Well, here I am: post one on this creative stuff. I was reading through the stacks of poetry I have accumulated over the past 3 years, or maybe even 4. It was in a very difficult time in my life where I was getting pushed against the wall, on every side, one of those really big walls. I just started writing my reflection on receipt tape at Ralph’s grocery store in Orange County. I never knew those reflections would lead me down the path of writing so much in my abstract prose of poetry, but  I have and its been worth it. What I have come to learn: my story needs to be told. My story needs to be told, not because I am super smart and so awesome or because of my dissidence and clout that I have something to say. But my story needs to be told because my view and paradigm of this world matters to those listening.

It has been very true of Robert Mckeee opening his book with his statement of provocation. He says that storytelling comes out of personal experience but the challenge is: what makes your storytelling, or your experience worth being heard? Recently, I have been reading some memoirs about mentally challenged people. Med Head has been really interesting so far but if you just think of it, all it is us Cory Fieldman’s story. Its told by James Patterson and Cory’s dad, but its his story. His pain and his journey of in and out of hospitals and his despair in the process.

Storytelling begins with a deep confrontation of yourself. Stories fictionally, who knows where they are from but they are from a deep place of importance. As I mentioned a few days back about The Descendents. This was a perfect story about very real life experience and a very deep sincere place of reflection.

What stories need is human nature. Human nature is so jacked and messed up sometimes. Life is hard. People do evil to others all the time. Injustice exists all the time, and most of the time inconvienently and in the midst of injustice. Pain and turmoil builds itself up in our lives and our sense of entitlement and self-worth gets tested all the time. The goal is to take this pain and this suffering that we face or we see(its not always me verse the world or the system) and take that reflection and create characters and stories that matter.

A story that matters is a story that means something to you. But the trick with creativity is to sell it so that everyone can enter in. Here’s some examples of pain: The Descendents reflection deeply upon marriage and covenant. Both with kids and with spouses. It tested that place in us of what would you do if you lost someone. How would you communicate that to the world?

In The Savages we have two people who are talented and into being creative people. They are brother and sister. They are both working on doctorates in theatre and arts but they also feel responsible for their dad. The movie is really simple but deep. How do you love someone that was bad at loving you? “Maybe he forgot who we were..he doesn’t have pictures of us at his house..” These lines capture that longing and desire in all us to be loved by our parents and what would I do if my dad forsook me, would I still love him back? And that’s the journey you go on as you see it unfold in front of you.

In Into The Wild Sean Penn tells the story of the kid that ditches society and runs away into the Alaskan wild. He sells his car and tells no one what he is doing. Its his own confrontation of himself that unfolds. For whatever reason he was too selfish to tell his parents and he ends up dying in the end. Its sad but its sort of funny and ironic. You want to escape yourself so you run away and escape but die in the process because you are kind of dumb. That might sound harsh and I am not making fun of death but it leaves you with no hope but riddled with justice; well, he sort of, got what he deserved.

When watching Good Will Hunting(the tv version) I can’t help but get inside of Matt Damon’s character, will himself. They do so much confrontation in this film, its really awesome. Will has the brain but deep down he has been abused and doesn’t believe in himself. He can’t escape his gift, which is why he is a janitor at MIT but he also doesn’t want to fully accept his gift either. He has to face himself. Which is very real, cause we all do. As he faces himself he realizes that he can let go of the pain and move on. It takes the whole 2 hours for him to tell his lady, Minnie Driver’s character, that he loves her. Its a very natural process of overcoming one’s self. And to make the story better we also learn much about the education system in it of itself. “You paid 40,000 a year when you could have paid 1.50 in late fees at the library!” Followed by the “how do you like them apples!”

These are just a few, maybe more intense examples of storytelling. A story that matters is first crafted from a place of meaning.

So, what’s next. The formula is only a part of the equation. The formula is finding what is true and real to you. The process now is making that happen and working on the story. Making sense to the audience only comes from first knowing, in one sentence(or a phrase) what is it that you want to proove? What is this about?

In most writing its called the thesis. In script writing its called: controlling idea. They are pretty much the same but knowing what you want to show: two people in love, death taking place or a war story. You need to figure that out before the story moves anywhere.

This post is for just getting started. Begin with what has effected you and impacted you the most. Now, I will say, personal experience is not a requirement. You don’t have to base anything on what you have only experienced. Its just a creative suggestion that I am making and other’s make too. Its a good place to start. I use personal examples all the time: I talk about Orange County caused I lived there for a year and a half. I talk about the grocery store cause I’ve worked there a lot. I talk about past relationships with girls and friends. I talk about my family, the good and the bad. I talk about my mom being a flight attendant and the joy and the pain of what that brought as a kid and as a family. Now, I don’t have to use these things but it helps lead to other ideas.

When I think of my beach days I think of the rich and the OC and how people respond to you, its different then it is here. When I start to think of past relationships it leads to be to think about love and caring for others, it all goes outside what I’ve experienced.

Hope this is a good start to developing a good story that is rich in what is real and powerful to you. The world is in need of stories that matter and stories that will last forever.