Writers Are Just Misfits & Goonies

Welcome to another edition of the Fred & Dan Blog! Our mission with Fred&Dan Productions and this blog has always been to make people think in ways they’ve never done before - to spark creativity and facilitate conversation in unconventional ways. A place where you can open up your email and have a bit of creativity to take with you into your day or week!  

This is another installment of our interview series, where we chat with entrepreneurs and creatives to learn how “they done did it.” We want to find the secret sauce that makes them successful in their field to inspire you and give you the crazy notion that you can do it too.

This is part two of our conversation with Rose McAleese, a fellow writer and creative who is just getting out of the strike. You can listen to part one HERE. Now the strike for the WGA is over, but the strike for SAG, the actors, is still currently going. In this conversation you'll hear about what it's like to be on the picket lines and what it's like to find creativity during the strike.

We really enjoyed this conversation and we hope you do too, so buckle up bitches. 

Rose: Now, compared to the last strike in 2007, this is the first time where we're like, “No, you need us more than we need you.”

There is a lot of hope behind that, but it is sometimes really hard to be like, “Man, the bad guys always win”, and you're like, “Yeah, but hey, we're writers. We can write a better ending than that.”

The picket lines, I will say it ebbs and flows. I feel like there are some times where I will go to the picket line almost every single day, and then by day six, I'm tired. I'm exhausted. It's really hard to be optimistic. You get really frustrated because you're just kind of like, fuck, I got to do this again. 

But then once you get there, there is this morale to it. It's really cool because you see parents with their kids. There's Superhero Day, there was West Wing Day, there's trivia nights, and there's karaoke, and we're really trying to make it an interactive sport because right now it's just so daunting and so exhausting and it's hard to get people to come.

I will say though, one of the biggest like surges of, “fuck yeah, we can do this” is when SAG stood with us on the picket line. When SAG went on the lines, the lines were massive, the pickets… like it was just so overpopulated and it felt like the beginning all over again.

So it was really nice to have that kind of pendulum swing and it couldn't have been timed better because we were days away from being a hundred days and we were just like, how are we going to get through this? And so when the actors came, it really reminded us… these are the two people they try to pretend don't matter the most when really you can’t have a movie, if it wasn't for the story and the characters to tell the story.

Dan: I work in non scripted daytime and I work on the Netflix lot. We just got off of a hiatus. So I wasn't driving into work for about six weeks, but when we came back, I was like, “Oh my gosh, the lines are even bigger.” They're even more enthusiastic now than they were when all of this first started. And the other day it was, I don't know if it was a horror theme or just Halloween themed, but people were dressed up like in costumes, like as iconic characters or a whole group of women dressed as witches.

And it was really fun to see. 

Rose: If you give us a reason to be creative, we will. There's this camaraderie behind it which is just so magical and so beautiful and so great and it's amazing. Ii really hope that we can carry that feeling forward but I do understand burnout like I do understand the caution and frustration that this even has to be a thing but there is something really -

Writers are just misfits and goonies. 

You know what I mean? And we're kind of like fuck the man the whole time. That's literally like what a writer is, is fuck the system and fuck the establishment. We pick, we prod, we ask questions. So this is kind of our lane and we know what we're doing and it's just so nice that the actors are also like, yeah, we're all, this is a band of misfits and a band of goonies.

You can't hurt us. 

Fred: It's nice how strong these unions are and that they're not backing down. My dad grew up being part of the butcher's union and he was telling me how they went on this big strike when Safeway kind of became what it is now and Safeway took them on and was like trying to cut their wages or whatever.

And he said Safeway ended up winning and it just crushed their union and the union has never, never really bounced back the same way. I mean, hearing that I was a little worried about our unions but then after I think it was like last week or the week before when, the producers tried to say all the things that we weren't coming to the table about as writers, and thinking that would disband us or that would turn writers against the guild and how instead it just made us all rally more and even stronger.

I was really glad to hear that and it makes you feel even more proud to be part of that union. 

Rose: And also just proves to you how corny these studios are. They're not creative. That's how you thought you were going to get us. 

Dan: It's so lovely to like, have more info about the strike and... to hear about it in such a detailed manner. So I really appreciate it.

Rose: No, I'm just like a garbling rant because I'm just so frustrated and pissed off about it. 

Dan: How do you spark your creativity as a writer? And how do you find your creativity in times like this during the strike? 

Rose: You know, what's weird is this is the most inspired and creative I've felt in a very long time.

During the pandemic, you couldn't have paid me to write, and that's the thing is I was getting paid to write. I was not creative during the pandemic. There's just something about like I have more important things to worry about. 

But right now, I think in a weird way, it's to that point that I was explaining earlier, which is like, uh, “Oh, you don't think I'm good?” You don't think I'm talented. You don't think you need me studios?” Like I've felt so inspired to write. After the last strike, the golden age of television kind of happened. 

So to anyone who's like stressing about the strike is just have a project ready for when the strike ends because this is like when they're going to be like, you know what? Let like, let the floodgates open, like, let's start telling really amazing stories. 

