I've had the idea for a while of having some time where I wouldn't consume any content. No TV, no internet, no newspapers, no books, no radio ... you get the idea. If I wanted to keep myself occupied, I would have to come up with my own distractions and force myself to be a content producer.

The basic idea is, if you watch a TV show or read a book, you're a content consumer. You are consuming the content that someone else created and not adding any content of your own. Most of the content that we consume, we don't even use and so it's basically just escapism. Not that that is totally bad, but too much of it can be. Whenever I do this for long periods of time I always feel like I haven't accomplished anything.

If instead you film small movies or write a book, then you're a content producer and I would contend that you're a producer even if you don't ultimately publish these things or make them available for others to consume. The act of producing itself is important because you have practiced your art and will be able to make things of higher quality later. So with producing, just the act of producing is valuable, which is not necessarily true of consuming.

Put Into Practice

To try this out, I decided that the perfect time to do this was while on vacation. We were going to a secluded state park to stay in one of it's one room cabins and took along no books, no videos, no internet connection so that nothing would distract us. It ended up that the cabin did actually have a TV in it with DirectTV, but I quickly unplugged it and forgot about it. This was a weekend for creating only.

I brought along an AlphaSmart 3000, so that I didn't need my laptop and all the distractions it brings, and my ukulele. Amy brought her drawing pad and pencils along with some reference photos that she wanted to work off of. We were ready for unbridled production.

The first thing I noticed was, it was hard. The first night I actually said to Amy, "Do something interesting. Entertain me." I think that it's sometimes hard to get a handle on something until it's not there anymore. Once I didn't have ways of distracting myself, I just started to lose it. It did help me see that as a problem though.

When I couldn't take being bored anymore, I knew I was going to have to do something to occupy my mind. I broke out the AlphaSmart and wrote a blog post about the weekend. Then I wrote another one and I remembered how fun it can be to write again. I eventually ended up writing five blog posts and a chapter in a book that's been on the back burner for a while. Amy was able to do something similar with her drawing.

I think sometimes when you get into the mode of turning off your mind and just turning your attention over to someone else, you can get stuck in not thinking for yourself. It was interesting to me how I not only created more, but was able to see how my mind works to try and keep me distracted and not on task. The act of creating more automatically made me more introspective and think more critically about how I live my life and how my actions don't always live up to my intentions.

I'm sure most full time writers would read that and think 'Duh' because I've heard that advice so much in writing books I've read. This was the first time I really saw it in action though and I've finally understood it. The weekend really helped me find the value in not distracting myself so much with other people's content and focus more on creating some of my own.

There seem to be certain stories that get to me more than others. I've also noticed that my wife usually doesn't even like these movies and it started me wondering, 'What exactly is it that causes such strong emotions in me?'

It seems to me that each of us has a slightly different emotional resonance when it comes to movies, books and other types of stories. It seems that the story hits on all cylinders and builds every step of the way until it hits the perfect ending. It's like two tuning forks brought together, vibrating at the same frequency.

Most of the time that this has happened to me, I don't even know why it's happening. There are certain movies that just hit me just so and I really can't put my finger on what it is that gets me.

I've been studying it though, thinking that if I can figure out what my emotional resonance is, I can start applying that to my writing. It seems to me that if I know what my emotional triggers are, the more I get that into my work, the more real and emotional it's going to be. It's the tuning fork idea again, but in reverse; instead of the work registering with my resonance, I'll use my resonance to enhance the work.

Here's some of the works that I've noticed do this with me:

• Metropolis (Anime)

  This is probably an Anime title that not many people have heard of, but I borrowed it from a friend way back when and fell in love with it. I ran out and bought it right away and I just seemed connected to it. I don't know why (need to get it out again) but it just seemed like the perfect story to me. In many ways it reminded me of Cowboy Bebop in the way the music and visuals seemed to be disjointed, yet fit perfectly together in their own off center way. It's a story that leaves you feeling melancholy, yet hopeful at the end. And it's based on a Osamu Tezuka manga, which should give you a feel of the overall theme of the movie.

• Lost in Translation

  This is a movie that seems to be very hit or miss among a lot of people, but it was a very big hit with me. Everything seemed to click in this movie for me and it's slow pace really helped build the emotional conflicts with in the film, most of them internal. It may be the best film of subtle internal conflicts I've ever seen and the nature of those conflicts really seems to resonate with me. But it also ended up being not all depressing too; there's a hopeful note at the end but it's hard to explain exactly where it comes from. I'm still trying to figure that out.

• Moonlight Sonata & Untitled

  Do songs really belong? I think they do. Moonlight Sonata has always been a song that, if I'm in the right mood, can really grip me. It's actually not totally depressing of a song, but it certainly ends that way. Another song that gets me is Untitled by The Crash Test Dummies. Just perfectly, well, melancholy. I'm starting to see a pattern here...

• Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

  I actually have a hard time condoning the addition of this item because, one, it's gotten a lot of buzz recently and I don't usually like adding to buzz and, two, I just saw it yesterday and that doesn't seem like enough time to add it to a list like this. But it did it. Those last 20 frames totally sold me on this project and hit me like a hammer, you might say. That last second put the whole work in a totally different light and made everything fit together so perfectly. You start watching the whole thing as a kind of fun little comedic romp and then it just hits you with, well, you'll just have to watch it. I've been thinking about this since we finished watching yesterday and it's a great piece of story telling. It's able to wrap you up and get you to care about the characters without know knowing about it. Then, like any good story, it kicks you when you're down, after you've invested so much it stabs you in the back in the most beautifully perfect way possible. Not because it wants to, but because it has to. If it didn't, you would just feel empty afterwards. (exhibit A: I Am Legend)

This isn't an exhaustive list, but I've only started thinking about this recently. I might write more on this as I work my way towards NaNoWriMo because I'd really like to use this in my next story. I need to study the above films and see; what is it that does this with me? What are my triggers? How can I project this into my work.

Anyway, what stories resonate with you? What movies do you seem to "get" that others don't?