The rigor of committing to the bit

A pocket manifesto for an artistic life.

Not to be annoying, but I’ve been thinking about the word rigor.

In some ways, the world is increasingly smoother, easier, faster. We’re constantly hacking our way out of every sticky situation from the difficult to the awkward.

I mean, we’re having AI rewrite our emails for "tone enhancements” so we sound nice even after exorcising exclamation points because it’s very confusing for a regular human being to figure out the correct Kindness to Yelling ratio vis a vis punctuation. Better just to outsource it.

Still here I am, interested in rigor.

It’s not like I’m an extreme athlete. I did teach fitness in a past timeline, but even then, I was always angling for my next chance to sit down.

It’s not like I’m going through grad school. I love school, but I spend so much time theorizing in my head, I know I’m better served by getting out of it as much as I can.

It’s not like I’m a professional organizer. I put important things like my car registration in ridiculous places like a box teetering on the edge of another box in my basement, or the window sill of the bathroom, or the dead center-center of the kitchen floor.

I clearly have not applied the concept of rigor to fitness or education or domestic organization.

But when it comes to art, rigor is perhaps all I’ve got.

What does it mean to do art with rigor?

This year my main goal was to quantum leap my writing and directing.¹

I’ve been pouring books, classes, essays, podcasts, and independent art down my gullet in an effort to pull my skills up to a higher level. I don’t want to write nice things, I want to write honest things. And the only way I can figure to do that is to put some muscularity around my process. Make it harder on myself. Resist the temptation to let myself off the hook. You know, be rigorous about it.

For me, rigor is the other side of sacrifice. Because rigorously going after something will inevitably force me to sacrifice something else.

If I rigorously improve my writing, I sacrifice speed.

If I rigorously increase my directing courage, I sacrifice safety.

If I rigorously commit to the bit², I sacrifice certainty of the payoff.

And as I think about it, there’s nothing as rigorous as life’s demand that we keep showing up without the cushy corner office of certainty.

I want to live a rigorous life. A life that pushes me into unknown places and makes me confront the unconquered landscapes of my interior life. I don’t just want to be good at writing and directing. I want to be good at living. Which is to say, I’d like to get my hands dirty. I’d like to get sweaty and gross. I’d like to get the wind knocked out of me and see what’s on the other side.

7 Muses of Rigor Who I’m Honestly Thinking About Way Too Much, It’s Verging On Obsession

Here are some of my muses when it comes to creating art with absolute unabashed long con rigor:

Queen of not letting herself or her characters off the hook, Madame Octavia Butler.

Patron Saint of the Long Con, Nathan Joseph Fielder

The philosophical and practical rigor of Sarah Polley’s Women Talking.

Ground bees are the ultimate Bosses of Rigor.

Rigorously The Dude.

Jessica Lee Gagné’s masterclass of rigorous cinematography in Severance Season 2.

I, one hundred percent, could have been the rigorously optimistic John Keating in a different timeline.

I’m not supposed to show you this yet but ohhhh welllll.

I’m putting the finishing touches on a little something I made for writers. I’m bullish about it. I think it’s really cool. Sharing it in a few days.

Here’s a sneak peek because I honestly just can’t help myself:

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ALSO! I have one more spot left for 1:1 work in June. Tell me what you’re working on & I’ll email you with how I think I could help.

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🔮 Tell me in the comments: which muse is your favorite?

1. Why yes, I AM an earnest millennial, how did you know?!

2. THE BIT meaning: everything from my personal philosophies (i.e. “writing is the master key that unlocks all doors”) to the kinds of projects I choose (i.e. the multi-year process of making a feature film).