Six dreaded words every parent fears hearing from their young adult child: either, “I want to be an actor,” or, “I want to be a writer.” Ugh. The hearts and faces of said parents fall, then they try to explain to their child that this will only lead to a life of hardship, heartbreak, and likely poverty. They wonder why they spent all that money on their child’s college education. They wonder where they went wrong. They wonder what’s wrong with their child.

I can tell you that I’ve said both versions of these six words to my parents and they, bless them, to this day, are still terrified that I’ll “starve to death.” (Exact quote from my mom when I told her I wanted to move to L.A. after college to pursue acting.) I’m nearly 44 years old, by the way, have a child of my own, and have been living in Los Angeles for almost 21 years.

Choosing the artist’s life is bold, it’s daring, it’s completely risky and irrational. Yet, if you are an artist, you don’t really have a choice. If story and artistry are burning inside of you, you have to let them out somewhere.

I’ve tried to be “normal.” I’ve tried to be a worker among workers. I learned so many valuable lessons from it many times, and when I needed to earn money between acting gigs to live and not “starve to death,” my jobs as a bellydancer, preschool teacher, massage therapist, real estate agent, retail clothing employee, concierge (towel girl in the locker room) at Burke Williams ($8/hour people), and many more, helped me pay the bills and put food on my plate.

Ultimately, though, I was called to a different journey in this lifetime. Finally, as I came into my 40’s, I accepted it. I am an artist. I am a writer. I see in cinema and emotions, in colors and song. I have always experienced life this way since I can remember.

There is a word for that: inspiration. Inspiration, and its root word in Latin, inspirare, means “to breathe life into,” and also, “divinely guided.”

Once I realized I was being divinely guided, it took the pressure off. (Especially if I fuck it up.) Because it’s not about me. My novel (and its success or failure) isn’t really about me. My acting was never about me and coaching my author clients and students is absolutely not about me.

We are all here on a mission. Each one of us has a different manifesto whether we know what it is or not, but overall, we are here to assist each other on this strange, wonderful, sometimes tragic journey as human beings. Stories help us make sense of that. Telling our stories helps others release just a little bit of the weight of the perceived notion that they are alone in their experience – that they are somehow broken. Stories inspire us because they come from the inspiration of another person, another mind, another divinely guided story that deepens us on some level and expands our world view and, hopefully, our capacity for empathy.

If you are inspired to write, please join me for my next free online 21-Day Unlocked: A Writer’s Foundation workshop.

If you daydream in cinema, if you think in scenes and music and feelings, you’re a writer. You are painting a story with your mind, and when it keeps playing in your head, it’s telling you that needs to be birthed from your mind onto the page. So, breathe into your story, and let it be divinely guided from your fingertips onto the keyboard.

Please, keep going. The world needs your story. I love you.

Xoxo,

Jennifer