Sometimes the scariest things we do aren’t supernatural at all—they’re the moments we step outside our comfort zones. Maybe it was publishing your first book, sharing your story, or writing something deeply personal.
What’s the scariest writing leap you’ve ever taken that turned out to be worth it?
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My first film I composed felt like diving in headfirst into the unknown....just like the first record I produced...just like getting on that stage in front of the mic for the first time. Stepping out of our comfort zone is always a good thing. It's what makes us grow and takes us further than where we previously thought we could go.
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Happy Halloween, Kat Spencer! One of the scariest writing leaps I’ve ever taken is when I tried to produce a feature script that I wrote. It was my first time trying to make a feature. I didn't end up making the movie, but I learned things from it.
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Dropping casino-level money on a pro pitch deck and sizzle reel.
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Looking back the biggest risk I've taken somewhat recently was RoP's table read back when it was hot-off-the-press fresh (I was so excited to finish it that I submitted it like an hour later). I knew it would have a lot of issues because I admitted to just having fun when I wrote it, and oh boy did it become clear how many bugs it had xD it was embarrassing but much too late to undo it, and bless them, the actors still did great with my mess of a script and one even said that it was good to see that I was just focusing on what I wanted to write rather than to people-please. Since then I've decided that's what I'm gonna do even if it makes it harder for me in the long run.
Not only that, but when the narrator lost her Zoom connection I offered to step in, and my decision ended up being well received by everyone, so much so that I got the okay to narrate TER's table read and got good reviews for that as well :) not to brag but in elementary school I was recognised for being a good oral reader so it was nice to know I still got it xD
Another valuable lesson RoP's table read taught me was truly understanding the rationale of the Dunning-Krueger effect. When I first learned about it, I knew it as "you don't know that you don't know something." The next dimension of that is the application; when you don't know what you don't know, naturally you have next to no barriers from doing something. When you know a lot, you're always thinking about it from every angle, and oftentimes that bites you in the ass more than it helps you, which is why the people who don't think as much get further ahead. Being an anxious type, I'm 100% guilty of overthinking and therefore staying right where I am. But with RoP's table read putting all the script's flaws on display to several different people, even though it was embarrassing during and after the fact... I realised I didn't actually care that much. It was fun, and really it's so much easier not caring if you're gonna embarrass yourself. Now I'm even more excited to write BoFS and narrate its table read :D
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What a great post! Thank you Kat Spencer writing about true life events was a big leap. Turns out, writing about them is a lovely way to heal too. So it's a two-for-one!