Extra Post : An encouraging word

I don't usually have a post this early in the week, but my wife and I spent the evening watching Walt Before Mickey. It was quite by accident; we were at Downtown Disney for an evening of shopping and people watching when we noticed the movie poster for this movie at the AMC 24 theater located there. We are both avid Disney fans, but we had never heard of this movie. It intrigued us enough to venture inside.

It was the better use of two hours that I'd spent this year.

There's little doubt that I am prone to the use of hyperbole, and certainly I am biased when it comes to movies about Walt Disney. That aside, I was entranced enough by the movie that I felt I had to write about it here. To explain why, let me give some background on the movie, and the man the man the movie portrays. If you know nothing else about Walt Disney, you know that he created Mickey Mouse, an iconic character not only in the Disney universe, but truly an American tradition. You would be hard pressed to find anyone in the United States who doesn't know who (or what) Mickey Mouse is. There aren't many in the modern world who doesn't know about the character. Walt Disney World is the number one vacation spot World Wide. The company is simply huge, in size, in reach, and its name is synonymous with Quality.

The movie covers Walt Disney's life and career before Mickey Mouse was created. To suggest Walt was an instant success would be laughable. As the movie portrays, Walt had several hiccups in his rise to be the best. He was penniless more than once. He nearly lost his entire company (and DID lose several characters he created to Universal). One blow after another came at him during his struggle to succeed. But also as the movie shows, Walt Disney never gave up on his ideas, nor his ambition to not only succeed but to be the best.

I'll leave the details of the story for you to research. You won't be able to see the movie for a while since it currently is only showing at Downtown Disney's AMC Theater (due to open nationwide at select theaters some time in September). I'm not really wanting to talk about the movie right now... Rather, I want to discuss Walt's view on life, and how we as aspiring writers should take his view as our own.

If we are to become successful at our craft, there is not doubt we must keep working at it. We can't let setbacks, self-doubt or the criticisms of others keep us from our lofty goals. We know what we want, and we know the path to getting it. It is a simple two-step rule.

1. Write
2. Never give up

That's the gist of it. As writers, we must strive to keep at our craft, even when the entire world tells us we are wasting our time. We know what we know, and that is the stories we have in our minds. Those stories will not be brought to life unless we provide the breath. How can we let our characters down by giving up because we are discouraged or because others don't see how what we love could possibly be worth pursuing? The answer is simple - we can't. I write this blog post to give what little bit of encouragement I can to you, fellow writers. Let's follow Walt's pattern of self-determination and drive and get ourselves better. Let's get those characters written, scenes developed, books finished. Let's get published, ladies and gentlemen. Let's show the world that Walt Disney's success wasn't a fluke. It is repeatable, even by the likes of us wannabes.

Our Mickey is waiting to be born.