Chanti Niven, click
here to update your pages on AuthorsDen.
Blogs by Chanti Niven
I'm a Writer Dammit! 11/1/2006 10:02:32 AM
(Yes Eddy I know I plagiarized your title a little)
I was thinking about what the word 'writer' means and how in Los Angeles where I've spent much of the past year, it doesn't seem to mean very much. Writers are a dime a dozen here and are often relegated to the bottom of the food chain. If you tell people "I'm a writer" in LA, you are likely to get the same reaction as a waitress who says "I'm an actress". The expression says "Ho Hum" even as the mouth says "That's nice. What do you write?"
If you then go on to say "Well, I'm working on a screenplay." you will notice that eyes will glaze over.
...and yet what a gift it is to be able to write. In 'The Little Mermaid' one of my favorite children's stories, Ariel agrees to give up her tongue (and therefore her voice)to the witch in exchange for a pair of human legs all because she was in love with a human prince and wanted to be with him. It just goes to show that not all men are shallow. According to Hans Christian Anderson, she was hot and she must have had a great pair of legs (after all they were new) but he still didn't marry her. She was a great listener but here was a man who actually wanted his woman to talk to him. Ok ok I lost the plot. The point I was trying to make was that if I really really wanted something but was told that I'd have to give up writing in order to get it, my answer would be 'NO!'
Watch out oh fickle people of LA. When I've made a name for myself, you'll remember the day you said 'Oh that's nice.' when I told you I was working on a screenplay and you will wish with all your heart that you'd asked me to sign your napkin. ;)
**Disclaimer**
The folk in LA are definitely not all fickle. I've met many genuine, hard-working and dedicated people here. Still, there are those...
