Jeff Dunham and the Pursuit of Goals

My son has many interests outside of what some might consider "normal" for an 11 year old.  He was probably the only kid who dressed up as a Xenomorph from the Alien franchise.  His newest fascination is Jeff Dunham, or more accurately Jeff Dunham's ventriloquist act.  We recently caught a rerun of Jeff Dunham: Birth of a Dummy on the Biography Channel and it grabbed his attention and mine for a variety of reasons.

While my son was entertained by Dunham's colorful cast of characters, I was drawn into his story for different reasons.  For one, he had intense dedication to his goal of taking his act to the Tonight Show and like any good story, he suffered setback after setback.  He faced criticism from other comedians who regarded his act as too different to make it in the cutthroat comedy scene.  A last minute rejection from the Tonight Show threatened to send him over the edge.

What does this have to do with writing?  On the surface, nothing.  If you look a little deeper, you can draw parallels between Dunham and anyone who has ever wanted to be published.  A goal is a goal and reaching that goal amid obstacles is the essence of great storytelling.  Another correlation is the journey of the indie author, the one outside the mainstream who grew stronger with each rejection and published their novel.  Like Jeff Dunham, the author never abandoned his goal.