I tend to find inspiration in weird places.
I am reading the book, "The Disaster Artist" by Greg Sestero about the filming of The Room, considered to be"The Citizen Kane of Bad Movies". The Room is written, directed and produced by Tommy Wiseau a quirky oddball of mysterious origin. In addition to being a behind the scenes look at The Room, it is also a memoir about the struggles of trying to make it in Hollywood: having the right image, knowing the right people and having the right amount of talent.
But what if someone wanted to make a movie so bad, be an actor so much that he's willing to throw every rule out of the proverbial window and pave his own path.
This is exactly what Tommy Wiseau does.
If anyone believes in the "law of affirmation," it's Tommy Wiseau....He constantly says throughout Greg's book that his movie will be "The greatest movie ever." While everyone laughs at this proclamation, thinking The Room will fade into obscurity , Tommy's dream, while not as he expected, comes true. Instead of getting upset over The Room's new reign as the King of Crappy Films, Tommy embraces it and has fun with it. His film is now seen at special screenings around the country with a Rocky Horror like cult following. In fact, he made another film, The House that Drips Blood on Alex, which is a must see for many reasons too hard to express in words.
As you can see from my previous blog posts, I beat myself up over everything. When I write, I sit and think, Will people like it? Will they remember this? Maybe I should be like Tommy and not worry. Not care at all. Just write and believe that it's good.
And then it will be good, but maybe not in the way I expected. Even though The Room reeks of the stink bomb that it is, it has brought much laughter, whether intended or not to many people.
If anything, Tommy doesn't apologize for being weird. He embraces it and says, "Take it or leave it, this is me." Though Tommy's behavior at times is rude, belligerent, stubborn and often disturbing, he doesn't care what anyone thinks or says. This is a guy in the moment.
I have started to write more and am feeling uninhibited about what to write about. I usually spend hours or days wondering, Is this idea publishable? Can this make money? But now, the world seems like an open box that I can fill with whatever I want.
They key is be yourself and just write and who knows maybe something unexpected will happen. And one person's garbage is always another person's treasure.
Just keep creating.
