[Watch the video interview on Youtube here]
Film Courage: How hard do you have to work to “make it” in the entertainment industry?
Screenwriter, Comedian, and Owner of The Werking Writer Charla Lauriston: Probably harder than you want if I’m being honest or at least it’s been harder than I want. I think that it can be hard on multiple levels. First, it’s difficult because if you don’t come from wealth, if you don’t have a safety net, then there is a period of time where you might have to be without a safety net, which to me is extremely stressful. I know a lot of people, it’s very stressful. Maybe you’re working a full-time job, like I did when I first started and doing comedy at night and writing at night and doing everything at night or the first thing in the morning before work. You’re kind of burning the candle at both ends, so your quality of life kind of suffers and you struggle.
I don’t think it’s particularly harder than anything else if that makes sense. I think it’s hard to be a lawyer. I think it’s competitive to be a doctor. I think it’s hard to pass your series license to be a finance guy or something on Wall Street, I don’t know? I think for some people it’s really hard to get their real estate license. Everything is challenging.
For me what helped was giving myself a timeline because I looked at the difficulty of breaking into the industry, the level of competition, the fact that it is extremely unpredictable to work consistently is what I saw. For a lot of people it’s hard to work consistently, you could work a few times maybe, it’s hard to build a whole career.
I gave myself 10 years because I started when I was 24. I said if I can’t make a living by the time I’m 34, then thank you very much. I came, I saw, I conquered, I’m going to go back and I’m going to get a job and I’m going to live my life and I’ll be perfectly happy with that because I scratched my itch. I did the thing that my gut was telling me to do and I went and did it knowing fully well that it is difficult, that it is hard and accepting that level of difficulty.
With that said I think it’s totally possible…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
About:
Charla Lauriston is a TV writer and the lead mentor at The Werking Writer School, a course that prepares new and aspiring screenwriters with at least one completed script for professional careers as TV Writers. Over five weeks, students learn how to mindfully build self-confidence from the inside out, navigate the Writer’s Room and the Hollywood machine, build a professional network, and create their own productivity system. In addition to The Werking Writer School, Charla is a Vancouver and Los Angeles based comedian, writer, and director.
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