3.8 The One About “What’s the point?”

As a writer, I live in a big world of ‘what’s the point?’ and ‘how do I get to the point faster and out earlier?’  Every scene in a movie, in a tv show, in a webisode has a point that you want to get in and get out with to advance your story nice and clean or fast and dirty.

It’s not always helpful to me when I’m thinking about blogging.  My goal is to post once a month, however I can get caught up with “What will the point be?” behind whatever it is I’m writing and I get stuck.  I started this blog back in a time when I didn’t realize I felt the need to say something.  Anything, really.  I was struggling to find my way through many things, and Twitter (@mowsh) became a godsend and a lifeline.  It helped to re-train me in the idea that I could actually say something whenever I felt like, whatever it was:  it could be funny or stupid or aggravating or whiny, it didn’t matter.  But my blog seems to have this magazine style to it, where there’s a lesson to be learned.  And if there’s no lesson, I’m hesitant to write.

Where does this idea come from?  There are plenty of people out there posting rants, recipes, anecdotes, poems.  I can get stuck in the idea of what my blog is ‘supposed’ to be.  Sure, sure, as a writer and actor, the net swirls with branding and marketing and staying within those guidelines to establish your presence, but I think ‘presence’ really comes from your own unique identity as a “person of planet earth” and the character and integrity you establish as you go along.

So do I believe people look at me and have expectations of who I am?  Of  who I am as an actor based on my headshot?  Of  who I am based on my blog or my Twitter feed or my YouTube page?  Absolutely.  But that box comes with many holes, where I can reach for new things as I find them, and for them to drift by, unexpected, for me to catch.

New things, new ideas, some change, some stay the same.  Some come out of left field and thrust you upwards a tier.

So what is the point?  Well, sometimes you don’t need one beyond merely “I just want to”.  Life isn’t as neatly laid out as a film or tv show.  The shortest distance between two points may be straight from A – B, but life can lay a silent, winding alphabet down in between, ergo:  A (j – i – w – c – s – t) – B.

My goal is to keep this in mind going forward and to remember that “I just want to” is also rewarding, no other justification required.

Just makin’ it up as I go along. :)