Broken Tin Man

What once had filled me with such joy and made me whole
Has turned to bitter acid and bored a wide hole
Straight through the well-polished sheets of my brand new heart.
And all it once contained is now leaking away
Down my tin cheeks; all that’s left is rust and decay.

What strange feeling is leaving me felled as a tree?
No mill wrighting can fix this sudden amputee;
No helicoils may weld back what’s been rent apart.
I open my chest, unscrew the metallic scrap
And stare… Where there was a heart, now stands a vast gap.

And the wizard who gave it me has departed
Out of reach in some land as of yet unchartered.
There is no more magic left or any dark art
For those scrapped in this arcane world of joy and pain.
Like Humpty, I can’t be put together again.

Running A Marathon

I know, crazy title for one who can barely jog. But really quite apropos, methinks (though methinks hates to admit it, methinks has been wrong at times…).

Ran across (pun not initially intended) a cool article that talks about “Going For The Dream.” And here are some of the most juicy parts:

A – Make sure you have a vision.
Well, I have lots of those, so check. Do you?

B – Give yourself the time to make it.
Which is really hard for me. Hey, I grew up in this modern, immediate-gratification society too (contrary to what others might think, Belgium is pretty up-to-date. And no, smurfs are a long extinct, like the dodo. Unless…).
However, as mentioned in the article and in this interesting book (Outliers: The Story of Success), if one works hard for 10 years, one will become a pro. So the key is to stick with it, and work.

C – Kaizen
This one I added myself – but I feel it really encompasses what the remainder of the post says. For more info, see my previous post here and ScreenwritingU’s more detailed version here.

So really, the key is to not give up on your dream, work hard, improve, and be patient. You’re in it for the long run, after all!

Kaizen

"You can achieve incomparable levels of skill through incomparable spirit and commitment." ~ Michael Jordan

Yesterday, on a conference call with my ScreenwritingU fellows, I learned about various philosophies that are to help me as a writer. And this is when I (re-)learned of this fabulous Japanese philosophy: Kaizen (改善).

It was a breakthrough. The concept is simple--try to improve yourself (or in my case my writing) every day, by just 1%. And by the end of the year, you'll have improved by 365%!

So I've decided to follow the Kaizen way and find a way to improve my writing, every day. Be it conceptualizing, improving my grammar, my descriptions, my dialogues, my characters--anything! But this way, one day, I too will achieve incomparable levels of skill!

Goal #1: Wake up 1 hour early every day and actually get some writing done!

PS: If you're interested in listening to more philosophies that help a screenwriter achieve success, ScreenwritingU will be hosting a class starting January 31, 2011, for free, on facebook and twitter!