“You have to be reckless when writing…”

Oftentimes we are at our best creatively when we let go and cut loose.

I’m not particularly a fan of listicles, but I am fan of writing quotes. So when some folks at the smart phone app li.st approached me about c0ntributing to their online community, I decided to give it a whirl. Here are my first three li.st posts:

10 Things About Screenwriting: Vol. 1

10 Things About Screenwriting: Vol. 2

10 Screenwriters on Screenwriting: Vol. 1

The first two are my own observations, aphorisms I use in teaching to drive home specific points about the craft. The third one is a collection of quotes from professional screenwriters.

When I posted that one yesterday, some folks commented on the final quote:

“My best writing has been on the scripts I wrote as suicide notes to the industry — sort of, ‘Fuck you, guys, I’m outta here.’”

— Marc Norman

Norman’s observation reminded me of two things. First, my own experience as a stand-up comic. From the end of 1978 through 1984, I made a living as a singer-songwriter and performer, averaging over 200 gigs a year. Then for reasons which still remain something of a mystery to me, I switched to doing comedy, my act a bizarre combination of various stage personae, comic bits, and funny — I thought — songs, such as a country tune I penned entitled “How Can I Get Over Her When She’s Still Under Him”.

You know, high-brow stuff.

By the time 1986 rolled around, I had discovered screenwriting and was on my path to writing the spec script K-9, so my creative energy was flowing 99% that way. But I still had to make a living, so night after night I had to suck up the 1% of my remaining creativity, clamor on stage, and do my act.

I should note for the record, it was a two-hour set. No breaks, 120 minutes straight to keep the audience in their seats and buying drinks. Confronting the reality of slogging through a two hour set every night for two or three weeks at a time combined with my interest very much lying elsewhere (screenwriting) resulted in me adopting this attitude when I hit the stage:

I just didn’t give a shit.

I didn’t give a shit about being careful. I didn’t give a shit about sucking up to club managers. I didn’t give a shit about playing to the back of the room.

I found myself in a psychological space similar to what Marc Norman wrote: It was as if I was saying a big ‘fuck you and goodbye’ to stand-up comedy

Know what? I never did better on stage than when I was in that space. I took chances, improvised, did crazy stuff. More often than not, I got big laughs.

It was like the less attachment I had to becoming a successful comedian and the greater willingness I had to takes risks, the better I was as a performer.

Which brings me to the second thing I was reminded of per Marc Norman’s quote, this from Joseph Campbell:

Reckless. That’s a great touchstone word for when we sit down to write. When we decide what to write. When we figure out the tone of our narrative voice. Be reckless. Willing to take risks. Push ourselves creatively.

Don’t worry about what they will say or they will think. If you’ve got a killer story idea, even if it seems like a long shot to sell, if you are passionate about it, if you can SEE it as a movie or a TV series…

Write it! Take Norman’s attitude: “Fuck you guys.” Write it for yourself. Write it to give expression to your Wild Side.

I can’t tell you how many writers I’ve interviewed, talk with, read about, or listened to who have said something along the lines, “I knew there was no way anyone would buy it, I didn’t care, I just wanted like hell to write it.”

For example, I’ve moderated two Austin Film Festival panels with Jim Uhls who adapted Fight Club and he flat-out said he went into the project knowing no one would make that movie. He just went for it and wrote one wondrously bizarre story which, in fact, DID get produced.

When I interviewed Isaac Adamson and we discussed how he wrote a screenplay about Michael Jackson from the perspective of Jackson’s pet chimpanzee Bubbles, did he have any idea the script would end up topping the 2015 Black List? Of course not. He just wrote the script because he embraced it as a fascinating, if crazy story to tell.

I know that right now, someone is reading this post and they are torn about a particular writing project. It’s nutty. Flies against convention. Got no chance. It breaks all the supposed screenwriting rules. In fact, there’s a voice inside your head saying: “I can’t write this, it makes no sense.”

Two words: Be. Reckless.

If that story gets your creative juices pumping, if it’s a story you would regret NOT writing, you HAVE to take the risk and write it.

You have to be reckless with your writing. Be as crazy as your conscience will allow.

Sometimes this is precisely how we need to think… and put our creative recklessness into action.

How about you? Have you written something with reckless abandon? What was that experience like? Did it improve your writing? Is there a project you really want to write, but it just seems to crazy to take on? Head to comments and let’s talk about it.

Onward!