Beatitudes for Creativity / Financial Checklist Download

Happy Friday! I’ll start with a quick business update:

A little over a week ago I turned in a new series pitch document to my collaborators, including the person who originally created this epic story universe. I met him and his manager for breakfast on Friday and they were excited about the pitch. Over the weekend they passed along the thumbs up from our third partner, so I sent it to my reps to talk about the next steps. I’m so psyched about this one!

I’m 90 pages into this new feature spec. This first draft is going to be a shaggy mess but I love this stage of the process where I start to find moments of rhyme, when a line that a character said in Act One comes back with a whole new meaning in Act Three, or a gift given along the way turns out to be an important piece of the puzzle by the end. It feels like music, when you get to the end of a verse and the lyrics are all driving toward a single syllable that pulls it all together. Like Joni said,

“I remember that time, you told me

You said, “Love is touching souls”

Surely you touched mine

Cause part of you pours out of me

in these lines from time to time”

She’s even got an internal rhyme to up the ante.

The first movie moment that comes to mind right now is Bud’s titanium wedding ring in THE ABYSS. He’s still wearing it, even though he and his wife Lindsey are divorced. They get into a fight on the underwater base, finally he takes it off and throws it in the toilet. But a second later he changes his mind and fishes it out of the blue water. Later, in a climactic scene, that ring saves his life.

One of the most satisfying cinematic rhymes ever is the “On your left” moment in AVENGERS: ENDGAME. It’s a moment that rhymes across so many movies and triggers an ongoing series of increasingly satisfying payoffs. If you ever need to get super pumped up to fight somebody in a parking lot just watch this!

When my last feature spec went out I got some feedback that the end lacked the emotional punch I was hoping it would have. So I went back and added a moment of connection between two characters who would be separated for most of the movie and gave it a rhyme when they reconnected at the end. It’s a moment that so many people who have read it bring up in my general meetings.

Two pitches on Monday for two separate projects so unfortunately I have to put these last few scenes on hold while I prep, but I’m excited to get back to them.

I started writing down a list of the basic components of my ongoing creative practice for future newsletter entries, but this morning I realized I was making them too complicated. When I simplified them they began read like beatitudes. So I just went the full New Testament. Here they are:

Beatitudes for Creativity

Blessed are the playful,

for they remember the kid who conjured imaginary friends, castles out of sandboxes, and games with infinitely expanding rulesets.

Blessed are the curious,

for their questions will lead them out of the darkness of the cave and toward the light of the horizon.

Blessed are those in motion,

for when you are moving you are constantly changing your perspective and repositioning your field of vision.

Blessed are the still,

for they will hear the quiet voice of intuition and inspiration too often drowned out by the digital noise of our hyper-connected world.

Blessed are the empathetic,

for their willingness to understand and make space for the feelings of others will be reflected in their ability to create work that, in specificity, speaks universal truths.

Blessed are those who find joy in repetition,

for they will sustain themselves through long droughts without external validation and monetary gain.

Blessed are those who study the masters,

for they will calibrate their compass, choosing what to keep and what to discard, until they find their own true north, informed by echoes ringing in the canyons of their craft.

Blessed are those compelled to create,

for theirs is a birthright passed down thirteen billion years ago, when the universe as we know it exploded into being. To create is to be in harmony with the universe.

Financial Checklist Download

Recently, my brother-in-law, Greg Vojtanek, started a company called Fade In Financial, a financial planning service specializing in writers and directors. He reached out this week to offer a pre-project financial checklist for download. It’s awesome. I’ll let him explain who he is and what this is:

Greg Vojtanek is the owner of Fade In Financial, a fee-only financial planning firm in Burbank, CA serving mostly screenwriters and directors. He’s also been fortunate enough to work in a Writers’ Room and alongside some of the nicest people in the entertainment industry. He's decided to focus his career on helping those in the industry make better financial decisions. Greg has a B.A. from Lewis University in Chicago and completed the coursework for a Certified Financial Planner at Texas A&M University. www.FadeInFinancial.com

Special thanks to The Nicest Guy In Show Business Mickey Fisher (trademark pending) for sharing this. I often see writers and directors scrambling to balance their personal lives with their professional ones once they're in the middle of a project. I created this Pre-Project Financial Checklist to (hopefully) help mitigate your stress. I met with a director recently who told me, "I'm finally meeting with you because my agent said to me 'okay, it's time to get your shit together.'" Some of the items on this checklist will apply to you and some of it won't. Similar to getting notes from a colleague, take what you want and discard the rest. I hope it helps you get your shit together before you start your next gig. -- Greg V.

Download the checklist by clicking here!

That’s it for this week, hope you have a great weekend!

Friendly reminder from the Glendale Parks Department