So you've stumbled upon this Substack, and I guarantee it's stumbled because despite researching all the ways you can create effective newsletters, blogs, and podcasts I've read about over the past seven years - yes, seven - I haven't been able to put it all together. So, one has to believe I've stumbled on to a whole lot of resistance. That’s a concept magnificently explored in Steven Pressfield’s THE WAR OF ART.
I’ve given up on “launching.” To that end, we're going the Werner Herzog route—just write 80 scenes, and you have a movie.
It's safe to say I don't know HOW I'm doing this. What I do know is WHY. And that distinction will be made clear if you decide to keep up over the oncoming months as we open up the toolbox I’ve amassed for the last thirty-plus years to create Drama.
Ultimately, the posts will break into two parts. The THOUGHT and the EXPLORATION. The paywall will be on the EXPLORATION. That's how you can dig a little deeper with some guidance and keep this going if it's of value to you.
The THOUGHT belongs to everyone, and I hope by presenting options you can then go off and incorporate it into your way of working. The EXPLORATION incorporates the techniques and tools I've discovered over the years that will give you a framework on how to approach a life in Drama.
That being said, the more in-depth stuff will be behind that paywall. But each post will have something to think about, tools for your toolbox, and ways to go about the work. There's going to be a lot of other artists’ techniques in here, and I'll work hard to lead you to their systems. There will be a lot of easter eggs for these folks (if you haven’t picked up on that already). Be sure to look for them. These are the artists that have shaped and inspired the work. These links will always come in the THOUGHT section.
Let's go a little more in-depth with the work of Andrew Simonet.
A lot of people think of artists like athletes.
In sports, you have a tiny sliver of professionals – the ones you see on TV. Professional basketball players are the real basketball players.
Anyone else who plays basketball does it as a hobby. It’s something you do after work.
This is why, after 20 years of working as an artist, my relatives still say things like:
“How’s that little dance thingy coming?” “That must be so fun!”
“Are you getting in good shape?”To them, dance is a hobby, not a profession. It’s not work, it’s something you do after work. Unless, of course, you get on TV.
“When are you gonna dance on that TV show?”
This is completely wrong.
I think of artists like scientists. Just like scientists, we begin with a question, something we don’t know.
We go into our studio and research that question.
Like scientists, at the end of our research, we share the results with the public and with our peers.
Some research is “basic,” useful primarily to other researchers. Some is “applied,” relevant to everyday life.
Both are essential. And most artists do some of both, creating experimental work that pushes the form as well as work that is more broadly relevant.
Just as in science, a negative result is as important as a positive result.
Finding that a certain drug does not cure cancer is a crucial discovery. And an artistic experiment that fails produces important information.
When you are working beyond what is known, when you are questioning assumptions that haven’t been questioned, you generate a lot of useful failure.
Failure in science and art is a sign that the process is working.
Though certain scientists win the Nobel Prize and get famous, all scientists know they are standing on the shoulders of thousands of researchers all over the world who have been asking questions.
And while some artists will get the fancy awards (and maybe even get on TV), we know they are standing on the shoulders of thousands of artists who have been doing artistic research for decades.
In art, as in science, there is an element of faith. Scientists don’t enter the lab saying, “I will cure cancer.” They say, “If I join the thousands of researchers asking rigorous questions about cancer, discoveries and breakthroughs will be made.” In science and in art, you cannot say in advance that this experiment will lead to this result.
But we artists know that if we join the thousands of artists asking rigorous questions, the world will change.
It always has.
The scientific method and the artistic process are the two most robust problem- solving methodologies ever developed. Take either one away, and our world would be unrecognizable.
Look around you: every object, every surface, every technology was created, refined, and designed using the scientific method and the artistic process.
These two methods work on different things. The scientific method works on material questions. The artistic process works on questions of culture, questions of thought.
And today, especially in the “developed world,” many of our toughest problems are questions of thought and culture.
Artists are the only people who contribute new knowledge to the cultural realm. Others can refine, popularize, or synthesize our research, but we discover new cultural information.
That is a sacred responsibility.
We live in a time when we are inundated by images: pictures, language, videos, stories, music, bodies.
99% of those images are made for one reason: to get you to buy something. We artists are responsible for that tiny sliver of images that can be made for every other possible reason: cultural, spiritual, political, emotional.
In an age of image overload, this is a sacred responsibility.
Andrew Simonet - MAKING YOUR LIFE AS AN ARTIST
I can’t state how much Andrew’s work has impacted me as an artist. You can access his email letters HERE.
So, who's this Substack for? This is the mantra of the modern media era: Know your audience down to the last specific detail! What’s its relevance at this immediate moment? The disappointing answer for me is... "I don't know." All I have is that it’s for ARTISTS who want to become aware of how their created characters, along with their own character, operate. That search has had a significant and profound impact on my work and my way of being in this world.
These correspondences will drop on the 9th and the 27th. I’m dedicated to the next year to see how it goes.
We’ll start next time with the concept in the photo above—a way of incorporating the time-honored tools of journalism into the tools of Drama.
This is great info…Looking forward to more!