Diablo Cody worked as a stripper in the Skyway Lounge in downtown Minneapolis.

Nick Schenk drove a fruit truck, worked in a liquor store and eventually a VHS factory in Bloomington. 

What do they have in common you may ask? They are both pretty normal schmucks turned extraordinary screenwriters from the ‘ol Twin Cities and they both make me prouder than hell. 

Diablo Cody wrote the Academy Award winning script of Juno and Nick Schenk is the brains behind Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood’s highest grossing film in the US.

I think the thing to learn from both of them is that anyone can tell a good story. It doesn’t take any particular location or vocation or training to engage the audience and kick some Hollywood butt a la Macho-Man Randy Savage. Ooooh yeah!

There’s a new wave of Minnesotans following in F Scott Fitzgerald’s, Bobby Dylan’s and the Coen Brother’s footsteps being plucked from every walk of life. So I want you ALL, to go home and write a song, book, screenplay or whatever it is you do. Meet your thoughts in some smoky place and get to work putting them onto paper. Every Minnesotan has a good story in ‘em.