Meet Meghan Fitzmartin

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Meghan Fitzmartin a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Meghan, thank you for being such a positive, uplifting person. We’ve noticed that so many of the successful folks we’ve had the good fortune of connecting with have high levels of optimism and so we’d love to hear about your optimism and where you think it comes from.
I come from a long line of generational depression. They say it runs in the family, the blood that runs through my veins the very thing that makes it hard to get up some mornings. I’ve lived under the weight of depression my whole life, be it either my own or others.

So when I say I’m optimistic, I don’t say that lightly. Optimism has been a hard fought battle, with casualties every day. It is a battle to keep hope alive when your worst enemy is often your own brain.

But I find it to be the most important daily battle. Because this battle, for me, became about choice. My depression often feels like it robs me of choice. I have no choice in depression, in the things that break my heart. But I have a choice in living. I have a choice to smile or frown. I find the choices in each small moment that will make my day better.

I don’t often win this battle. In fact, sometime I lose. Some days I stay in bed rather than face the world. Some days I let the sadness win.

But not every day.

And that choice is life changing.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I’m a writer for TV, comics, animation, and podcasts. I write emotional stories wrapped in action and adventure, using genre to get to the heart of the audience. My writing for DC Comics made international news, and I’ve won numerous awards due to the heartfelt nature of my work. My newest movie comes out in April, called JUSTICE LEAGUE x RWBY: Super Heroes and Huntsmen Part 1.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The three most important qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that helped me are as follows:

1) Making friends. Networking has negative connotations, and doesn’t fully embrace what I love to do — make cool are with my friends. I’ve had numerous people tell me they don’t want to move to LA and work a retail job when they can do that in their hometown, but the truth is the friends you make at that retail job in LA will go on to win Oscars, Emmys, Grammys, while you stay in your hometown.

2) Be flexible. I love writing for different mediums, and as the industry has grown and changed, I’ve needed to! My dad always told me to not keep all my eggs in one basket, and neither should you. Find the different things you like and make them work for you! There will be a dry season, after all, this is LA.

3) The day will end. No matter if it is the best day of your life or the worst, the day will end and everything will start new tomorrow.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
One of the books I tell everyone to read is ORIGINALS by Adam Grant. An incredible book on where original ideas come from, it doesn’t matter if you’re in entertainment, law, or plumbing, original ideas are the life blood to innovation. So how do we cultivate original ideas? How do we make space for the new? There are a number of lessons, but the two that I think about most are:

1) Embrace procrastination. I used to get so mad at myself for not starting on something immediately, but as Adam Grant points out, when I procrastinated, I was still thinking about the project. I became aware that, for my process, I needed the time to think about things before approaching the project.

2) Come at things from the side. There’s a great story in the book on how Seinfeld became a show. I won’t go into it here, but basically, being an expert in one space can sometimes stifle your creativity. You become so obsessed with the rules and structure that you don’t leave space for the new. This is why I love working in different mediums. Writing for comics gives me a new, original way of looking at film, and vice versa.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Me Brigitta Fry

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