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…Worship the Dreamweaver…

April 11, 2011 0 Comments

Don’t fall in love with your dream or fantasize about artistic success, riches, power or prestige.

Most dream chasers are naturally drawn towards the spotlight, but when we crave it, when we worship the idea of it… something terrible happens. We lose the purity in our art and the soul goes out of our music.

The moment we choose/make “our art” all about ourselves, we taint the purity of our creation with our own self-indulgence and we lose the trust of our audience.

The strong tendency to self-absorption and self promotion affects every artist, it doesn’t matter who we are, or what we have achieved; we have to work hard to fight against it.

The problem begins when we aspire and obsess about our dream, focusing on what it could do for us, rather than what it may lend to our audience. At the heart of the problem we have fallen in love with the dream… and have forgotten to worship the Dreamweaver.

The $2 Chimpanzee

April 9, 2011 5 Comments

When we were less enlightened we used to train Chimpanzee’s to dress up as people and entertain us by putting on tea parties.

While this was highly entertaining for some us, it was not much fun for the Chimpanzee. Year after year of performing, day after day of being forced to dress somebody else’s clothes, performing one cheap trick after another something happened to the Chimpanzee’s… they all went MAD.

One chimp exploded into a violent uncontrollable bout of rage, she turned over all the dinner tables, she broke all the china and she attacked her trainer leaving him close to death on life support. Other Chimps simply fell into deep bouts of depression, some developed early onset dementia. Suddenly all the people felt a little bad for paying $2 to watch Marge and George nibble on biscuits and drink Earl Gray tea and the tea parties were over…

A Chimpanzee is meant to be a Chimpanzee, AND a person is meant to live inside their own skin, not forced to play a different role for a mere $2.

I don’t feel like writing a blog today…

April 4, 2011 0 Comments

I don’t feel like writing a blog today, and so I blog about not wanting to write instead… You can only write or really create from a place of raw vulnerability and intense honesty. You have to start with what you know and what you feel; or conversely what you don’t know or don’t feel. Unless you start creating or moving from the space where you currently exist, you will be phoning it all in; writing another persons words, living a role, thinking way too much about other people’s expectations.

It’s the way you walk with that ugly limp that makes your gait stand out from the crowd. Don’t try to walk normally or it will hurt more, your limp is your least painful method of motion, you don’t need to be ashamed of it.

Seven Creative Promises for Your Soul

April 2, 2011 6 Comments

Seven Creative Promises to help the creative soul continue to explore…

I promise to always remain curious
I promise to search the dark shadows with truth
I promise to never hide my inadequacies in the dark shadows
I promise to never become a slave to another mans crave
I promise to never lift myself above another and consider them inferior
I promise to never bullshit with pride
I choose to believe that I was created… creative

© 2011 copyright Seven Sentences – Creative Blog

The Story Secret…

April 1, 2011 0 Comments

The very best writers, film-makers and actors understand this story secret… everyone is important, there is no such thing as a secondary character or an background extra. Such attention to detail is what will make any story or any role you are involved in GREAT.

The premise behind this secret is the simple understanding that people are stories and “not plot” or “situations.” It so happens that in a film or a novel we CHOOSE to place our frame of focus over a particular person, character or group of people for a CHOSEN period of time. But stories have been told since the beginning of time, stories are happening all the time, and stories will be told until the end of time. The creator is simply choosing where to place his or her magnifying glass.

When I saturate myself in this truth… I never have a problem with writers block.

Bullshit… you don’t know me well enough yet…

March 31, 2011 1 Comment

Last night I had a writing session with the incredibly talented Joel Sappington; together we’re developing a very unique, high concept television show. We have an overall concept, but at present we’re spending a lot of time on the front end; digging down deep, really getting to know our characters; this before we even develop a storyline, before we write a single word on the page.

If you don’t really know your characters first, then you are in big trouble, you’re in the poo because you are manipulating them to fit your plot lines; you have taken “choice” out of their hands and they have become puppets. Characters much like people are way more endearing when they are free to make their own choices… a free character is surprising, entertaining, dramatic and unpredictable.

The process of knowing your character is a never-ending love affair, as with people, there is always more to know, more to learn, more to uncover, more to love. You have to spend a lot of time with a character to really get to know him or her on an intrinsically personal level, you have to be vulnerable with them, you have to share yourself and the whole spectrum of your life’s experiences; you have to ask them difficult questions…

There are so many layers, so many secrets and dreams hidden in the dark private places of every soul, don’t get bored, don’t make assumptions, take your character out for coffee and spend a little time on the getting to know process.

P:S: Click here for a list of questions you can ask your Characters.

Getting rid of voices…

March 30, 2011 2 Comments

I find that I hear other people’s voices way too much when I write, act or create in any way. The process of simplification, and artistic authenticity is requires that we strip away the opinions of others and really create out of our single-minded unadulterated uniqueness.

The other voices I hear can simply be a film I’ve watched or an actor I enjoy; at its worst it is a voice of a critic; the voice of that fearful soul who sits on the ass in the stadium willing you to fail. The trouble with most artists, is that we are sensitive and vulnerable, prone to discouragement and an easy target for those who choose to impose.

Be resolute in the search for your voice…

Collaboration is not at war with this principle. Healthy collaboration does not dis-empower the unique voice that you have, it is amplified when you join forces with another singularly unique voice and speak.