Departures
I make it a point now to watch movies that A) I know are going to be good, and B) I know nothing about. All I was getting from the poster of Departures was that it involved a guy playing a cello with a little nature in the background. Plus this pic won an Academy Award for best foreign film. Sounds promising, right?
Simply said, Departures is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. It’s a great film to study if you’re a structuretard like me. The story is almost perfectly balanced from beginning to end, plus the protagonist’s transformation tracks clearly and poignantly.
A mark of a good movie is seeing how a protagonist is able to resolve a conflict at the end of the story that he couldn’t possibly be able to resolve at the beginning. He/she is afraid or broken or lacking in skill/energy/capability to confront the crisis. So there needs to be a fundamental change in his/her inner nature in order to allow him/her to confront and overcome the conflict. Usually a balance of some sort needs to be achieved. This transformation shows that there has been a clear sense of evolution and growth in the character.
Departures takes that idea and executes it brilliantly. The man that we see at the beginning of the story is a very different man in the end. The movie also reveals a lot about Japanese culture and its views on death — and there are many parallels here to how Americans deal with the subject as well. I.E., nobody likes it, but we can choose to deal with it with class and respect.
See it. It’s touching and it unwraps neatly and in an interesting way. Also the main character’s wife is cute and she has a baby voice. This is kind of comforting in its own way.
How to Dress Like a Writer
I had dinner with one of my agents recently and we were talking about the need for people in her position to dress well and present themselves properly. Appearance isn’t everything, but it’s very important. This goes for their surroundings as well — when I’ve been in their office, everything looks like it’s supposed to: Nice bowl of fruit over here, bottled water and Diet Coke all lined up as it should be, red pencils (all sharpened and ready to use) in their place.
So she said something that people have said to me several times before: “You’re a writer, so you can dress however you want.”
This is true. I could arrive to meetings with a pancake on my head and a kilt made out of muppets and people would probably cut me some slack. Sure, they’d talk smack once I left, but eventually they’d let it go because I’m a creative and eccentricity is what makes me go. Whee!
So I could dress weird or I could dress sub-casual. Since I work from home there’s definitely a temptation to dress down and wear pajama pants and a Whitesnake t-shirt all day — hey, I’m not going to see anybody anyway, so why not, right?
But I think for me, both choices are incorrect. I’m pretty conservative fashion-wise, and I think dressing like a layabout is the equivalent of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
This book (which I also highly recommend) has a brief section on what to wear as a writer. Essentially the author says that you shouldn’t wear a suit, since that’s what execs are supposed to wear and doing so confuses them. Likewise you shouldn’t wear shorts to a meeting because you want to project an air of confidence and competence.
Confidence and competence. That sounds good to me.
So this is what I do: Every day I dress like I’m going to work. Nice shirt, sporty shoes, the proper accessories. I get up early, exercise, shower, shave — dress like I’m going to a meeting even if I’m just going to spend the entire day in the library. This is a job where I’m my own boss, and I want all my employees (i.e., myself) looking presentable and like they know what they’re doing.
Plus a basic law of human society, like it or not, is that people like you better when you look good. They want to work with and associate with good looking people. Yes yes, it’s what’s on the inside that counts, but why not present the complete package — look good outside, be good inside? It’s not that hard. Besides, I don’t want to take a single moment for granted — ever.
But every now and then I’ll throw in a little weird detail. Add a little artsy, off-the-cuff touch. A skull ring. My special hipster nerd glasses. Wiener dog underwear. Because I used to think that fashion was a bit of a chore, but now I know that the details can be really fun.
Fashion / Art
Art. Fashion. Two worlds that I don’t understand very well — although I’m trying my best to open my mind to them both.
As far as art goes, I know what I like: Art with boobs. Jeff Koons, for instance. That guy sure loves boobs.
And as far as fashion goes, I’m slowly becoming more fashion-conscious. I check The Sartorialist daily. I think I look fairly cool.
Anyway, I’ve got two pretty fun documentaries on art and fashion that I’d like to share with you:
Herb and Dorothy is about a retired postal worker and his wife, a retired librarian, who over the decades amassed an incredible collection of minimalist and conceptual art utilizing their very limited personal funding. The documentary details how they purchased over four thousand individual pieces of art from early-career artists before they became famous. One particularly interesting segment shows how Christo and Jeanne-Claude, creators of The Gates, traded them a piece of art in exchange for a summer of cat-sitting.
It made me realize that art can be highly accessible for anyone as long as they’re willing to put in the legwork to seek it out. If these folks can stuff a New York apartment full of art that they like, anyone should be able to go out there and find at least one thing that they really dig. It makes me want to start collecting, although I think I too would get carried away.
The September Issue is about Anna Wintour and the September issue of Vogue. I had no idea that this particular issue was so important. But to put it into terms I understand, this issue is the equivalent of an Apple new product announcement, and Anna Wintour is the equivalent of El Jobso.
A LOT of work goes into the September issue. It’s amazing how much money and energy is spent on the incredible photography and design work. It makes me miss doing graphic design — it seems like the very best stuff gets done for fashion magazines and car manufacturers’ websites.
Plus seeing Anna Wintour in action is pretty impressive. The people that made The Devil Wears Prada got her down pretty good — even down to the layout of her office. Did they shoot in there or something?
Motives
I just read Inside Steve’s Brain, a Steve Jobs biography with a focus on his managerial style. There are a lot of great nuggets in this book, but one thing that really struck me was this:
“The older I get, the more I’m convinced that motives make so much difference,” Jobs said. “HP’s primary goal was to make great products. And our primary goal here is to make the world’s best PCs — not to be the biggest or the richest.”
