Guest Post by John Lansing

This week I asked my good friend and terrific author John Lansing to drop by and do a guest post. John's the author of the highly-rated Jack Bertolino series. His new novel Mia has just been released, it's highly recommended, and you can check out his website for more details. 

State how long you've been writing, and what advice would you give to your younger self before you turned professional?

I was a late-comer to writing. I had already spent about 20 years as a working actor. Life happens, and I began writing sometime around 1989. I never expected to have a second career. I always thought I’d die in my elder years on a Broadway stage. 

I never intended to be a writer. I never studied it at school, never dreamed about it when I was a kid. I was taking courses in directing at UCLA Extension and in the process, I committed to directing a short film. A dear friend was going to write the script. I had the crew in place and my friend got sick. Really sick. I had to come up with something in a short period of time or give up the project. That wasn’t going to happen. I picked up a yellow pad, sat at my desk, and gave it a shot. In the process I discovered I had the skill set.

Once I started writing, I never looked back. For the first time in my life, I was creating story instead of interpreting. Little did I know that the character’s I played on stage and in front of a camera helped me understand the emotional roadmap I needed to create complex characters. And the scripts and books I had read through the years helped me move forward.

  I can’t say the transition to a new career was stress free. It was a hard business. It’s still a hard business. But I was fortunate to have a terrific writing partner, Bruce Cervi, who’d been a working writer for years and helped me through the process. My first produced television show was in 1991. It was called “Shades of L.A. and I co-wrote the script with Bruce.

The first time I walked onto the set – we were shooting at Vasquez Rocks – and I saw the crew setting up for the first shot of the day, my heart started pounding and I couldn’t stop smiling. And when I heard the director shout “Action,” I was sold. I felt I had a real shot in this career.

I was a worrier as an actor, and it’s something I carried over into my new endeavor. If I had any advice to give myself as a young writer it would be not to waste time worrying. Those are hours and days you never get back. Just keep reading, and writing. Enjoy the process. When you’re in the zone, and your characters come alive and start telling you the moves they need to make, time stands still, and life is perfect.

I was also told by a wise friend when I started my writing career, “If you can’t collaborate, don’t go into the television business.”  

One of the things I love about writing is that you don’t need permission to write a book. You don’t need a publisher, or a producer, or an agent. You just need a good story, you need to keep writing, and get to “The End.” And then…you start rewriting.