Mentors and Mentor Characters

I'm on a couple deadlines and I have a friend staying with me for the weekend, so I'm going to punt.

Over at Artful Writer, Craig's been having an interesting back and forth about Benefactors and Mentors. His thesis is basically that mentors are overrated. Screw them, and get yourself a benefactor.

That's actually pretty good advice, so far as it goes. I guess the problem with mentors is that it is very much buyer beware. Craig sounds like he didn't have a great experience. I did. I've had at least a couple of people I'd call Mentors in my life. I've had Benefactors, too, in the sense that I have people who took a chance on me and gave me a gig when I didn't have much experience because they recognized that I had talent, and moxie. Don't discount the moxie. It isn't just for 40's femme fatales and cute orphans with dirty faces.

The difference, maybe, is that I never expected my mentors to be the ones to actually get me work. Nor did I expect them to weigh in on whether I had talent or not. I knew I had talent.

I've informally mentored a few people over the years. I teach too, so that line gets blurry. But from time to time, I've had former students who I've tried to follow over the years. Some have asked me for advice, and we've met up for coffee, or I've given a read and notes to their scripts -- some I've just kind of kept track of along the way. Sometimes people call me for advice of how to make an approach, a strategy for how to get an entry level job, when to ditch that job -- life stuff that's easy-peasy to talk about freely when it's a few years in your past.

But here's the thing: I won't answer the question: do I have it? Because the reality is that so many don't. And having to tell someone that? Well...that's...you know...uncomfortable. If you're not buying me some free fish, what's in it for me to crush your little dreams? And if you are buying me fish, then why would I crush your dreams. I mean, the spicy tuna roll is delicious.

The talent question is perilous, and at some point, you have to stop seeking that answer from mentors, and start proving it to yourself by hooking into some benefactors.

At least that's what I think Craig was talking about.

I'm a big believer in karma and paying it forward -- but that doesn't extend to putting myself into uncomfortable situations where I have to crush someone's dreams. That'd just be icky. I can't believe that I'm the only one who feels that way. So if that's what you're looking for from a mentor...maybe you've misread the true utility of the position.

Read Craig's post about mentors here.

Read Craig's even-more-suffused with awesomeness post about mentor characters here.