Week Three of the Writer’s Room Complete!
We are three weeks into the new job, and I THINK I've crossed the threshold in terms of organizing my physical program to stay in a high-energy state: which is one of the "High Performance Six" aspects. Rest, exercise, food, and focus. Each is a lifetime study.
Belly brain, dialed in. Now heart. How do I FEEL about this? Am I being empathetic to the other hearts in the room? Am I taking care of people. I used a phrase yesterday that was insensitive. I will correct that today, openly apologize and commit to doing better. Everyone in that room is being asked to access their deep creativity: in one sense, their CHILD selves. That child needs to feel safe, respected, loved. A certain amount of rough-housing is cool, as long as it is mutually agreeable: many of us thrive under bang-head competition. Others thrive in a peaceful garden. I have to learn to detect both extremes, and match that energy.
This can be hard for me, but as I said: one break-through came from realizing this wasn't a streetfight. It was either sparring or push-hands. FLOW AND FOCUS. With an open heart, and the courage to grasp nascent ideas that look ugly and remember that sometimes, it is your craziest ideas that work best.
That's heart center
Then head center. Intellect, and mapping reality. Learning and speaking. TIMING is critical here. My job is NOT to argue with the show runner. He sold a vision to the studio, and if HE decides to change it a bit…that's his business. MINE is to listen to the pitches of the people above me, and jump in when I hear a good one and see a way to contribute to it, give it a little extra energy or substance.
"If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all"--Thumper
That notion is kinda useful here. If it’s a bad idea, the show runner will shoot it down. My job is to feed the story editors and co-show runners, and hope it trickles up. Sometimes I can pitch directly. Often. But respect the chain of command, the creative hierarchy. It exists because this system evolved in response to the need for consistency and productivity in a time-bound context with billions of dollars at stake. It is the MASTERMIND principle, "two or more people working in a spirit of harmony for a common purpose."
I also need to manage my input. That means movies, fiction and non-fiction writing. Top- notch television. All creativity is part theft, and part sensing the connection between things you've never seen connected before. This demands VAST amounts of general input, combined with specific modeling and deep specific knowledge of the field of endeavor. The "Who am I?" and "What is True?" related to your personal being, specific situation, and the broader context of life.
THIS IS CRITICAL. If you are writing a dozen characters, how do you keep them from just being projections of your own ego? I've seen hideous mistakes made that lead to the sort of stereotyping, exclusion, extermination and desexualization I've spoken of endlessly. In the sense that entertainment both shapes and reflects culture, it is reasonable to be as conscious about this as possible.
Even if all you want is to siphon as much money from your audience as possible, it is critical to have a deep, testable theory of human consciousness and society. WHY do you think things are as they are? Marketing and Sales is about understanding human needs, and entering into the conversations your prospective clients are already having with themselves or their associations.
You link YOUR story of discovery or healing or progress with THEIR story of searching for a mentor, and suddenly you are a bright star in their heaven. Link YOUR story of a human being seeking healing or love or success with a concern THEY have, and suddenly you are helping them contextualize or process their own stress in a pleasant or thrilling way.
This is the power of the Hero's Journey, the most primary tool in the entire Lifewriting system. Understand people and the journey THEY are on. Understand yourself and the journey YOU are on. Understand your characters and the journey THEY are on.
If your characters are fighting Godzilla, as unbelievable as that might seem, look at how the film makers contextualized it so that the audience could understand:
Characters seeking to heal relationships with children
Characters seeking to save their loved ones.
Characters seeking to heal the world
Characters seeking to avenge loss
Characters seeking to understand
Characters seeking to survive.
Get that? "Big G" is the pattern interrupt in their lives, but unless you can connect that symbol with something the characters care about DEEPLY you have no story. And you have to "leave room" in the script for a good actor to find some emotional room to breathe.
Then, you can honestly say to an audience that if you care about survival, understanding, revenge, healing, service or love…we have a story for you.
And by the way, there is a big lizard.
THIS is the power of understanding story. There is more, but this will be the topic of the FIREDANCE show tomorrow. But not just "story"--how you relate this to the story of your life. How to use it to market or sell. Use it to complete projects. Use it to thrill an audience.
The use, in other words, of what IMO is an incredibly powerful tool for ANY human being…but the PERFECT tool for writers and readers.
Join us! Tomorrow, Saturday Feb 17th at Noon Pacific
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Steven Barnes is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
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