Good afternoon crickets. Welcome to day number two-hundred-eighty-three of Operation Achieve Anything. Things are starting to stabilize as I settle into my new life sans dog. Life does seem a bit more empty and silent without the reminders of life in my room, but I think I’ve grown used to constant loss. That’s not to say that I’m fine with it, but there’s nothing I can do but move on. With that, I’m going to cut the intro short and jump right into discussing today’s assignments.

Yesterday, I was supposed to gauge my competitive side and share where I’m the type of person who builds others with similar interest up despite any potential competition, or if I’m the type to tear people down in an effort to make myself look better.  Of course, I’m sure you could find several people who might claim the opposite, especially when considering my younger days, but I’d say, for at least the past decade, I’ve been pretty big on pushing anyone to chase their dreams whether their competition or not.

When I was young and learning the craft of screenwriting, I might have had more instances where I’d think that my work was at least as good as “so-and-so,” if not better, so I’d then go on to bash their success, or at least be a bit bitter inside. It wasn’t quite ten years ago that I hear an interview that officially change my point of view towards competition, but I was already developing a loose form of the concept that was being discussed.

The interview in question was with comedian, Doug Stanhope, who was asked about his views on people who may steal his work. He just shrugged his shoulders and went on to explain how he’s developed a voice that is so dependent on his involvement in the story that even if the idea were stolen, it would require this voice to sound valid. Since I am trying to find my corner in an experimental market while everyone else I know is seeking to break walls and become mainstream. This gave me the freedom to share my thoughts on the craft in general without any fear of being outdone or ripped off.

On top of that, I feel that if an artistic community is thriving, then everyone involved reaps the benefits. I mean, look at Hollywood, and how many celebrities were discovered as teams that got to where they are through constant collaboration. Unfortunately, there’s just something in me that makes me a perpetual lone wolf. I get it though since I can see where I fear with sharing my ideas, I can come across confrontational when defending my own work. It’s not that I don’t listen or agree, I just have trouble with articulation so I can get frustrated while trying to make sure that my point is clear and also need at least a day to sleep on an idea before I commit to any change.

Almost always, what follows what could seem to be an argument results in a much stronger second draft as I use the feedback to be more clear with what I’m trying to accomplish while fitting in the suggestions that work. I just need to find someone who understands my feedback process because I really would love to team up with someone to help me improve my work. I think that’s another issue of being headstrong with a general idea, it can come across more stubborn than really just wanting to dig in with a second set of eyes to figure out how to get things to work. I’d love even more for this potential collaborator to be similarly stuck and needs someone to dig past the surface level issues with their own work. That would be a dream come true.

I think this fulfills the task at hand, but my head is so scrambled from the events of this week that I have no idea if I’m making any sense at all, but that’s part of the fun of writing a daily post no matter what. For today’s assignment, I’m supposed to explore the quote of the day about how both insults and flattery come from the same place in a person who wants something of you. I’m now supposed to practice not giving much weight to either instance, while also keeping the quote in mind whenever I’m struck with the urge to insult or flatter someone.

I don’t really know how I’ll handle writing about this task since it’s more conceptual than action based, but I’m sure I’ll come up with something by tomorrow. Until then, it’s now time to wrap this one up by saying, good day and good luck to you and all of your projects.

Talk to you soon.

Sincerely,

The Wicker Breaker

P.S. Below are links to my novel, which I plan to promote as part of Operation Achieve Anything, as well as a link to where you can buy the book that is providing the structure to this project in case you would like to purchase it in order to play along.