Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Starting today...no more following...

Been compared lately? Never truly been given the chance to shine because those who make up your day see you as something you aren’t? Everybody goes through it—constantly measured up to coworkers or family members, it completely drains the bodies decision to grow faster than a farmer tilling the soil in a hot desert. This is where you’re supposed to be or you wouldn’t be doing it…right?



It’s extremely difficult to be something if surrounded by other be-er’s. This is where Mom pats you on the head like a puppy and says, “It’s ok…just be better.” So what do we end up doing? Being who inspired us…which is nothing more than legalized cloning. You can copy baseball legend Ted Williams but its what he experienced that generated the passion that became his ball game.



As much as I talk about Andrew Ashwood, Bill Conway, Master Todd Harris and my dog Harold…I am not nor will I ever be them but that doesn’t stop me from using their experiences as a tool to help define what will become my path. I completely abuse the lessons taught by Julia Cameron but you’ll never see me hosting an Artist Way seminar but I’ll open the door for you to stop in for a visit to take your voice to a creative more successful level of performance with the agreement that you are to never try and sound like me. If I already hate the way I sound…why make two? So I learn through you.



Comedian Billy Crystal was once told he wouldn’t amount to a hill of beans if he didn’t stop being everybody else—his focus needed to be fine tuned to the art of self rather than impersonations that made us laugh at those he poked fun of but never really at Billy himself.



On the morning show we’re talking about American Idol failing—nearly every finger is pointed at Paula, Kara, winners that go nowhere, too much Ryan I love myself Seacrest or a TV show that’s had its fun and needs to go. Valentine wanted to know what’s up.


I ask, "Why won’t someone stand up and say we’re burned out by the enormous amount of copycat programs? Plain Jane America is no longer interesting.”



Books are no different. Although we’re slowly gliding our imaginations toward a more digital presentation of writers meeting readers—everything available can easily be compared to something we’ve already put through our system.



Shrek 4, Iron Man 2, Rocky 26, when will it stop? When the common person with the common lifestyle turns a common pen into an outlet, then edits it on a common computer for other common folk to become part of. Writing needs to become regional again. The South doesn’t need Mark Twain but sentences that offer scent to the pages and the Pacific Northwest requires authors who paint a mountain top that frost bites the tips of your toes without leaving the comfort of a fire.



Rather than allowing your eyes to feast on the fingerprints already displayed on computer screens—how much longer before the rest of the world gets introduced to you?



I’ve heard the excuses, “Oh, I’m not a writer! I don’t have the focus required to tell stories. I’m horrified of other people’s opinions.”



You write everyday! Emails, Face Book conversations, IM’s, Twitter entries and Sticky notes! Writing is nothing more than a collection of thoughts. Your thoughts, experiences and reasons to believe during a time in American history where everything is fake and completely caked onto our plastic faces like the Joker in Batman.



Nobody shares a real laugh anymore because we’ve already heard the joke 500 times.



Viral videos on You Tube were once a brilliant concept until Ellen, Jay Leno and the 11 o’clock news made it part of their reasons to gain access to better ratings. We are a People who no longer find value in discovery…we expect to be handed Entertainment News through the efforts of Mary Hart and Marie Osmond only to spend the rest of the night wondering why you waited through an endless commercial break to get 30 seconds of nothingness.



I’m going to shatter an extremely important rule that was put into play by author Lou Solomon, “Stop telling other people’s stories! You aren’t in those stories so why share them?”



My love for animals made me look like a child freak—without ever seeing Dr. Doolittle or reading Dr. Seuss, I was convinced animal’s speak a language human’s ignore. I wanted nothing more than to become the locater of the hidden voice. Nobody will ever read how I took the time to mend the broken wings of pigeons gunned down by crazy teens with BB guns. Nobody will ever read about walking through the open prairies of Montana and Wyoming searching for the songs Antelope sing while sifting through a possible harmony invited to the stage by prairie dogs and distant cattle on a hillside covered with giant clovers the size of my ego. Those books and shapes of poetry don’t sell nor do schools teach students anything but those who lived 100 years before the computer was created.


Blogs, online books and daily web page entries serve as the greatest shape of open communication since the unveiling of the Declaration of Independence! You have the right to write then reach…or be burned out reading as well as watching everybody else.



Being a writer gives birth to originality. You may start out pretending to be the next Danielle Steele but through the evolution of imagination meeting purpose and page the essence of being creative gives you the confidence to start taking chances and that’s where the writer in you is given birth. Now feed it!



Stop cutting and pasting and start showing off your southern or northernisms! Make me sweat when talking about an Arizona summer night. I want to feel how high your imagination reaches while slowly walking across the Ravenel Bridge in Charleston. If you're penning out your wedding vows showcase your love not some Romeo and Juliette from Bozeman, Montana. Don’t know them, don’t care to know them…we love you!



Stop telling other peoples stories because you weren’t part of them…



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

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