Are You A "Claimer"?

In this entertainment field I run across people all the time who claim they are something (writer, director, dancer, editor, etcetera) but I rarely see them actually perform what they claim to be.  Well, let me be fair. They may do it sometimes, but they don't do it with consistency.  

If you are dancer, you have to dance--and not just at the shake-booty club on the weekends. If you are an actor, you must act.  Producer, please produce.  And you writers, thou must write. The flip side is this:  If you do nothing and just constantly claim to do something, then you are a "claimer." It's that simple. You are what you do.

"But what if there are no jobs out there for me?"

Do it anyway.

 I didn't say you have to be paid for it. Writing and dancing are the easiest. A writer just needs a pen and paper; and a dancer needs, well, I guess just a solid pair of feet.  (And that's even circumspect because didn't they have a one-legged dancer on "Dancing With The Stars?") If you are an actor, FIND avenues to ply your craft: community theater, backyard productions, cheap commercials--whatever. Directors and Producers: you too-- FIND something to direct and produce.  If necessary use your cell phone's video camera to direct a tiny short video. Perhaps you, the producer and the actor can get together. While you're at it, recruit the writer to pen a script and the dancer to perform in it.  The bottom line: DO SOMETHING.  A cell phone video is beats a zero any day.

Back to you writers. If you truly are a writer, you must FINISH your work.  Don't just crank out a few pages and leave them undone on your hard drive or dusty shelf.  Get to "the end," because then, and only then, can you claim to be a writer. Remember, you are a wordsmith who crafts a beginning, middle AND and an end. Does a car maker only make the front end of car? 

And here's the added beauty in all this. Once you actually do what you say you do, there are people out there who will pay you to do it, and pay you again, and again. I know.  I'm a witness.  Now go write something, or dance, or produce, or design or... claim.