Today’s assignment was to research someone who seemed to be an overnight success and find out the true story.  I decided to focus on the mind behind Downton Abby Julian Fellowes.

Apparently, his big break was when he was asked to write the screenplay for Gosford Park because he knew so much about social classes.  At the time, he was an actor who had published a few romance novels under the pen  name Rebecca Greville, but no major successes.  That screenplay went on to win the Academy Award.  He went on to create Downton Abby.  Very cool.

Things didn’t actually happen overnight, though.  I did a little research and discovered that he worked as a small-parts actor since 1981.  The romance novels he wrote were back in the 70’s and he didn’t try his hand at  publishing again until 2002 with Gosford Park.  Now he has written three more novels and several tv shows.  That is a ton of hard work for a very long time.  It is not just one big break.  It is a lifetime of honing a craft, acting, living story so that he can write it better.  If he can work on his craft for over 40 years and still be going strong, I have no excuse!