Speaker 1
Hey everyone, we're taking the month of April to plan our next series of daily creative episodes, which we'll release beginning in May, but that doesn't mean we're taking the month of April off. We wanna feature listener questions, stories, or reactions to episodes one through 13 of daily creative, or anything else you wanna ask us. So if you have a question or a story to share about one of the episodes, just go to dcshare.me to share your story or ask your question for the show. DCShare.me. If we use your question or story, you're gonna get a cool daily creative t-shirt. Again, that's DCShare.me. Now, on with the show. the late 1970s and early 1980s, Michael was a writer living in Los Angeles. Like a lot of writers in LA, at the time, Michael had hopes of making it in Hollywood. I mean, he had talent, he even had a few friends in the industry, which is worth more than gold. But most of all, he had a knack for rubbing people the wrong way. Fortunately, some of Michael's industry friends believed in him. One, in particular, Kevin, would open doors and set up jobs for him time and time again only to hear the same reports back. No thanks, he's pissing everyone off. Michael was a bit of a counter-culturalist, a protest-marching anti-establishment child of the 1960s. And though a decade or two had passed since those days, old habits die hard and old attitudes die even harder. After a handful of firings, he began to blame the Hollywood establishment, bad-mouthing many of his new-found connections while lamenting to his friend Kevin, I hate all you people. Kevin had had enough. After all, these were his friends. Michael was trash talking. They were doing him a favor. Kevin had stuck out his neck for this guy time and time again, but no more. He not so gently pulled him aside with some tough advice. Quit putting everybody down. Maybe your work just isn't good enough. He suggested that instead of trying to write screenplays, he should stick to either short stories or novels, either 88 pages or 888 pages. It was a heated and physical confrontation that nearly cost them their friendship, until a week later when Michael needed a place to stay. Necessity is the mother of reconciliation. That one night of couch-surfing Kevin's turns into a couple months. But to his credit, Michael didn't take it lying down. He wrote every night. And every day he would ask Kevin if he would read what he had written. But Kevin wouldn't. He had had enough. And after a couple of months, so had Kevin's wife. Michael had to go. On his way out, he left behind the manuscript he'd been working on nightly in hopes that Kevin would have a change of heart. Then he walked out the door. He gave up on Hollywood and moved to Bisbee, Arizona. He was homeless, living out of his car, and working as a dishwasher at a Chinese restaurant. Every so often he'd call up his friend Kevin and say, have you read what I wrote? The answer was always the same. No. Sometimes Kevin would send help, a sleeping bag to keep warm, other stuff to help keep him afloat, but he wouldn't read the work that Michael had left behind. Until one day he did. And what he read went on to change both of their lives. Michael Blake and Kevin Costner would eventually go on to adapt Michael's novel, Dances with Wolves, into an award-winning screenplay and motion picture, taking home Academy Awards for best adapted screenplay and Costner's only Oscar for Best Director, beating out names like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola for the honor. There's a lot to be said about creative processes, habits, disciplines, hacks, tips, tricks, but never overlook the profound impact of people. Brilliant work is a team effort. You need other people, and they need you. And the best way to start finding more of the people you need is to become the kind of person others need. On today's show, we'll explore how. This is Daily Creative, a podcast for creative pros who want to be brave, focused, and brilliant every day. My name is Todd Henry. Welcome to the show.