Following your passion

If you’ve read my blog in the past then you know this isn’t my typical kind of post. Normally, I write from the perspective of content strategy, professional writing, and setting real goals. However, a recent discussion with my wife, (who has read and given me notes on much of what I’ve written) has me a bit turned around.

First, some background

For some context, I first went to school for three years to study cultural anthropology. I had wanted to be an anthropologist from when I was about five-years old. It was a weird thing for a five-year old to aspire to, but I was infatuated with the Indiana Jones movies and wanted nothing more than to travel the world, discover artifacts, and fight Nazis, (I’m still holding on to hope for the third).

Honestly, I got some real traction. I had a couple of mentors, a project of mine was presented at the AAA conference in 2014, and I even had a master’s program lined up in England. However, after a moment of fear, anxiety, and generally being in my twenties, I panicked and swapped majors. I wound up at a film school where I studied Writing for Entertainment, with a focus on TV.

This was another dream of mine that came about when I was seventeen. It wasn’t exciting as being Indiana Jones, but it gave me a unique chance to apply what I learned about studying and writing about different cultures and writing creatively (a passion I learned I had at about the age of twelve). Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot of opportunity for TV writing, (or writing at all for that matter), in the town that I grew up and lived in.

The job

I didn’t have the money to move to LA and was just moving in with my now-wife. It wasn’t fair to expect just her to pay the rent, so I got a job in marketing. Turns out, I had a knack for it. Keep in mind, this wasn’t a cool ad job where I made up campaigns and sold ideas to clients. I was a content mill, writing page after page of content every day.

It worked for a while. I was happy. I was making good money, starting a career, and getting married. It seemed like I checked all the boxes of growing up. Then we moved to Denver.

Denver is probably one of my favorite, State-side, cities I’ve ever been to. It’s got mountains, fresh air, plenty to do, and plenty of jobs. It’s a lot of the reasons I like Edinburgh, Scotland, so much. Being here, for both my wife and I, seemed to reinvigorate us. We became more active, adopted an adorable border collie, and even found better jobs. Still though, I was working in the world of content writing. Nothing spectacular.

The turning point

I was getting down for a bit. My wife was constantly making sure I was okay and that I wasn’t mad at anything she did, (which I never am), and that there wasn’t anything going on outside of us. Every time was the same answer, “no, it’s just this thing that happened at work.” Eventually, the pattern became clear and she felt the need to talk with me about it.

“You can do this.”

The above quote came after we were watching one of the commentaries of a Game of Thrones episode. “You can do this. I’ve read your stuff. I’ve listened to you talk about it. You can do this.”

My wife had always been supportive, but she’d never come right out and said it this directly. Most people would leave it as her being a good partner, but after the month I had gone through at work, her message kept playing over in my head. The next day, I dug out some old treatments, beat sheets, and plot summaries I had written and got working.

I don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea from this post. I didn’t quit my job, move to LA, and start hustling to get something made. I still have to help support my wife and Watson, (the border collie I mentioned earlier), but now I’m doing it differently.

Whenever I’m not at my job, I’m working on scripts or networking. I’ve even started reaching out to local video production companies to offer freelance script services.

Where do I go from here?

My new plan and goal is to have four or five pilot done by April of 2020, when I’ll buy a ticket and fly out to LA for some networking. The first pilot is pretty much done, just needs some polish, then I’ll be moving onto another that has the plot completed and a third that is currently a sentence in my phone. I’m also going to have a new site that features testimonials of my consulting (already have two), loglines from each script I finish, and my blog, (I’ll still be active on Medium too).

I know this sounds like a plug for my services, but it truly isn’t. I hope it’s inspiration. That anyone out there can find a way to balance their life while still trying to move on to what they love. I love writing scripts, and I want to do that full-time. Everything I’ll write here after is just about me making my dream happen. You don’t have to uproot your life to do it, though. Sometimes, you just need a little support.

Don’t just have a dream. Don’t just blindly follow it.
Do something about it.

Cooper SmithOctober 20, 2019