The Extant Storytech R&D Report - Issue #3
Welcome back to Issue #3!
If you're new here, this is not really a "how to write or be more creative" newsletter. It's more of a "how I'm currently" trying to do those things.
Take what resonates with you, disregard the rest.
There's no one path.
If you've been here before, thanks for coming back!
Phil? Phil Connors?
I remember reading an interview with Steve Jobs where he said, “Creativity is just connecting things.” When people ask where I get my ideas that's the first answer that comes to mind.
I'm just connecting things.
In 2016, I tried Google Cardboard and it was so much fun that it got me thinking about what it will be like when we can design and build the fully immersive worlds of our dreams. Taking it a step further, I thought about the potential for recreating loved ones we’d lost by mining their data, their pictures, videos, posts, likes, voicemails, all that stuff. That seemed like a huge problem because a lot of people won't want to come back from that.
I started thinking about a virtual reality company that built a program so effective that users were getting stuck, leaving their bodies in danger in the real world. The question was, “Who do you get to solve that problem?”
I had recently read a book written by a former hostage negotiator, all about how they’re trained to make empathetic connections with people in high stakes situations.
Like a magic trick, a connection revealed itself - a hostage negotiator takes a job rescuing people from a VR program. I had an idea for a TV show called REVERIE that premiered on NBC two years later.
I’ve consciously and subconsciously ordered my life around this principle of creative connection. I take in a lot of new information, seek out new experiences, read, listen, watch, explore, indulge my curiosity, try new foods, talk to strangers, and at some point I start to discover connections between ideas that otherwise appear to be unconnected.
I loved writing in coffee shops and restaurants because I prefer to be out in the world, surrounded by people, soaking up sights and sounds. Because I’m a creature of habit and return to many of the same places over and over again, I changed up my route to get there or back home, just so I was taking in new information on the way.
If I got stuck on a story, I'd take a drive or wander around some new neighborhood to change my POV, or go digging through the racks of bookstores and libraries to see what other writers were doing.
Then the world went into quarantine and all of that stopped on a dime.
When I found out we were going to be stuck at home for a few weeks my first thought was, “I can tackle that new project I’ve been putting off.”
The problem was that I didn’t feel creative.
AT ALL.
I was totally stuck and I could tell that a lot of other people were having the same problem.
Part of it was simply that the world was metaphorically (and quite literally out here in California) on fire. We were worried for our safety and the safety of our loved ones, we were worried about money, we were outraged by injustice and inaction. We grieved losses big and small. We were living through historic events with stress and anxiety levels to match.
A lot of people felt like sitting down to write their magnum opus was kind of pointless, or if they had the desire to do it, found themselves totally uninspired. Whatever the cause, the end result was inertia and I felt it too.
I started going out to the garage office for a set period of time every day and forcing myself to sit at my desk, thinking that at some point my brain would settle down and I’d be inspired or motivated to dig into a new idea. Or maybe the world would go back to normal and I’d be back in a writers room or pitching something that was already on the docket.
But the world didn’t go back to normal and I didn’t get unstuck and then one day I figured out why.
In so many of my Zoom catch-ups and phone conversations I said some version of, “We’re fine, we're just going through GROUNDHOG’S DAY.”
Like Phil Connors, Julie and I were waking up and doing the same thing over and over and over again.
Walk the dog. Get coffee. Go to the store. Make breakfast. Work in the office. Walk the dog. Make/pick up dinner. Night walk. Surf the internet or watch a show. Go to bed.
Repeat.
And repeat.
And repeat.
If it's true that "creativity is just connecting things," I had been cut off from ALL THE THINGS.
Of course I was uninspired!
I stopped flooding my senses with new stimuli and instead I was going to the same ten places because I knew they were safe and we had a system.
I don’t just love writing in restaurants, I enjoy eating in them too. For years I've been working my way through Jonathan Gold’s list of the best restaurants in LA. But we stopped going anywhere outside of our Burbank/Glendale/Pasadena zone because aside from donuts, nothing tastes good after a half-hour drive in a cardboard box.
I stopped going for coffee with friends or colleagues, exchanging stories and ideas in person. No in-person generals meant no trips to some random stretch of Pico and people watching at a Starbucks in Ralph's because I played it safe with traffic and I'm forty-five minutes early.
It wasn’t just that I was missing the content of the information I was taking in, it was the chemical effect that process had on my brain. Our brains crave novelty. New activity produces dopamine which helps supercharge the ability of our neurons to transmit information. I wasn’t just reducing the amount of “data” from which I could draw those connections, I was also making my brain less efficient at communicating that information.
What was ironic about using the term GROUNDHOG’S DAY is that I had totally forgotten the rest of the movie.
When Phil Connors finally realizes what’s happening he STARTS TRYING DIFFERENT THINGS in order to change the outcome.
Once I came to that realization I started making changes in as many ways I could, given the circumstances of the lockdown.
Julie and I picked different random neighborhoods to walk in every day. I picked new recipes to learn and new places to pick up takeout from. Every other week we would take a day trip to some place we’d never been. For instance, we went out to Vasquez Rocks and stopped at every historical marker on the way, which is how we learned about The Oak of the Golden Dream, stumbled onto a small herd of bison, and walked the Western Walk of Fame out in Newhall. (All safe and fun.)
Gradually I started feeling like myself again, just in time to start working on a pitch with a writer from Minnesota named Wenonah Wilms. Having a co-writer introduced even more novelty into my creative life. We have different but complimentary sensibilities and points-of-view, so jumping into those weeks of working on the pitch were a lot easier than crafting one by myself.
I’ve hit that same wave of inertia a few times since but it wasn’t anything like that first couple of months. I've been in a steady, sustainable groove but deep down I've been waiting for things to go back to something close to normal.
