Operation Achieve Anything: Day Two-Hundred-Eighty, Dateline 10-7-2018
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“The best way out is always through.”
Good morning crickets. Welcome to day number two-hundred-eighty of Operation Achieve Anything. It’s Sunday, which is the one day a week that I try to take easy in general but I’ll be doubling down on the easiness as this is the last full day that I get to spend with my poor little dog that will be put to sleep tomorrow morning. Again, it’s crazy how it was just a little over a month ago that she went from a dog that was starting to slow due to age into an old dog that’s falling apart from her benign cyst evolving to become cancerous.
A couple of nights ago I dragged my mattress to the ground so that she has easy access to both the mattress and the couch since her jumping skills are lacking these days. She seems to really like this arrangement because she’ll actually lay down where when she just had the ground or her dog bed she opted to sit or stand while looking miserable. This morning I found her under the bed frame, making me fear that she trying to hide to die. Then again, there is part of me that would prefer for her to pass that way because there are no what-ifs when it comes to a natural death… well, no what-ifs that have to deal with my choice.
Alright, it’s time to move on to talk about yesterdays task so I can stop writing about my dog and start spending some quality time. The task for yesterday was to explore how naivety isn’t necessarily a negative thing. The book used an example of a person who tried so hard to hide any blind spots that may make them seem naïve to the point where he was avoiding anything new. I wholeheartedly agree that there is much more room for naivety in life and often think that the best solutions come from allowing the childish side of my mind explore an unsolvable problem since that childish side is more free to ponder in the abstract.
I also hate how people love to point out the naivety of when people try to share deep thoughts. Like when someone will write a social media post about a plan for peace where half the responses are, “Yeah, I used to think that too, back when I was sixteen,” as if their jaded old person view of the world negates this person’s meaning for plead. I’d much rather hear the naïve optimism and ideas for change than constantly get beat over the head with “how things really are,” which only perpetuates the problem while making it seem pointless to try change anything.
I used to get the same thing when I would say that I intentional wanted to break traditional story structure when writing my screenplays. My point was that the reason that Hollywood seemed creatively bankrupt was that stories have become, so structure based, especially when it comes to film, that even the best movies out there have a cut and paste feel to the storyline. This might have been great back in the day when the average viewer was naïve to many of the technicalities that go into telling a tale.
Now, I see on YouTube reaction videos that little tiny kids are using story structure based language while reacting to a YouTube video. We’ve grown to be so advanced in our ability to interpret fiction that using these old techniques makes everything predictable. This is why the bigger movies these days win us over with extravagant visual effects with stories that don’t test our mind. This is why I want to switch things up whenever I sit down to write. Unfortunately, when it comes to film, there’s too much money involved any more, and producers only want tested projects that they know will sell that there’s no longer room for experimentation unless you have the power to produce it yourself.
I never understood why people thought I was the naïve one for wanting to go this route. Sure, it would be a stupid way to go if money where my ultimate goal which is why I switch my interest from writing films to writing novels where I have much more control. That said, it was definitely naïve of me to stick to the screenwriting dream as long as I did. Naïve or not, I now have the freedom to explore my made-up worlds, however, the hell that I want.
That covers the task from yesterday, now I’m supposed to share how/if I use courage to navigate my way through sticky situations. The book wants me to share where I dance around issues or face them head-on. Once I share how I actually am, I’m then supposed to come up with a strategy to be more proactive and always be courageous in my approach. As always, you’ll have to wait for tomorrows update to read what I manage to come up with. Until then, it’s now time for me to sign off by saying, good day and good luck to you and all or 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.
