I’m half awake. My whole face feels like it’s sagging. I’ve gotten plenty of sleep, more than enough really. So I’m tired because I’m unfocused. Because trying to keep everything inside my head is tiring. Lazy people should stay focused all the time, otherwise they risk over working themselves with worry and doubt. And these things have no real desire to be worked, they are fine without us.

I find myself at the mall. On my laptop plugged into a public outlet. Which is really a wonderful thing when you think about it. Free electricity. It’s like a drinking fountain for my electronic devices. What happened to drinking fountains?

The mall is just waking up. People walk in a daze, the heaters strain themselves to bring the temperature up. Signs of awakeness are here. The man next to me is involved with a short tempered work conversation. “Tell him it the latest technology. Call him. RIGHT now, before anyone else gets a chance.” I can’t tell if this is genuine intensity or if he’s faking it.  A security guard looks down from the balcony. The pace of his gaze just a little too controlled, his body language a little too alert. You can tell there is purpose here.

This is what being awake is all about. A specific focused goal. Without that we’re just a big amorphous blob of ingredients. Like an explosion without a spark. Just chemicals floating around in the air. They go where ever the wind takes them. They separate. The big chance leaves the room.

I’ve been thinking about these themes lately, how great it is to be inspired, focused, passionate. But anyone can excel when they’re passionate. Everyone does. The question is, when inspiration passes, how do you act?

There is no such thing as fishing.

A fisherman does not catch fish. He has no control of fish – he has nothing to do with them.
He merely casts his line and waits. The fish do the rest.

Living is the same. You have no control of life – it has nothing to do with you.
As such, you can not get better at living.

You can only master the art of casting your line and waiting.

1. The real key to creation is not planning but passion. It really doesn’t matter how carefully planned your idea is. Get it out before the passion evaporates or it dies inside you.
2. With planning, your art will only communicate what you choose.. but with an uncontrolled work, you communicate something you don’t know. And as a neurotic being, that is the only way to speak the truth.
3. Creation is a journey into the unknown. You don’t know what’s going to happen.. and then, it happens.

Moments ago, I was walking down the street and saw a cute girl standing in my path, staring at me, smiling warmly. As I approached I noticed she was holding her hand out to me. I smiled with curiosity. Looking at her hand and she held a leaf between her fingers. I decided to play long. I gave her a look, and she returned the look with the slightest nod. I picked the leaf from between her fingers, looked at her a moment. “Thank you.” I replied, The first words of the interaction. “You’re welcome.” She replied.  We parted ways, and I walked off, but not before giving a nervous laugh to break the tension.

A nervous laugh is a way to escape from social tension. To bring humor back to the situation, to allay seriousness, and create a comfortable mood. Whenever a situation contains an incongruity between whats going on in our heads and what’s happening in reality, tension is created. 2 things can happen at that point:

1. You can shatter the tension by attempting to correct the lack of congruity or
2. you can pull on the tension, stretching it, using it to heighten emotions, and create excitement. Read more

I’m reading Story by Robert Mckee, and I think he’s confused the creation process with the deconstruction process.  Just because you’re good at demolition doesn’t mean you can build something.

But maybe the most valuable learning involves creating the theory as you go along.  So I’m scrapping the dogma and creating my own theories on story creation.  Here’s 3 concepts that feel right to me.  Feel free to try it on, but I’m of the opinion you’ve got to make it your own before it fits.

1. The only way to bring a unique emotion into reality is to have someone experience it themselves.  This is done by taking facts and stringing them together to create emotional moments, and then stringing those together until you achieve the right amount to create the one unique emotional moment you’re looking for.  If your story doesn’t have at least one unique, emotional moment, it’s probably just a series of facts (Murder, Shouting, Crying, Shock) and ultimately, not worth telling.
2. It takes more time to create a good short story than a long story. Therefore don’t seek to create a short focused piece during the learning process.  Create long stories that combine too many ideas, and then eliminate, bit by bit.
3. To generate internal conflict, take a character with 2 core characteristics and put them in a situation where they must sacrifice one for the other.  For example, “the desire for revenge” vs. “safety of a loved one”, or ambition vs. ethics.  All decisions are about sacrificing one thing for another, but the really tough ones are those which involve two things we don’t want to part with.