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My POV
Brian A. Wilson
PASSION
It' Valentine's Day. Let's talk about passion.
If you've ever been to a showbiz panel discussion, the word "passion" has come up.
Usually, it's when a person from the audience stands up and asks the esteemed panel, "What should we be writing about?"
Then, someone on the panel-doesn't matter if it's a producer, agent, manager, director or fellow writer-will say, will all due sincerity, "You have to write what you're passionate about."
We've all heard it. But what does it mean?
First, in the broad sense, it means it is very difficult to use words to express what we feel about art. The questioner is really saying, "In art, what causes an emotional response in you?" Gee, I don't know-flowers, giant bronzes, Rodin, moonlight, joy, sadness, a mysterious smile.
It sounds like blather, doesn't it? That's because feelings are felt, and expressed, very well, but they're clumsy when we try to say them.
That's why the panelist says, "Write what you're passionate about." It sounds more like advice, less like blather.
What's the useful wisdom buried in that answer?
Write what moves you. Write what makes you laugh or get pissed off or makes your stomach flip-flop. Write what's burning a hole in your gut. Write what you can't get out of your head for days or months or years.
I've spent six months chewing on a short film idea. I kicked it around with my brilliant wife. We'd brainstorm, talk it out, give up and set it aside. On and on, for weeks and weeks, for a SHORT! Finally, last night, it hit me. I sat down and banged out ten pages in half an hour. And they rock. Sure, it needs a tuck and a trim, but we're there. We can crew up and get ready to shoot.
And that came from passion.
Because I wanted to create the short, I wanted to tell the story, but I couldn't quite shape it. But I had the passion to hang onto the idea, to let my subconscious work on it day and night for six months. All to get 10 pages in half an hour last night.
But man, what a rush! You live for moments like that as a writer, no matter how long it takes to get to them.
That's the other piece of it: Passion means loving something so much, you can stick with it if it takes you a month or five years or twenty years to get it written, another seven years to get it picked up, then two more years for production and post.
All for two hours in your local multiplex.
What should you write about? Something that you can visualize going through that process, and knowing that it'll not only be worth the price of admission, it'll be worth the wait.
Happy V-Day.
Now keep writing.
BW
LA
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