Stoicism and the Creative Life
Observations on the relationship and influence of Stoic philosophy and artistic pursuits.
I think inevitably every person who creates arts for a living - painter, writer, actor, dancer, etc. - compares themself to other creatives. It’s a part of maturing as an artist, I guess. Everyone knows it’s not healthy to compare your successes to that of another’s, but we do it anyway - and if someone say’s they’re not; they’re lying. In contemporary society, comparing oneself to others is just a part of the human experience.
I caught myself today scrolling through Twitter and seeing a few people who I follow sign with a new manager, another has a series sold, and a new follower of mine has a book being released. I don’t know these people at all - probably couldn’t pick them out of line-up if they were in front of me. BUT, when I read their Tweets a wee bit of jealousy crept in. For some reason I look at my notes for a pilot I’m working on and the thought “Is this even a good idea?” popped into my head.
I unfairly compared myself to someone else that I don’t even really know.
In his book “Meditations,” Marcus Aurelius talks about the irony of comparing oneself to others - even going so far as to caring about what other people think of you. He writes:
“It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinions than our own.”
Know that happiness is a matter of controlling your reactions to the world around you, and this practice is essential to making a living as an artist. In some ways it feels like a bit of betrayal against the stuff that makes you an artist - the deep need to express something inside. Those feeling are reactions to SOMETHING. But happiness in life comes from controlling the urges to compare and to worry about what other people think/say about you.
An artist without a critic is a person creating mediocre art. The only way forward as an artist is to believe in what YOU’RE doing and ignore what others are saying about you, your work, and how your work measures up to there’s. (Yes, I concede that getting feedback and notes is a caveat to this sentiment, but I’m speaking in generalities here.)
If you want to be the artist you want to be, then you’ve got to go and do the things other people won’t and ignore what other people say about your actions. Be you.
Today’s Accomplishments
I spent about 2 hours working on the final moments and resolution to my pilot. I attacked my ending with everything I got. I’m not completely sold on where my story is at the moment, but I’m coming up with a ton of material and perspectives that I wouldn’t have thought if I just went to outline. For me, I think starting a pilot by writing a story document is crucial. The story document gives you the major flow of your story and anchors how characters will make choices within that flow.
Wrote this blog post - currently midnight Monday going into Tuesday.
Tomorrow’s Tasks
Examine my pilot story from the point of view of my secondary/supporting/co-star roles to see what tweaks can be made. It will also help me generate ideas for the B and/or C story.
Continue researching managers for DADLY query campaign. My goal is to have about 10 “best fit” managers to identified by the end of the week.
Write some shitty pages of my novella adaptation of THE NOISE WITHIN
Today’s Story Worthy Moment
And now I leave you with what I believe is a story worthy moment from today.
Having two boys under the age of eight is exhausting because my boys are high energy, motors going from the moment they get up to the moment they fall asleep.
But there’s always moments throughout the week when their sweetness and sincerity shines through the crazy behavior. And those moments usually happen when I’m laying in bed with them at night.
Before bed we watched Flip or Flop on HGTV and my oldest son got really interested in how the hosts were tearing down a house and fixing it up to look like new.
Now, my wife and I have been talking for a long time about wanting to buy a home. Living in an apartment is just…well….you’re always living in someone else’s shit. Plus there’s no place for them to play. And some of our conversations have revolved around buying a fixer. With the prices of real estate skyrocketing, I honestly have the feeling that we’ll never, ever be able to purchase a home. A realization that I have a hard time swallowing.
Tonight, as I was laying with my oldest in bed laid his upper body across my back and got real comfortable. He then leaned over and told me that everything was going to be okay because we could just buy and old home and make it look new, like they did on TV.
It might not seem like a lot, but sometimes kids just have a way of looking at the world through rose-colored eyes that just melts the stress away.
