A Creative's Journey

Trying to make a career our of creative pursuits is hard. It's boxing Mike Tyson hard. It's asking a super model out on a date hard. It's climbing Mount Everest in gym shorts and sandals hard.

No matter how hard you train for it, no matter who confident you are in your abilities, you will still find you are ill-equipped and under-prepared to face the daunting task of trying to earn a living with a creative pursuit, whatever it may be.

For myself, I entered the entertainment industry with my heart set on becoming a storyteller for the screen. I wanted to write movies, and eventually direct some. I had a couple of feature scripts written in college, as well as some short films under my belt, and a whole list of script ideas I was hungry to tackle. All of which added up to squat once I was out of school. My features weren't good (or at least, good enough). Nor did anyone care to watch my shorts.

After a couple years of employment, I used my next period of unemployment to refocus myself. I joined the Writers Boot Camp program, and worked on improving my craft and making connections. I wrote five new features (and revamped a sixth), all of which I felt very proud of. I also used my free time to return to my artistic roots (leading eventually to the Boriginality site) and even had enough time to practice my guitar playing and write a handful of songs. My creative energies were renewed and I was able to keep up that traction even once I found gainful employment again.

As I am back in a period of unemployment, I am going to use this time to:

1) Refocus myself again creatively, promoting my art and writing skills as I search for my next position
2) Use this blog to look back at some of my early struggles and failures as I tried to pursue a creative career, in hopefully a way that can educate others who come across this site.
3) Look at methods and tools that creative people can use to grow themselves and their brand as they fight the upward battle to make it in their chosen industry.

Thanks for reading!

Bo