ATTN JMS: I was right...

[B5JMS Poster]

Subject: ATTN JMS: I was right...
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 No. | DATE        |  FROM
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s  1: Nov 14, 1996: Jerry j <jjjones at clandjop.com>
*  2: Nov 15, 1996: jmsatb5 at aol.com

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From: Jerry j <jjjones at clandjop.com>
Lines: 49

Joe,
	This is something that happened to me yesterday, and I wanted to share
it with you.  
	Recently, I quit my job.  Not because it sucked or I hated the people I
worked with, in fact it was probably the easiest job I ever had,
stocking for a retail store.  I took this job after the newspaper I
worked for went "poof" in the night.  But slowly, I began to grow more
and more distasteful of the mindless chore of putting Holiday Barbies
and shower curtains on shelves.  The only relief I could get was to come
home and work on the comicbook I had created for an independent company,
first issue to be published in March.  At work I would yearn to write
and often thought out plot lines and story development while stocking
and prayed to God I wouldn't forget it all by the time I got home.  Then
came this last Monday.  It was my day off and I had just come from our
weekly company meeting when I came upon the realization of "What in the
bloody hell am I doing?"  I mean, I wanted to write. Hell, I dropped out
of college with a 3.6 average and a full ride PLUS money back because
after all the bulls##t was over with "you'll never get a real job being
JUST a writer, try an English minor with a Theatre major or something a
little more practical" from my advisors, I found they really didn't have
a good writing program.  So I talked it over with my wife, and since she
was making enough money to support us both, I quit my job.  The next two
days were filled with both working on the second issue script and
several questions the size of a small state;  questions like "did I do
the right thing?", or "Am I just lazy?", along with "Get a real job you
loser, you're not a writer."  My parents were freaked out enough that I
quit college, but this?!?  I don't even want to know what they'd say/are
going to say.  But I knew that if I went back to my job, I would either
blow my brains out or be forced to wear a sporty straight-jacket for the
fall season.
	And then, your scriptwriting book came in.  I read the preface.   I
quote:
  "It's just that writing is the only thing {writers} can do for an
extended period of time without chewing on the furniture or checking in
for therapy.  It makes them happy.  It fills a need, whether that need
is a longing for self expression or a quest for immortality through the
written word."
  In the intro:
     "Everybody is wrong."  

Thank you, Joe.  For having been there, for knowing.  And I AM right,
damn it.  I am.  And thanks to you, I know that now.

Onward and forward,
Jerry





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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com
Lines: 12

Good luck to you.  In doing what you're doing, you are removing yourself
from the system, and the system always objects to that.  Follow your
voice, and your passion, and you will never go wrong.

Again, good luck.


 jms




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