I had a long talk last night with some friends (backgrounds as actor and TV producer - assertive women...!) who were berating me for not doing the networking and marketing I know I need to do in order to get somewhere with my writing career. I didn't dare tell them that I have not yet sent off the scripts which were requested of me in answer to a pitch I posted on Shooting People last Wednesday, or the writing samples which were requested by the various agents I contacted on Monday.
It's as if I get so far and then get cold feet and don't follow through. God knows why. Maybe it's a really acute fear of failure. Or of success...
Talking of not doing things, I didn't talk in my last post about having gone up to London and met two lovely and talented women, Kay Sexton and Caz Ferguson, both very sussed writers who have grasped the nettle of the business end fo the business. It was terrific and very invigorating to meet them, but it also pointed up to me what a solitary life, from a writing perspective, that I lead. I really don't know anyone else who does this stuff.
So this morning I shot off a couple of networking emails, and I have decided that I really have to join our local, and very proactive, scriptwriters' group. That'll be a good start.
The whole idea of networking just makes me cringe, I hvave to admit. It just smacks of opportunism and sycophancy and all those other things you just don't want to be seen to be associated with. I accept that this might be a slightly erroneous impression, but my parents' instilled intellectual snobbery dies hard.
Still, I'll let you know how I get on.
1 comment:
Networking! Yuck!!! I allowed myself to be sucked into as something I "should do" for about two years. I hated it. I found myself sucked into situations where I was devolved upon by cloying, frantic "Networkers" who feigned interest in stimulating conversations, but who had an innate filter for any sentence that did not contain something you could do for them!
I achieved "success" as a Networker by the lights of the Networkers themselves, i.e., I was invited to speak at conferences, write articles, etc. But found that it did not match in any way, shape, or form my concept of success and I quit cold-turkey, and have not regretted it a day!
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