Jobs said Apple has a second goal, which is to make a profit — both to make money but to also keep making products.
“For a time,” Jobs said, “those goals got flipped at Apple, and that subtle change made all the difference. When I got back, we had to make it a product company again.”
I think motives are extremely important. If we’re clear about why we’re doing something, it allows us to focus and define our goals properly. It’s impossible to plan a strategy without knowing what our endgame is.
This is really important in any creative endeavor — if the #1 motive isn’t to make a great product, then there’s going to be a problem.
Now, the motive of “making a profit” as Jobs says, is a perfectly legitimate secondary goal for an artist. The stereotype of the struggling artist making better art is bullshit. An artist that is fed, stable, and able to care for his/her kids — in essence, has achieved well-being according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs — is in a prime position to have the time, energy, and space to create. This is why artists need either patrons, grants, or commercial success in order to create their art.
Walt Disney said it best:
We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.
Just don’t let money become Motive #1, because then there will be problems.
This kid keeps buggin me:
Irrelephant
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant.
Writing Rituals
I was recently asked to write a response to the following: Do you have any writing routines or rituals?
I have a ton of them. I’m not superstitious — I don’t need these things in order to write. Instead, my rituals/routines are designed to augment the job and make it easier. Anyway, I gave a truncated reply (this response was for a newsletter), but I thought I’d give an expanded response here:
- I get up every morning at 7 AM and go for a 6-8 mile run. This gives me time to think about what I’m working on, and I’m more willing to experiment and not second-guess things when my brain is swimming in endorphins. I do my best thinking when I’m running, and it keeps me focused. I also tend to come up with my best ideas during these sessions.
But the best thing that running has taught me is how to always keep moving forward. Often in writing it’s easy to get distracted or to keep turning a problem over and over in your head without pushing for a solution; running helps me keep up my mental momentum. Writing is mostly a solitary activity — the writer’s success can only be determined by his/her attitude and actions, and no one else’s. Every run reminds me of this fact, and it keeps me disciplined.
Also it lets me indulge in one of my favorite hobbies: Looking at cars. I love looking at cars! Lots of great ones around here — I’ve seen everything from Bugattis to a Tesla Roadster to an actual Mini-E.
- I’m very specific about my equipment — my computer, the pens and notebooks I use, etc.. It helps if everything is organized and in order. I always have a pen and a piece of paper on me so I can write down ideas as they appear. I carry a hipster pda and a Fisher space pen at all times so that I can capture ideas anywhere.
I have one simple rule: Capture everything right away. If I get an idea or a thought, I write it down right away. Same goes for if I have to schedule an event — I put it into my calendar immediately. Then I process and file everything important in my computer at the end of the day.
This ensures that I can trust myself to record every good idea I get; it also subconsciously lets my mind know that it should keep coming up with good ideas because none of them will ever be wasted.
- As far as places to write in, all I need is a table, a chair, and a space to get up and pace if need be. A window to look out of is nice too, because sometimes I like to stare outside and look at people going about their business.
It doesn’t need to be quiet — I like to have activity going on around me. Food courts at malls are good places to work. I really like working in airports as well.
- Music is great. It allows me to return to the specific emotional space of a story as I’m working on it. I create a playlist in iTunes for every project I’m working on.
For a project right now I’m listening to Tegan and Sara, the XX, and a lot of Deerhoof. Their music really fits the tone of the story.
Singletasking
FRONTLINE: Digital Nation (watch it online here) takes multitasking to task, revealing studies that show that people who think they are effective at multitasking end up being fairly horrible at it. In fact when you multitask, your ability to memorize, make judgements, and focus are all degraded.
I’m working out ways to singletask and avoid the need to multitask in the first place. This is very difficult since my attention as always being diverted away to emails, iChat, my website, other peoples’ websites, Facebook, etc..
I think one thing that has worked well is to set small goals and reach them in increments, then take short breaks between. For instance, split reading a script into 25-30 page quarters or a book into 50 page sections. Then once I’ve accomplished a fairly large amount of work I force myself to play hard — i.e., reward myself with a fun activity so that my mind knows that it’ll get its Pavlovian fix once the work is accomplished.
This is tricky, but I’m hoping to keep at it until it becomes habitual.
The Wizard of Oz Was Kind of an Asshole: Yeah, I was thinking about this the other day.
He sends a young girl, her small dog, and her three harmless friends after the most powerful, evil force on the planet in what was was essentially a fraternity-style prank. “I want you to bring me the Wicked Witch of the West’s broom.” It would be like me telling someone to go steal Pablo Escobar’s Escalade.
So he gives a twelve year old a suicide mission in the hopes that she would never come back, merely because she was bothering him. Either that or he knew that she would eventually see through his disguise and thus wanted to get rid of her before she exposed him.
So he was willing to have her killed either because he was too busy or too insecure to actually help her.
And when Toto pulls back the curtain and reveals that he’s a bumbling charlatan who blew into town one day and is just as lost as Dorothy is, he immediately gives up the ghost and admits that he has no real powers whatsoever.
In fact, he doesn’t even APOLOGIZE to them. He doesn’t say, “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry that I sent you into the lair of that horrible supernatural being where you were almost murdered.” No. Instead he says, “Oh no, my dear, I’m a very good man; I’m just a very bad Wizard.”
No you’re not. You’re not a good man. You’re a horrible man and even though you were only technically a figment of a girl’s feverish dream, you are the symbolic representation of humanity’s disappointment in the divine.
Boo on you, Wizard.
My Work in Print
Year Zero
Available from Samuel French and Amazon.com
Cowboy Versus Samurai
Available from Samuel French and Amazon.comFor a complete list of books containing my work, please click here.
