rss feedWhen is it time to make the move?
There comes a time in every screenwriter’s inner thought process when the cycle hits upon where to reside. Should I remain where I am or swim upstream to the land of spec sales? One could say arriving in the land of milk and honey to concentrate on your writing could be the death of you, just as the mighty fish procreates and finds his or her end. In one way it’s true. Los Angeles, if you’re not careful will eat away at you and kill away your human parts, but that’s why they make bullet proof vests, right?
I took off my blinders a long time ago. Los Angeles may sell milk and honey on the corner, but you’ll have to walk through dog shit to get to it. Unless you come out here ready to pay 1500 dollars per month for the bare minimum of decent apartments and the fees that go with that luxury, you’re going to be roughing it.
I’m talking about the worst of the worst and you can prepare for your arrival if you make the following assumptions:
- I will be paying over 600 dollars for the privilege of living in a 10′ by 10′ room with a sink that’s suppose to be my kitchen.
- I will be paying extra for the privilege of not parking on the street (if I’m lucky)
- I will see trash and piss, and dog shit on the sidewalk because the people around me do not care.
- My neighbors will make excessive hammer like noises at night even though I go out of my way to be quiet for them.
- Repeatedly through the day, I will hear grocery trucks honking for my attention as they sell their stale produce
- I will hear the snow cone vendor squeeze an ear bleeding clown horn three times a day and wonder why I moved here. Oh yeah, because I wanted to save a little money on rent.
I sound bitter for moving. It comes in waves because coupled with the bitterness is the sadness from missing my friends in Texas. But I know with absolute certainty I made the right choice. The networking choices out here are in the thousands, and I’m not exaggerating. There are a million ways to make yourself known out here. Just a day or so ago some fellow writers walked right up to Matthew McConaughey on set, said they had something they wanted to send and he handed them a business card. That doesn’t happen in Kansas folks.
I guess the main point I’m trying to make (ah, the banging has started up again next door), be PREPARED to be underwelmed by humanity here. Everyone is in their own world and it’s easy to become a pod person. Hang on to what matters, save up a GOB of money and make the move because you can’t network face to face in the styx.*
*I’m not comparing my former hood of Dallas to a small town where networking doesn’t occur. It does, just on a smaller scale. God, I miss the down home welcoming feel of Dallas, and peace and quiet of the burbs. I have to use earplugs to get that silence here.
