September 11th
(Note: This article comes from February 2002. I’m including it as part of my summer reruns, and crossing my fingers it doesn’t become timely.)
Finding inspiration and motivation to write is hard enough on an average day, but ever since the September 11th attacks and the chaos which has followed, I feel especially useless. As I am not a professional writer, there are no demands or deadlines forcing me to stretch those muscles with any regularity. The state of the world we live in makes me sad, angry, and afraid. While those emotions may drive others to create an expression of their feelings, I simply say to myself, "Why should I bother? Movies don’t really matter." How have you been dealing with the recent events and if you don’t mind, should I bother? Thank you for taking the time.
–Russ
Screenwriting is a pretty trivial profession even on the most sun-dappled days. In the context of human tragedy and international strife, it’s even harder to justify the ninth revision of your hockey-playing chimpanzee comedy. (For the record, there is already a hockey-playing chimpanzee comedy.) Much like every single person in North America, I went through the same stages of bewilderment, frustration, grief and fear after the September attacks. But after about a week, I got back on the saddle and started writing again.
Why? I think the answer is that I had to do something, and I’m better at writing than anything else I’ve found. I’m a pretty good cook, and know my way around a Macintosh in terms of graphic design, but pretty much the only hope I have of keeping a roof over my head is to continue to write. I don’t always enjoy it, and sometimes it makes me miserable. But in the sense that anyone truly has a calling, this is probably mine.
Now, since I’m a screenwriter and not a psychologist or counsellor, I’m completely unqualified to judge whether the sadness, anger and fear you’re feeling five months after the attacks is healthy. Obviously, it’s unproductive in the most literal sense, since you wish to be writing but find you can’t. So my advice to you would be my advice to any friend in your situation: find somebody who can help you out.
For what it’s worth, my friends and family who’ve sought help invariably say they wasted months making up their minds to see someone. Once they finally did, things improved much faster than they expected, and the world seemed much less onerous.
As far as should you bother writing, I’d argue it’s absolutely worth the trouble. Because while it’s true that some things did change on September 11th, 99.9% of things are exactly the same as they were on September 10th. What did change is your perception of them, and that’s a much easier problem to address.
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July 10th, 2007 at 10:32 am
To me, movies do matter… and now more then before. At it’s core, I think something like Sept. 11 allowed us to remember that you are doing something you love (or created some incentive to do those things, like screen writing). It reminds us that we don’t live forever and that we should make the best of it. I write as a hobby and I really did a lot more after Sept. 11. Call it a proverbial kick in the pants that we sometimes need!
Also, movies are more than just entertainment. Yes, they entertain but a lot of them inspire you to do things, to try something new, allow you to laugh when your sad, escape from the daily grind, and many other emotions. In fact, what ever mode you’re in, there is probably a movie to cater to you. Certainly, the movie industry took a hit immediately following the attacks, but so did every industry!
I don’t intend distract from John’s original response of finding help if you need it, The comment the “Movies don’t really matter” just struck me a little.
July 11th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
I’ve felt similarly about the trivial nature of screenwriting and filmmaking. And from the business side of it, it does look trivial. If you simply look at it as a structure to follow, fill in the blanks, make your sale, then start again… it doesn’t mean anything at the end of the day.
But if you approach filmmaking as art, than my perspective is anything but trivial. Art communicates. It fills lives with meaning and expresses beauty. Art transforms culture; changes people; moves the world. What better thing could someone aspire to do in the post-9/11 world?
July 12th, 2007 at 2:12 am
Great choice for the summer rerun.
Sept. 11th happened about a week before the serialization of a new webcomic of mine was scheduled. I spent most of that week, apart from the usual “ohmygodwhathappened”, agonizing about how much sense it made to publish a nice little comic after that tragedy. I finally decided that this was just what the terrorists wanted: to disrupt our lives and draw us (i.e. the west) into a war-like frame of mind. Where writing a hockey-playing chimpanzee comedy is considered obscene, but killing thousands of civilians isn’t.
I’m not saying I wrote that comic to fight terrorism, but it sure helped me put things in perspective.
July 12th, 2007 at 10:00 am
I agree with Mike. It’s all in your perspective and approach. And it doesn’t even have to rise to the level of art. If you’re writing that hockey-playing chimpanzee comedy, maybe that thing will help some tormented soul rise out of the torment for a little while. Movies have impacted every single one of us. Sometimes in trivial ways, sometimes profoundly. Futility can be found in any line of work. The most useless I’ve ever felt was when I was working at a brokerage house helping make rich people richer. I’d much rather crank out screenplays and films!