Had a strange half offer drop in my lap yesterday (and those of you that have heard about it, don’t mention it by detail). It is, of course, as these things always fucking well are, such a puff of smoke that it doesn’t even exist enough to be worthy on mentioning.

Yet, I can’t help it. Even in a vague form it’s exciting to think about. And I’ll let myself think about it for a day or two and then put it in a box with all of the other opportunities. Many of them dry up by themselves. They are passing winds of chance that never fully form. They can be great ideas that just aren’t right enough to really ever work. Great plans where some piece fails horribly and takes the ship down with it. Easily nine out of every ten never happens past the idea phase.

99% of the remaining chances don’t happen for other reasons.

It’s a very slim line that allows shit to work, outside of doing it myself. And yet I refuse to pass them up simply because they tend to really not work. Because some of them can. And yes, I don’t lie about this, it is partly about money - many of these ideas could involve decent money if they were ever done. The money would be nice, no shit, right? Bigger name projects have other rewards, too. Not fame, come on here we’re being honest right? But a certain sheen of glory can be attached to thinks of a certain pedigree.

Still, at the end I chose the ones that excite me and hopefully bring my work to more people than my last project. And if this one doesn’t work there is always next time. That’s probably, right there, the single most important lesson I’ve learned on this ride so far.

Hell, I remember sitting on the phone with Laszlo one night many many years ago and both of us discussing a story that one of us might’ve lost the rights to. Christ, I don’t remember the story of even whose story it was, his or mine. Not the point. The point is we both laughed at it, because it is one of the most painful things a creator can deal with - the loss of rights to a work when it wasn’t a willing loss. But we laughed at it for a second and then he said, “There are always more ideas.” I think I started to say it at about the same time he did, actually.

He probably remembers this better than I do. But maybe not.

Anyway, right there. There it is. There are always more stories. That’s what I do. I find stories in things. Then I strive like fuck to find a way to tell it. Boil it down far enough and it’s that simple. There are always more stories. Respect them, love them and cherish them but also know, at the end of the day, there are more of them out there.

So I take my chances and I spin the wheel and I buy my ticket and ride the ride.

Refusing to is far safer, sure. But safe doesn’t get you very far. It doesn’t get your stories out there. It doesn’t let you push yourself to discover new ways to tell them. It doesn’t do a whole load of shit.

So I’ll listen and I’ll adapt a project to something it wasn’t because the new idea sounds cooler. And if it falls apart I can go back to doing what I was doing anyway. I lose nothing by trying. I stand to gain a lot.

I just have to remember that, chances are, it won’t actually work out. A big heaping dose of healthy skepticism leavened with a spoonful of paranoia and a dollop of mistrust all brew together to serve me very well, thanks. And if it does happen, or the next one or the one after that?

Shit, I knew it would be the one to work all along.