Oooo my God!!! You have no idea what a godsend this week’s column is for me. I mean it’s sooo on the ball, I can’t even believe it that I actually read this column. I felt like you wrote this column just for me.

And the reason is that, just like you, I had a recent revelation: that I too am a stickler for perfection and in the fear of not doing something “right” I wouldn’t do it at all. And believe it or not it came to me these last couple days and I promised myself that I’m not gonna be afraid to fall, I’m gonna be okay to fail, and then I read this column.

Thanks again. I’m a regular reader (I read your column first thing Monday morning) but this week I just had to write back to you. I just wanna say that in this industry where it’s so easy to lose direction and focus on the negative things about yourself, your personality — your column is huge plus.

And so to answer your “Why do we write for actors?” question, you’re writing for me — an actress who hasn’t yet given up hope or efforts.

It’s funny how the Universe sends you exactly what you need without you even knowing what to ask for. Your article “Don’t Drop the Ball” came as a welcome reminder. I think I do well with follow-ups and reaching out to folks so it wasn’t until I got to the parts “Resist the Need to Resist Change” (I really dug the line “I’d imagine getting okay with ‘getting what you’ve wished for’ is a smart strategy.” — So true! I definitely am taking that advice!!) and “Discipline Comes from Doing It” that it hit me: I gotta stop resisting and no matter how overwhelmed I feel with classes, work, researching parts, auditions, I just gotta do it. Because now is the time and this wonderful wacky craziness is exactly what I moved to LA for. And I’m exceptionally grateful for it.

I read your latest column on Actor Darwinism, well, actually on Dropping The Ball, and I couldn’t agree more with that idea. Some people just select themselves out, and the scary part is that sometimes I realize that I just did something myself, that puts me in that same category. The good thing is that I am usually able to recognize it eventually, so maybe I’m not really the “dropping the ball” type, rather just the learning type.

And all the mentoring — like your column — is very, very important, because even if one is a survivor, he or she might just not know the way to survive. And yes, perhaps those people would figure things out on their own anyway — just because of their strong desire — but getting good advice from others saves time, and effort and MONEY! And that’s the reason why people write stuff and offer classes, etc. Just because somebody is “fit and strong,” and I didn’t mean that literally, it doesn’t mean that they are in the know.

Of all the people I’ve met since coming to LA — and that would number in the hundreds now — from classes, events, networking, etc., there seems to be two distinctly definable groups of industry people (actors, directors, writers, casting directors, all of them). There are those who read, study, and plan like the dickens about how to bring their future about, and then there are those who just “DO.” I don’t think they are mutually exclusive — and as always, there is a great place somewhere in the middle that is a combination of both — but the reality here in LA is, so many people are scared of “doing” that they are eternally “planning to do” or “getting ready to do.”

I’ve taken a lot of classes from some of the more respected folks in town. I’ve studied my brains out. I read constantly. But only in “doing” does one have any power, especially in this town. Howard Fine used to say it all the time: “The only way to take the power back in this town is to create your own art.” I hear a lot, “I am not ready to actually audition yet, I need to study more until I feel ready.” I don’t think anyone is ever “ready.” It reminds me of skydiving. The first time I went up, I was not “ready” to jump out of a moving plane at 10,000 feet. Sometimes “thinking about it” can be your worst enemy, and can be paralyzing. I simply trusted, stepped out on the landing gear, grabbed the wing support, and let go, without “thinking” about it. All was fine, and now I love it, but every time I’ve ever jumped, I have always had a bit of that tingling feeling in my gut, though certainly much less than the first time. The same goes for our career in this industry.

I remember the first time I drove around to drop off my own submissions before I was signed, I got to the hallway on the second floor in one of the buildings at LA Center Studios, and was so scared to leave my submission for this big TV show that I ended up dropping it outside the door and exiting the building as quickly as I could. I look back on that now and laugh. What the heck was I worried about? That they were going to arrest me for self-submitting? Upon hearing this story, one coach gave me some of the best advice I’ve ever received, “Do not give yourself so much importance. They don’t care what you are doing there and don’t have time to worry about you.” I never did get called in from self submissions through the “real” breakdowns — so there is merit of course in working to get good representation — but the process of driving around and getting to know the town and where these offices were was part of my growth, and it paid dividends later when my agents began to send me out, because I knew where I was going, and it wasn’t so imposing. I didn’t just wake up one day ready to walk on the lot at Fox or Universal or Warner Bros. and go to a callback for producers. I arrived at that point not because I had studied “for a certain length of time,” but because I started DOING — auditioning for student films, then indie shorts, then indie features, then agents, etc., and because I have continued to study and hone my craft over time. The network test is my next hurdle, my first test was a little unnerving (and I actually booked the series regular role), but by “doing” it more, I will be a little more relaxed about it (as much as one can be in a network test situation — ha ha!).