I've been watching a lot of movies recently, things that make me happy and that inspire me. Feel good movies, you know, that movie you just put on the background and are just kind of like, I'm doing laundry. So that's another way I stay really inspired.

I also love museums. I think museums are just basically the best way to tap into any creative side is just seeing someone else's art. And being like, how did they get here? We always see the finished process, which is such the fucked up part about being an artist is because you always see someone's finished product, but you never see the sleepless nights that happened before they got to this point. Ro see a finished product, I think is really inspiring.

I think also going to a bookstore. I'm in Seattle right now so I'm going to my favorite bookstore in the entire world, which is Elliot Bay Books in Capitol Hill. Being around my family is really great. My sister, my mom, my dad, and I were all in the same house, which doesn't happen enough.

My sister lives in New Mexico. I live in California. And so having us all be there and having those conversations of, do you remember this? And talking about the stories of childhood and everything has just been really inspiring. And just like the storytelling that happens within a family has really been a great form of inspiration.

And then also of course, reading. I just love books. And then of course, always music. I can just put an entire album on and there's just something about music that I listened to and I can hear like a lyric and it becomes like an earworm. And I'm like, wow, that would be a really interesting line of dialogue. Let me plug and play it, let me see if I could put this line of dialogue in something and just play around with it. 

Fred: That’s super cool. It's nice to have such a diverse range of where you get your inspiration.

I feel like sometimes people feel like it's just one place or the other, or they wait for their inspiration, they don't have an active relationship with their inspiration or creativity. And I've said this before, and I don't know how you feel about it, Rose, but I don't personally believe in creative block. I think it's just you getting in your own way. 

And a lot of times it's your indecision or your procrastination. And I think going to a museum and seeing an artist, then you're able to say, you know what, how did they do it? And you kind of start to step out of your own way. You go to a bookstore, you see that book and it sparks something or a lyric.

Rose: You got to turn the faucet on and half the time you got to let the water run cold before it gets hot. You know what I mean? Let's be honest. Anytime you sit down in front of a computer or in front of your notebook, the first 20 minutes of whatever you're writing is going to suck.

It's just facts. It's going to be corny. It's going to be bad. But then you just got to get over that and just kind of get it. I do think the more forms of inspiration you have the more opportunities inspiration will visit you or hit you. 

I do agree with you that writer's block, I think is kind of something that we've manmade and created, but also I really do like self pity sometimes. I like to blame writer's block. I don't want to form a sentence today.

I also will say you should never force yourself either because sometimes it’s when you force yourself that you pay a bigger price. I'll just be like, you know what? I'm just going to journal for 20 minutes. And if anything comes out of this, then I'm great. But I'm not going to force myself to sit down in front of a script and write a scene out. I'm just going to write a poem or write a song, or I'm going to doodle. And then kind of coax it into being like, “Ooh, this is really, this is nice, you know?”

Fred: Do you have any advice for people who want to get into being a professional writer? 

Rose: Well, for one, my biggest thing is if you write, you're a writer, right? Like it's one of those things where it's just kind of like when someone's like, I'm a writer, and then that asinine stupid question, “have I read anything you’ve written?”

You look them dead in the eye and you go, “probably not, but would you like to?” Just immediately give them something to read of yours then. Make a fan. If you're a writer, you're a writer. The same way that if you paint, you're a painter. If you're a mechanic, you're a mechanic. Like, your art is what you say your art is.

And one of the best things about being an artist is that whether or not you're getting paid to do that art, you are that art. 

Again, like I was saying, if there are like three to four people's careers you admire, watch how they got to where they are and pick and choose what you liked about how they got to their career and see how you can implicate that and apply that to yourself.

Obviously it's just write. It's so stupid that every time I've heard someone like, what's the best advice you can give to a writer? And they're like, write. It's so true though. Just write the thing, you know? Cause it's so daunting just to sit and be like, I got to write 98 pages, like it's such a physically hard thing to do, but once you do it, it’s the most satisfying feeling in the entire world too.

I always say, carry a notebook. I carry a notebook everywhere I go and also just ask questions. I just had a friend of mine who's a very well known rapper, who's like now an actor, he's been in a couple of TV shows and he was like, “I want to write a pilot, but I was too embarrassed and too scared to ask you for help.” And I was just like, “that's your fault.”

Like, just ask. You know what I mean? If I say no, I'll give someone as an example and be like, here's someone else that you should probably reach out to. But questions are actually really simple, small, and I hate to say it. A lot of people really enjoy answering questions. 'Cause it means that they're important enough to give you an answer and then they're like, “hmm. I might be someone.” It really helps everyone involved. 

I think also the idea of like advice, is not all advice that is given is actual good advice.

You just have to admit that someone can give you advice and you just, you know, everyone thinks that it's gospel it's like, if it works, it works and if it doesn't, you don't have to believe in it. And that's completely okay. 99 percent of Hollywood is full of bullshit and the other 1 percent is just asking… well… most of it's bullshit, but then a lot of it is just great intuition that just is looking for someone else to help out.

Thanks again for tuning into this week's Fred&Dan interview series. We'll see you next time, unless we get lost in our own fantasy world and never make it back. Bye!