Now we’re all starting to venture out into the world again like cave trolls squinting into the sun, fumbling toward awkward and intensely emotional hugs with the friends and loved ones we’ve missed. No doubt there will be long term effects for all of us to deal with mentally and emotionally, but I'm hopeful we'll recover our creative drive.
If you hit the wall creatively over the past year, OF COURSE YOU DID!
There are any number of hidden reasons why in addition to all the of obvious ones. But if you're reading this it means you're alive. Whatever you did to get here, it worked. You survived a year of a global pandemic.
The good news is that our brains have the ability to build new neural pathways. Scientists used to think it only happened when we're younger but now we know that process keeps going into old age. Making art is one of the key activities for improving our neuroplasticity so if you can get that ball rolling again you'll be well on the road to recovery.
If you need a jump start, trying flooding your system with new. New routes, recipes, hobbies, music, weird subcultures, creative partners, art you're taking in, books or articles on historical events or figures you've always wondered about.
A neuroscientist once told me that the brain was the only true time machine. It can remember the past, be in the present, and imagine the future.
Your time machine may just need fuel.
Feed it new.
New things = new opportunities for connection.
And by the way, if you were super productive over the past year that is GREAT. I hope it kept you healthy and happy during a really tough time!
(*Toward the end of summer I had an idea to turn a corner of the garage into a pizza restaurant that would double as my writing desk. I'm writing this to you now from Pies & Pins, fifteen yards from my bed. Most days I can delude myself into thinking I'm out there in the world but I'm so excited to get back to the real thing, if only for the change of pace.)
Backwards and Forwards
Sometimes I joke that I created an unofficial minor in writing while I was going to school for musical theater. Many of the tools I use today are things I learned in acting classes. Other things I picked up via proximity to the acting and directing majors.
I noticed they were all reading a book called Backwards & Forwards by David Ball as part of their Script Analysis class. I picked it up out of curiosity and it has been in my bookcase or on my desk ever since.
In short, it's a technical manual for reading plays that gives you a deeper understanding of dramatic action. If you've never read it, I highly recommend picking it up but I want to pass along one tool I use all the time, which is looking at the events of my story in REVERSE ORDER.
From the book: "Going forwards allows unpredictable possibility. Going backwards exposes that which is required."
Starting at the end of your story, take a look at every event and see if you can identify the link to the previous action that triggered it. This will help you understand why everything happens.
Think about the end of RESERVOIR DOGS. The last thing that happens, presumably, is that the police shoot Mr. White. Why?
Backing up one action, just as they're coming through the door, Mr. White shoots Mr. Orange.
Why did Mr. White shoot Mr. Orange? What is the link?
Mr. Orange confessed to being an undercover cop.
Why did Mr. Orange confess to being an undercover cop?
Mr. White stood up for Mr. Orange in the standoff and got shot for it.
Each of these events was triggered by an event that came before. One domino falling into another. Ideally you'd trace these actions all the way back to the event that triggered the conflict at the beginning of your story.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone talk about their "But & therefore" rule, which is that every scene should have a sense of cause and effect. If you're going along with a run of beats or scenes where in between you say, "and then this happened," your story is going to lack propulsion. You won't create any anticipation in the audience for what is going to happen next.
If between each scene you can put "but" or "therefore," meaning the action of that scene is directly triggered by the events of the scene before it, you're on the right track.
I still run into this problem. I go off-course thinking it's cool or interesting to follow a character around, but I always end up unsatisfied with that run of scenes. At some point I stopped leaning forward as an audience member because there was no conflict or question raised that triggered a desire for an answer in the next scene. There's no dramatic tension.
Starting backwards and working my way to the beginning helps me figure out what I'm missing.
EXTANT on UK's The Horror Channel this week!
I was excited to learn that EXTANT is going to be airing this week on The Horror Channel in the UK. I got to revisit the "making of" for a couple of interviews with some very nice folks on the far side of the ocean.
Horror Feature: Interview with Mickey Fisher, creator of sci-fi series Extant Broadcasting on Sky channel 317, Virgin 149, Freeview 68 and Freesat 138, Horror is the UK's original channel dedicated to the dark side of cinema and television. With an eclectic mix of ground-breaking and genre-defining content including niche, cult and box office movies along with fantasy, sci-fi and supernatural series, you'll be entertained and terrified.
Mickey Fisher | EXTANT - STARBURST Magazine — www.starburstmagazine.com The hit sci-fi thriller series Extant is heading to Horror Channel, so we caught up with Mickey Fisher, the writer of the show to find out about the story, having his first show made by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Studios and the writers’ room… STARBURST: Could you tell us what the premise of Extant is? Mickey … Continued
Yoda Session
The words and work of people who inspired me this week.
Prince Gently Weeping from Rock Hall 2004: NEW DIRECTOR'S CUT! — www.youtube.com 17 years after this stunning performance by Prince, I finally had the chance to go in and re-edit it slightly - since there were several shots that were both...
John Swartzwelder, Sage of “The Simpsons” | The New Yorker — www.newyorker.com The first major interview with one of the most revered comedy writers of all time.
Billie Eilish - Your Power (Official Music Video) — www.youtube.com Listen to “Your Power”, out now: https://BillieEilish.lnk.to/YourPowerPre-order the new album “Happier Than Ever”, out July 30: https://BillieEilish.lnk.to/...
Marvel Studios Celebrates The Movies — www.youtube.com The world may change and evolve, but the one thing that will never change: we’re all part of one big family.► Watch Marvel on Disney+: https://bit.ly/2XyBSIW...
I will cry every single time I hear that audience reaction to "On your left..."