(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.