[IN THE TRENCHES] Tortured Running Analogies

As the oft-repeated saying goes, a career is a Marathon, not a sprint.

But really, pretty much everything – other than a sprint – isn’t a sprint.

In the same vein, the most obvious marathon is an actual 26.2 mile marathon itself, no analogy needed.

Well, 20 years after my previous actual marathon, I once again “ran” (read: traveled by foot) the Los Angeles Marathon at the end of last month.

It may take another 20 years to recover, but I did cross the finish line under my own power. It was hard. It was stressful. It was long. But more than anything, determination and perseverance are what got me through.

Similarly, I’ve been running my screenwriting career marathon for quite a few years now. As with the literal version, determination and perseverance are the primary forces getting me through.

So lets milk these metaphors dry.

To have a chance of building your own screenwriting career, you need to push past the exhaustion of working a day job while still putting in the hours for your creative work. Writers have to write.

You have to block out the pain of dry spells when paying gigs are nowhere to be be found. Be prepared when the opportunities arise.

You must embrace every bit of encouragement from the sidelines to soldier on in the face of impossible odds. No kind word is too insignificant, no motivation too small.

You need to lance the blisters of rejection to… er… well…

Ah, hell, you get the idea.

If you just keep putting one metaphorical foot in front of the other, you’ll eventually get to the metaphorical finish line.

Which, in this analogy, is success. Start stretching.