully planned out synopsis and everything. I’ve started this story a couple times… even got 100ish pages deep once… and then realized once I hit a certain point that the story wasn’t over but I didn’t have a direction to take it. I gave up. This time, I actually fleshed out a whole 14 page synopsis. There’s a beginning, a middle, and something approaching an end that I’m still kind of tweaking. There are four main characters who I understand pretty well.

I’m about 13 days away from turning 30, so I decided that it’s really pointless to keep thinking about writing it instead of actually writing it. A couple things came together that decided it. Three of the most random people possible.

Some dude who’s name I don’t remember: About a month ago I was over a co-worker’s apartment enjoying his fabulous roof deck. One of his friends happens to be a script writer. I can’t remember what he told me he was in the process of writing but I told him how much I respected that kind of thing and wished I could do it. Knowing how lame that sounds, I actually prefaced it with “I’m sorry to do this to you because I know everyone you meet says this and you must hate it.” He said the best way to just write was to write. As simple and stupid as that sounds, it stuck.

Dr. Phil: He said possibly the most profoundly simple thing I’ve ever heard him say. “There’s no such thing as willpower. You either want to do something or you don’t. If you do, you’ll do it. If you don’t, you’ll fail.” My dad was a smoker for a long time. He “tried” to quit a couple times in his twenties and failed. He eventually decided that he was going to stop “trying” to quit. When he was ready to quit, he’d know. He wasn’t going to keep trying to do something and failing. Same thing. I kept saying that I wanted to write it, but I didn’t have the time, energy, or patience to do it. I didn’t realize how lame that was until person 3.

My buddy Paul: Who said “I keep being afraid to do it because deep down I’m afraid it kinda sucks.” As long as that novel or script stays in your head, you can still dream about being a writer. Once you put it down on paper… it’s real. You can send it to someone. If they tell you it sucks, being a writer isn’t a dream anymore. You’re just another dummy who thought he could write and sucked at it. I think it’s time for me to know one way or another if I suck or if I can come up with something people will like.

At the end of the day, it might suck… but at least I’ll know. And that’s worth something, right?