So how does something so gross have an effect in my writing? It woke me up.

For the past few months, I’ve been juggling different things left, right and center. I’ve neglected some projects that I was really excited about (keeping up this blog for example). I procrastinated. I put things off. I got caught up on the little things – things that weren’t really necessary or important right now – and this made it harder for me to accomplish the small goals I had set for myself a while back. The worst part is knowing that I could’ve checked off those goals on my list if I had just kept working on them. But instead, I’m still somewhat standing on the same spot from where I started.

Long story short: I saw the man a couple of metres ahead of me squatting near a huge pillar, automatically thought the worst (he’s doing #2! Must. Get. Out.) and walked quickly away from the area as fast as I could. When I got to the office, my story definitely got the poop jokes started for the rest of the day. And because everyone got a kick out of this story (friends on Facebook expressed their amusement on my wall) I started thinking: how many ways can I use this for a script? What story ideas can this do for me? And that’s when my mind woke up and started doing the brainstorm dance (ideas just kept rolling in my head). The original ideas led to a whole new group of action steps I haven’t thought of before. Not only was I coming up with several premises, but I was actually getting my motivation back! I suddenly want to get back on the projects I’ve put aside and I came up with other creative projects I’d be interested in pursuing. I even got ideas on some changes I could make on my current projects.

With all of this commotion in my head, I need to write them down. So why not blog about it? I have to admit that I’ve been a bad blogger – I don’t have a consistent schedule to post my writing online, so I just end up not writing much at all. But I might be able to solve this.

For the past few months, I’ve been writing my Morning Pages (from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way) and I’ve surprisingly kept it up since I started since June 20th. Every morning, I write 3 pages. The content isn’t what matters, it’s the process. And I can successfully say that Morning Pages is now part of my daily routine and it’s a habit that I just…do. So, if I can do this everyday, I should be able to write  on a scheduled basis for this blog, too, right?

The Action Plan

I need to get back to the main reason I created this blog: to be a storyteller – offline and online. So besides the web series I’m currently working on with my talented friends, I’ve decided to start something on this blog I’ll be calling Everyday Stories. Inspired by what I witnessed earlier today, I’ll be writing posts where I take something from everyday life (it could be mine or someone else’s) and I’ll list the story ideas I come up with for it. Maybe I’ll even write a scene and post this script online. Maybe I’ll encourage people to take these scripts and put it on film. Maybe I can get a collaborative storytelling community started. Or not. Who knows what will come out of this, but I’ll try it out anyways.

Oh, and I definitely want to write additional posts on my experience of producing a web series DIY-style. I did start this back in April and a lot has happened since then (re-shoots, re-writes, and lessons learned). It started with us (4 actors/writers) who wanted to create a web series and, now that a few months have passed by, we’ve learned so much about the other things, like production and editing (and we still continue to learn something new).

Inspiration is Everywhere

Yes, I was disgusted with what I saw this morning. But now that I think about it, that event actually snapped me out of this rut that I’ve been in. And you know how people usually have a story or two to tell everyone? Well this could be mine, I guess. It’s bizarre, yet amusing. And everyone loves to hear stories – it’s what connects us all to one another.

Joan Didot got it right: “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.“

(Thanks to Jill Gollick for the find!)