A Story: Strangers Do Support the Dreams

Working in the Financial District, I encounter all sorts of people from programmers looking for a sugar fix to the CEO treating their staff just because. (She needs to be my boss.)

Earlier, I met a woman who simply wanted to browse. Literally. I offered her a sample to which she kindly declined. I knew right then she was sizing up the place. We got into a small chat. She told me she had a staff member who would bring treats from the bakery. She loved what she had, so she wanted to see the place for herself.

At that moment, I decided to share the story of the bakery, something I don’t usually do. It’s a story that dated back five years ago when an accountant, who had a fondness and nostalgia for baked goods, walked by a vacant flower kiosk. She was immediately compelled to buy it, so she quit her well paying job and sold breakfast goods in the morning and fresh cookies in the afternoon. All by herself. Five years later, she has two locations, a list of orders, a full staff and still keeps the kiosk. Why? Well, for reasons other than the fact it’s well known, it’s where it all began. She said she’d never trade her kiosk because that little dome is what made her decide to start a bakery.

Milestone Update: First Meeting With Editor

Last Friday I finally got to meet with my editor about my first draft. It was an amazing experience for me. I chose to completely remove myself from the content of the book until the editor was able to speak with me. That turned out to be a great decision. I was able to look at everything with a fresh perspective. Being immersed in the creative period makes it extremely difficult to objectively judge your own work. Her primary critique was that book seemed to be many books inside of one book.

“I can tell that you kind of noticed that at some point and tried to tie them together, but it didn’t exactly work. You obviously have a lot of ideas. Always remember, you can always put some of this stuff in another book.”

She was right. Although I am not necessarily looking forward to writing several books, it was nice to be reminded that if I really have something I need to tell the world I can always write another book. I have to admit I had this pressure on myself where I was writing as if this was the only book I’d ever be able to write. It genuinely felt like this book was the only chance to share my thoughts with the world. It was like if I died ‘tomorrow’, I would at least have those words to live on.

Because of this issue most of the meeting was about direction and forming a more concise message. She had so much constructive criticism and I am excited to meet her challenges. The greatest part of it all was to see how much I actually wrote. It assured me of the importance of working hard on building something today; because once it is built your accomplishment cannot be taken away from you. “Wow, I wrote all of that…wow…I can’t believe I did that.” When I looked at the papers I could see early mornings, long hours, missed TV shows and outings with friends. Those papers were a culmination of at least 8 months of my life, just as a college degree represents a person’s years spent in classrooms and libraries. I still have a long way to go, but being told what I did wrong has never been so encouraging. Written by Sean

New Project and Opportunity

(Photo by me)

While I was spending my night editing my script for another competition, I received a message from a friend of mine. He and I interned together in a local production company. He’s a very talented director of photography and has an amazing vision for film. He’s been doing so many great things and making a name for himself.

Last night, he asked if I wanted to be the scriptwriter for a short film he was commissioned to make. The goal? To take to the top film festivals and win. Of course, I said yes! This is going to be so exciting and such an experience. I’ve missed collaborating with others so much that I feel like a social prune.  In all the excitement, I always ask myself If I’m even ready to step. In retrospect, I don’t think I can ever be truly ready for anything. Though, I have the tools and the creativity to make something amazing. 🙂 Stay tuned people! Great things are happening this year!

Written by Lina

The Second Book: Literally An Effort To Save Lives

On Monday I mentioned a second book opportunity. An opportunity so important to me that I sped up the process first book to be able to focus on it instead. This is what’s up:

In doing research for the first book I came across a documentary about the rise of suicide attempts by women in Afghanistan, particularly by setting themselves on fire. Many face domestic violence not only from husbands, but the husband’s family members as well. Life being full of pain, many of them no longer see its value.

The four women in the documentary resembled a courage that made them perfect for a section of my book. Considering the seriousness of their situation, I decided to email the documentaries director asking for permission to cite it, as opposed to simply going ahead and doing so on my own. I waited for about 3 days for a reply.

Milestone Achieved!

Okay, so the book I have been working on has been sent off to an editor for a week now. This is HUGE for me. This will be the first time someone takes a look at my complete first draft. I’m incredibly anxious to see what her feedback will be. Hopefully I am at least on the right path.  I am a confident person in most things that I do but am very aware that audiences may receive work in ways completely different than the creator imagined. It is difficult to convey ideas to the world as perfectly as they are conjured in the mind. I hope that she loves it…but we will see…

Side-note/NEWS: The last month of my life has had a few unexpected events, the most relevant being:

1. I did not expect to be this close to the end of my book so fast
2. The reason I am so close to being finished my first book is that I am now writing a second book that I believe is more important in many ways and certainly more urgent. Consequently, I chose to “cram” the rest of the first book (for a lack of better words). I will elaborate on this second book very soon!

Auf Wiedersehen!

~~Sean