The Power of Make Believe

Start each day with a question: what does success look like? For this day, for this moment. Start small. Chip away. Stack the success of each day on the success of the day before.

What does success look like for today? A small question can be too big; the same question day after day, too laborious. For me, for creation, the answer is standardized.

Make words.

Make edits.

Make pictures.

Make connections.

Do one of these things and that day is successful. For years that has been the measure of the day, and many days have been successful. Day upon day those successes have stacked up, and the long-term success has been realized in the screenplay for Jawbone. It's not the first script, but it is the only script that has made the leap to a viable film project because something was missing: Belief.

I woke the other day, and "The Give Up" was particularly strong, and I had been thinking about this addition to my List of Make: Make Belief. Thinking about it and struggling with it when the doubt naturally appears and asking, "How do I make belief when it simply isn't there? How do I make words or edits or pictures or connections on this specific project when I can't even make belief?"

There's a saying I saw on some survival show, "Take what the bush gives you." That stuck with me. The other day the bush was only giving disbelief in myself, my words, my edits, my pictures, even the support of my connections. I found myself asking, "Why does the world care about my made-up story, or any made-up story for that matter?" Why does the world care about make-believe?

So I took what the bush gave me. I took that disbelief and I put it into words and wrote, "I don't believe"

-I will complete a successful film.

-I will cast this film.

-I will seek help to complete this film.

And so on and so on.

The wonderful thing about disbelief when you lay it out like this, stating all the things you don't believe you will do, your disbelief starts to argue with itself and the belief returns, the disbelief disappears and you are left with a list. Your disbelief creates little carve-outs in its declarations: What is a successful film? Surely, it can't be a success unless you finish it. You can't finish it today, but surely you can finish one little task on the way to completing it.

And so on and so on.

And that's why the world cares about make-believe. Mine. And yours. Because make-believe has no logical reason to exist beyond bringing something into the world that only exists in your head, whether that be a restaurant, a drag car, a walk around the block, a moment's peace from the spiraling thoughts in your head...a movie. Even a bad movie if it turns out that way.

It may feel selfish, but sharing that vision with the world, making it real, is at the core of what makes us make. It is a communal thing. It is a perpetual motion machine. Inspiration powers make-believe, and make-believe powers inspiration.

And so on and so on.

Make words.

Make pictures.

Make edits.

Make connections.

Make belief.