How Aristotle Can Save Your Life

 

In 1988, I entered U.C.L.A.'s School of Theater, Film and Television graduate program. I was fresh off my MFA in creative writing from Goddard College and I was what they called back in those days "airy-fairy." I wore long dresses and lopsided ponytails. I showed up to the class wearing my Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown tee-shirt. I loved Pedro Almodovar. In fact, I met him in person and he kissed me on the cheek. People! He kissed me!

All this is to say, my first encounter with the very rational-minded Aristotle was not without its bumps. The famous head of the U.C.L.A. screenwriting department, Professor Richard Walter, was tasked with taking a bunch of us airy-fairy creative types and beating us into submission--(okay, that's a metaphor, in case you're worried). Although, he did refer to his style of teaching screenwriting as bootcamp. And so, yeah, this was a culture shock for me--poetry girl, all dressed up in metaphor and messages.

By the end of screenwriting boot camp I was truly a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Still, I made it through the program--and I lived to the tell the tale--working in script development for the charming Meg Ryan, and going on to to teach the joys of story structure to a wide swath of students--from Yale University undergrads to children at risk. No creative stone left unturned.

You might ask, but how can Aristotle and his story arc save my life?

This is how--think of your life as one big sweeping narrative arc. There's a beginning, a turning point, a big fat scary midpoint crisis, then another turning point, followed by a climactic moment (in which you think it's all over.) But then, there’s another turning point around the corner in which delightful surprises await.

Creative Friends--take heart. No matter what the current crisis in your own life might be, you can never be sure whether it's the end or a new beginning. It might be just another plot point.

You just have to hang on. Change is coming.

So, hang on. Hang on. Hang on.

Love,

Jamie