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You don’t know what you don’t know
The confidence of ignorance.
The humility of knowledge.
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Miracles
We’ve all been given a purpose, a dream,
To seek, discover, actualize that purpose into reality.
To confront the fear, overcome the challenge, create something new.
That is the miracle.
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Mamba Mentality
Mamba mentality is a constant quest to find answers. It’s that infinite curiosity to want to be better, to figure things out…you’re not worried about the end result.
– Kobe BryantMamba Mentality sounds like alpha competitiveness, ask anyone what it means, that’s probably what they would describe. Heck, that’s what I thought it meant too. But by his own words, it means something more than leaving it all on the court. He’s describing a limitless mindset off the court.
I’m hearing,
Curiosity to ask the questions.
Humility to find the answers – the first principles
Perseverance to want to be better
Creativity to figure things out
Freedom from expectations and the results.
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The First 20 Screenplays
Have a notebook always on you, whatever story, feeling, thought, emotion, character, concept, idea that pops into your head, write it down. Anything, no filter. Beginner to Beginner.
- Start and finish your first screenplay – write the worst screenplay ever written – This will be the best and worst screenplay you’ve ever written.
- Write a screenplay that has a story that has a distinct beginning, middle and end
- Write a screenplay that is based on and focuses around a conflict
- Write a screenplay with a character you deeply care for that goes through a transformation – from a flawed character to a revelation and self-awareness
- Write a screenplay that has a relationship that goes from deeply flawed and disconnected and separated to a connection and understanding
Re-read your screenplays, take notes, what worked, what didn’t. Write down what you think makes a “good” story. Get your mom, supportive, friendly critics to read your scripts. Write-up notes of processes you discovered that produced parts of your screenplay that worked and didn’t work. Combine the process that did work into an outline. Use this outline to help you write your next screenplays.
- Write a screenplay that comes from an inspiration
- Write a screenplay based on a feeling or emotion you want to capture
- Write a screenplay based on a concept or idea you want to explore
- Write a screenplay based on something you want to express or say
- Write a screenplay for a specific person.
Re-read your last 5 screenplays, take notes, what worked, what didn’t. Write-up notes of processes you discovered that produced parts of your screenplay that worked and didn’t work. Get critical people to read your script, get notes from them. Write down what you think makes a “real” character. Revisit your process outline and revise it – combine the process that did work into an outline. Use this process outline to help you write your next screenplays.
- Write a screenplay for a specific audience, group of people
- Write a screenplay for yourself
- Write a screenplay that you wished was true
- Write a screenplay, that you develop, detail and are particular about the dialogue and each character’s true voice
- Write a screenplay, where you focus on the conflict, making sure there is conflict on every page, from the story, characters, relationships.
Re-read your last 5 screenplays, take notes, what worked, what didn’t. Write-up notes of processes you discovered that produced parts of your screenplay that worked and didn’t work. Submit your scripts to a coverage service. Write down what you think “conflict” means. Revisit your process outline and revise it – combine the process that did work into an outline. Use this process outline to help you write your next screenplays.
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The Creative Journey: Write It
If the idea moves past the initial self-sorting filtering step of ideating and verbalizing it, the next journey in the creative process is writing it. Writing the idea into an outline, premise, treatment. Constructing abstract thought into legible, cogent words, sentences, paragraphs to be read by someone else. The transference of thought through the medium of paper. It is the burden of the writer to do the heavy lifting of making the words as frictionless as possible. Assuming the reader has no context, has no prior knowledge of the thought process to follow without friction, will not agree or understand completely, retaining only a percentage of what’s being conveyed.
As the creative, it will be the impossible task of turning a blank sheet into a tangible idea. Once on paper, what was once a thought is now an actual physical object on paper. This is the third step in manifesting a thought with the hopes of creating an immortal, invincible idea.
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The Creative Journey: Verbalize It
Verbalizing the thought. Just the thought of expressing the idea might cause anxiety, stress. The fear of judgment, rejection. After all it’s coming from within you, surely, to reject the idea is to reject you.
Verbalizing it, hearing it out loud for yourself, does it sound foolish, ridiculous, impossible. Cringing or defensiveness when you hear it back to you from others. But each step is purposeful from the mind to the first step of vocalization, it’s an iteration. The idea takes time, it takes work, versioning, development. It must be vocalized to start being focused, refined, purposed. To begin its journey into the real world. But this is just beginning.
Verbalizing the idea is the first step in organizing the thought into material form, producing actual sound waves to be transmitted to another thinking person. Can they understand it. Does it make sense to them. Are there holes in the premise? Leaps in logic. Jumps in conclusion. Assumptions. Misperceptions. Further assessment.
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The Creative Journey: Ideate It
Bringing idea into reality, the abstract to explicit is the responsibility, burden of the creative. The journey of an idea and thought takes. It’s just a germ of an idea, an ethereal thought in the mind. Should I pursue this idea. Is this idea good. Is this idea worth the work, time and effort. Is it really what I’m imagining it to be.
The burden of an idea. The responsibility of thought creation. The idea in thought, its rawest form, still rough, still undeveloped. Embryonic. Not enough to survive on its own yet. It is a burden, taking on the responsibility of bringing that idea to life. It’s unknown, uncertain, will the idea even survive, is it even viable. Is the risk worth the sacrifice. Mistakes made. Possible failure. Possible success. …the decision. Next step verbalize, forming the idea into words, putting it out into the world, in its simplest form… words.