My Old Enemy, Reality
This is Finish Your Monsters, a weekly blog/newsletter/blogletter about the creative process. I'm sharing adventures in art and life as well as setting CLIFFHANGER goals for myself, so--
--DID I MAKE MY GOAL?
Last week, I committed to doing more work on the feature film I’m producing. Specifically, I claimed I would send 15 more business emails AND complete a revision of the script for budget purposes.
And I’m pleased to say I did both. I sent way over 15 business emails. I was keeping track of the total number but once it got past 20 I decided to put that tracking energy into just sending EVEN MORE EMAILS.
It was nice to carve out some calm time this past weekend to revisit the script for the film. You know, the creative thing I love that’s the reason I’m doing all this in the first place!
It continues to be a fun and valuable exercise to dream up bizarre and beautiful and heartfelt moments BUT also be brutally honest about the resources I have to tell the story.
This pass on the script included some character motivation and clarity tweaks, some dialogue punch-ups, etc. All the normal creative stuff.
But I also trimmed out two characters, adjusted some horror/action set-pieces, and cut three total pages from the script. All to make the beautiful ideas dance with the reality of money and time.
There was a lot of dancing with reality this week.
ADVENTURES OF THE WEEK--
I had some great adventures this week. A really fun and productive meeting with the cinematographer for the feature film. (He also filmed our horror short, The Nightmare Adorable, which has now played in 17 festivals and counting!)
I also had some great progress on my upcoming show, HORROR YEARS OLD. I’ve got a big birthday this August so I’m celebrating/coping with a fun comedy-variety show. Tickets went live for in-person audiences here in Los Angeles last week, but this week I got a new thing set-up that I’ve personally never done: THE SHOW WILL BE LIVESTREAMED! So you can watch anywhere you have internet access. More details in the plug section, but I’m hoping for a good turn-out both in-person and the wilds of the internet so here’s the ticket link. And for readers of the newsletter, the online tickets are discounted if you enter this super secret code word: SQUIRREL.
And just like a squirrel, the blog is now going to stop suddenly and intensely shift its focus to a different topic.
Reality! Let’s talk about harsh reality. This week was difficult on every level: personal, professional, political.
I’m struggling to find time to do everything. I love working on the film, but I’m stressed about making it happen. I haven’t opened a book in two weeks. I don’t get to see friends as often as I would like. The main social outlet I did have, social media, is fractured and full of bullshit AI posts inaccurately repeating famous behind-the-scenes stories about the making of The Godfather.
And, of course, the obvious looming matter of a vast and real threat to American Democracy.
I say all this to acknowledge REALITY: This is a difficult, stressful time for every human I know, including myself, who I continue to try to know.
So I have ZERO interest in denying reality. I have zero interest in denying other people’s understandable stress, fear, rage, exhaustion, etc.
But I do have a deep desire to COPE with reality. So when I was thinking about what I was going to write for the blog this week, I looked back at the week to actively find more good things.
In my opinion, good things don’t always just happen. Often, you have to believe in the possibility they could happen and fight for them to happen. (This is the general mantra that is keeping me moving forward on the film work.) And for the smaller things—the little balms in day-to-day life—I think you need to look for them and acknowledge them.
In that spirit, here are a few more good things. Again, I don’t share these things from a pollyanna point-of-view. I don’t think a beautiful sunset magically makes the problems go away. Instead, I think a beautiful sunset helps me keep going so I can try to face the problems. Being creative and writing isn’t ignoring a harsh, greedy, increasingly cold and alienating world—it’s actively defying all those things.
So some good things:
-I wrote some notes for a short film I want to make about Norwegian trolls
-I bought some of those Star Wars Oreos and found one with Leia’s face on it
-I had a lovely date night with my wife where we watched two movies set in Los Angeles and had fun pausing to find out how much the characters were lying about what part of the city they were in
-Several friends kindly helped out with film stuff
-Had fun discussing the latest episode of The Acolyte
-I played an online RPG with Minneapolis pals for a few hours
-I wrote 20 more letters for Vote Forward
-And finally, my ridiculous relationship with JACARANDA trees in Los Angeles. A few years ago, I read a couple of books set in LA and they kept mentioning Jacaranda trees and I asked my wife, “What are those?” Sara said, “They’re those trees that bloom with big purple flowers that then rain down on the sidewalk. You know, like the one RIGHT OUTSIDE OUR APARTMENT WINDOW.”
Since then, I have made a point of whispering “jacaranda” to myself every time I see one in big purple bloom. And it is keeping my very busy. There are everywhere. Thanks, Jacarandas.
MY GOAL FOR THE WEEK--
I need to once again spin some plates so I’ve got two goals to keep up with the SHOW and the BUSINESS. I’m committing to making a producer task list for the feature film to stay on top of everything and a very rough first draft of a short Norwegian horror film. I will also keep looking for jacaranda but I don’t want to make any commitments there.
YOUR GOAL FOR THE WEEK--
I would absolutely LOVE to hear what you're working on this week in the comments below. What's your goal? Is it creative? What are the challenges? What joys are keeping you motivated? How will emails find you? How can I help you finish your monsters?
LIGHT PLUGS—
AWOOGA! NOW AVAILABLE FOR LIVESTREAM!
This comedy/variety show celebrating a big birthday is also going to be LIVESTREAMED! It’s called HORROR YEARS OLD and tickets are live here! Friday, August 16th at Lyric-Hyperion or viewable anywhere with an internet connection. I would love a packed house (and friends watching from afar) so if you’re interested, grab the tickets now!
I also wanted to share about Vote Forward—it’s a program where you sign up to write letters to voters. There’s a typed form and you add a personal message about WHY voting matters to you, nothing partisan. The org has done follow up studies and it really works to increase voter turnout. My goal this year is to write 200 letters. I’ve written 40 so far. If you’re interested, you can find out more by visiting Vote Forward!
A LITTLE SKETCH--
This week’s sketch is a exploration: What might Mario look like if he were a real plumber with a large hat dreaming of mushrooms? This is important, I’m glad I took the time to put this out into the world.
