Writing

I have just wrapped up a bunch of changes in my writing. The most visible parts are how I’m presenting my work and how I’m attempting to find a community within that process. Those changes hinge around two fundamental beliefs. The first is that art and culture should be freely available. The second, that an artist should be able make a living from their art. Arts and culture are the dominant social education. Art has broad exposure, appeal, and capacity. As a consequence, it is the best means we have to build, comment on, and critique culture. It is the storytelling that builds society. It tells us who we are today, who we were in the past, and where we are heading in the future. Art constrained behind financial barriers may still contribute to culture and society, but does so in an inherently asymmetric manner. It transforms art into a luxury and not a public good. ...

As a musician, a filmmaker, a screenwriter, and as an author, I talk to people who share the same interests and drive to create. There is always a lot of enthusiasm about creating, but often less enthusiasm about what they’ve created. I often get some variation of, “I don’t really know if my writing is any good,” or the assertive, “My writing’s not very good.” There are two common reasons I hear this. ...

When I decided that I wanted to approach writing again I had some problems I needed to solve. The first was that I didn’t want to write for film anymore. I knew that I wasn’t going to chase filmmaking or try to get scripts optioned. I was never terribly big on selling my scripts and filmmaking simply isn’t a discipline that I love enough to fight through the scrappy years to get to the good to ones. ...