This is Finish Your Monsters, a weekly 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?

My goals for last week were to finish designing promo cards for our horror film Dead Media that I can bring to film festivals and to start the script for a new short film.

I completed one and kind of completed the other.

The promo cards are designed and off to the printer. Normally, I really enjoy doing graphic design work. It gives me a chance to stretch my visual art muscles and listen to music while I work which I can’t do when I’m writing.

But for some reason (I’m going to guess the endless horrors) I kept getting distracted by the music and finding myself staring off into space.

Yesterday, I turned off the music, left my earbuds in, and listened to the experimental jazz album COMPLETE SILENCE and that did the trick to finish the goal.

For the other goal, I did technically start the script, but it’s just the slug line of where the film takes place and a brief description of the main character’s face.

A technical yes, but my goal-setting is useless if I lie to you or to myself!

That said, I did get some great work done on the short film. I brainstormed an idea that I really liked. Then I gave it more thought and realized I didn’t like the message it was sending.

So I took a nice long walk and thought about how I could adapt the idea. Then I ran the new outline by my wife, Sara. It really helps to get Sara’s opinion and I can often feel my own ideas more clearly when I say them out loud to another human.

Both Sara and I like the new idea so I feel poised to get to work on the script this week. I look forward to putting the earbuds back in, rocking out to COMPLETE SILENCE PART TWO, and writing the script.

Also, got more potential good news on getting Dead Media out into the world. So even though the horrors made me feel unproductive, I objectively got a decent amount done this week.

A NICE THING THAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK

Sara and I took a trip to one of our favorite spots. A nice little hotel that’s right on the ocean and only an hour drive from our home in Los Angeles.

I always enjoy the calm, focus, and reset that the ocean brings. But this time it was different. As I said on social media:

“I'm visiting the ocean. In a time full of lies, soulless artificial technology, and sad angry billionaires who want to be god-kings it's nice to be reminded of real power. Natural, undeniable, immutable. Every crash is a little protest song.”

For over 48 hours, we didn’t go more than a block away from the ocean. We stared at the waves, ate burritos, drank martinis, chatted with our balcony neighbors at sunset, read books, played an old pre-chess Viking board game, and took one million deep breaths.

I also got a little obsessive. This happens every time we visit. There’s a breaker near the hotel—pictured above. I love to stand on the middle of the breaker and watch the waves explode over the top. A photo of a wave crashing over this breaker has been my laptop screensaver since 2022.

The crashing wave is the way I want life and art to feel. It’s logical and reliable but filled with nuance and variety and surprise. It’s dynamic. It makes me feel alive.

Some visits, the waves come in but they aren’t very powerful. This visit, the ocean was in a mood. I’ve never seen the waves crash so frequently, so violently, so beautifully.

A part of me always wants to just stand there and absorb it. But another part of me reaches for my phone, wanting to capture a really great wave explosion.

And I did! I captured lots of them! Look at this madness.

I had an absolutely great time standing in the sunlight taking FAR TOO MANY PHOTOS.

But then I walked away feeling guilty for taking far too many photos. My phone and my computer are constantly running out of space because I take too many photos. I run out of time to go through and delete the bad ones. I’m buried in micro-tasks and basic life maintenance. And I just created more of that work for myself.

I put it out of my mind. The next day, I looked out at the breaker. The sun was even brighter and the waves were even bigger. I felt my phone hand twitching.

And I decided to just let myself be myself.

I get obsessive. In good ways and bad. Being obsessive is what allowed me to make a feature film. Sometimes, it makes me double check an email 17 times before hitting send.

I decided my wave obsession was not hurting anyone but the storage space on my phone.

I went out and took more photos and it was fantastic. Then I went to a different breaker and took photos there, too. As a compromise, I took ZERO photos of my burrito that night.

I think we should all find little ways we can accept ourselves.

Anyway, off to delete a few photos.

LIGHT PLUGS

DEAD MEDIA’S FIRST FESTIVAL APPEARANCE: Our horror film will play twice at the NEVERMORE FILM FESTIVAL in Durham, North Carolina. I’ll be there at both screenings to do an intro and a post-film Q&A! Tickets and info here!

DEAD MEDIA MAILING LIST: We’ve got a mailing list for Dead Media. I’m only going to send out messages occasionally with concrete info and asks for help—screening dates, sales news, help getting the word out, etc. You can sign up here if you’re interested!

SHORT FILMS ON YOUTUBE: I’m still planning on releasing three of my short films on YouTube. I want to release one a week. I really want to promote these extensively on social media, but I keep wrestling with whether it feels right in this moment. But it would still be a huge help if you subscribed to my YouTube channel and hopefully it will feel right to put out the short films soon.

DONATIONS TO DEAD MEDIA: We need all the help we can get for film festival submission fees, advance money to book theaters, etc. Through Film North, you can make a one time tax deductible donation here. Thanks for all the help and support!

MY GOAL FOR THE WEEK--

I signed up for this short film event that I’ve done in the past. It’s called JUST SCARE ME. It’s an accountability group. You get two months to make a short horror film under 6 minutes. If you don’t make the goal, you owe the group one hundred bucks. I need to get moving on that so my goal for next week is to complete the first draft of the script for a new short film.

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? How can I help you literally finish your monsters?

A LITTLE SKETCH--

This week’s sketch is me looking at the sea from my favorite breaker, drawn while looking at my favorite breaker. Thanks for reading and best of luck with your monsters this week!