Connecting Story to Life, and Life To Story

If you haven’t listened to enormously successful showrunner/executive producer Rodney Barnes (Winning Time, Boondocks, Everybody Hates Chris)on our new www.lifewritingpodcast.com episode, you should. A few thoughts to help you get the best out of it.If you are a writer, listen to the way he discusses the business of Hollywood. Make note of HIS way of finding his path, comparing it to the HERO’S JOURNEY.

If you are NOT a writer, then do the same thing, but look at it in a more general sense. Try answering ten questions:

1. What was his challenge?
2. What negative emotions hampered him?
3. What motivated him to overcome those negative emotions, or how did he diminish them?
4. What actions, daily and weekly, did he take to move himself along that path?
5. What talents and abilities did he have initially? What did he need to learn? What mentors and role models and helpers did he need to find, and HOW DID HE CONNECT WITH THEM?
6. What is the largest failure he discusses, something that happened while deep into his path?
7. What was the “Dark Night of the Soul” in which he was in greatest despair, confusion, and pain?