How to Stay Creative While The World Burns 101

Every film we've ever watched has been a tutorial for THIS moment.

How's That Gandalf Quote re: Hard Times Go?

I haven't been as regular with my blog posts as I said I'd be. That's how it tends to go as a creator—peaks and valleys of motivation and output, compounded these days by the emotional weight of looking out at the world around us right now.

Someone sent me a DM last week. A filmmaker I know, someone who's been grinding just as long as I have. The message was short: 'Are you still pitching The Crimson Pool (my psychodrama thriller feature script that I am going to CRUSH when I finally direct it)? How do you even find the energy right now?'

Honestly? I didn't have a good answer. Not right away, anyway.

I'm sitting at my laptop as I write this, cursor blinking on a new feature script. The page isn't blank, but the output is coming at a snail's pace. My phone is facedown on the desk because if I look at it, I'll spiral into another doom-scroll session, another set of headlines that makes me wonder if any of this matters.

There's no shortage of awful right now. The ICE raids. Families torn apart. Communities terrorized. The completely irrational levels of hatred. And everywhere—everywhere—this drumbeat of fear of people who are different. Trans people. Immigrants. Black women. Anyone who doesn't fit into some imaginary box of 'normal.' All stemming from white s̶u̶p̶r̶e̶m̶a̶c̶y̶ ̶ fragility. It'd be laughable if it weren't putting its knee on our necks rather than going to therapy. But, I digress.

Fact is, the virus of bigotry is spreading faster than any pandemic could (Australia, come on. You don’t want this bullshit. Learn from us), and here I am trying to write about fictional people in fictional crises.

What's the point?

Creating Is Always Hard, Yet...

Here's the thing: this weight sits differently than regular creative doubt.

Writer's block, I know how to handle. Rejection emails, I've got a system for. But this? The relentless accumulation of cruelty disguised as law and faith? That's something else.

The stories keep piling up. Kids crying because their parents were arrested. Schools going remote to safeguard students, faculty, and families. Businesses losing half their revenue because customers are terrified to exist in public spaces.

Bigotry is a learned behavior characterized by intolerance and discrimination—it stems from a lack of critical thinking and an unwillingness to accept new information. It stymies growth and self-reflection. And it limits all of us.

So how do we keep creating when the world feels like it's burning? Here's what's been working for me:

1: You've Been Training for This Your Entire Life

I write about people facing impossible odds. The Crimson Pool—a young writer becoming someone she never believed she could be. The Empress of DäGar—a lonely girl and an alien warrior finding the will to go on through forging a universe-spanning bond. Transfer—refugees choosing between survival and their humanity under an alien occupation.

I've been writing about people pushed to their limits for years. About people who refuse to break.

Isn't that the playbook that genre storytelling gave us our entire lives? Every hero's journey, every underdog story, every tale of resistance—they've all been preparing us for this moment.

Look at your own body of work.

What have you been writing about? What themes keep showing up? You've probably been processing this dystopia long before it fully arrived. Trust that training.

2: Recognize the Magic That Already Exists (And Defend It)

I grew up thinking there was something wrong with me. I... was curious. Like, a lot. I pursued comics and novels written by creators of color, I filled my eyeballs with cinema from around the world, and I engaged and surrounded myself with people from all manner of lifestyles.

These are STILL some of the best comics I've ever read. Dwayne McDuffie was the GOAT.

All because I knew that my world was a fraction of a fraction of the whole world, I was fascinated to learn more. Expansion and inclusion equalled my own evolution. But, it turns out, I was a fluke.

After the 2016 election, I fell into a hard depression. I grew up with a very distinct understanding of right and wrong, yet... There we were. Surrounded by those we love, those who showed us the films about rebellion and justice as kids, those who taught us right from wrong, and they were cheering for a man who mocked disabled people and accosted other men's daughters.

Ultimately, I conceded that many people just aren't curious. Which is fucking sad.

The Future Is A̶l̶r̶e̶a̶d̶y̶ Always Here.

We live in a world where technological and intellectual advancements have made the impossible possible, concepts that our ancestors — even our grandparents — would consider literal magic. We're so used to it that we don't even see it anymore.

Your heart's giving out and you need a mechanical one? You're transforming your body to match your will to live. You spend hours in the sun until your skin darkens? Good for you. You're choosing how you want to exist in the world. You get tattoos, piercings, or surgery to change your appearance? Evolution. You take medication to alter your brain chemistry so you can function? Mental metamorphosis.

At this moment, we're living in a future of early-stage tranhumanism that was once only imagined. People remaking themselves into how they see themselves internally is only going to get wilder, and more creative, and more necessary. We're constantly evolving ourselves, becoming something we weren't born as. It's not just inevitable—it's human. It's what we've always done. It's fucking incredible!

Now, a person can completely remake their body to match their soul and heart! Are you kidding me? That's the future we dreamed about in science fiction, and it's here. Trans people are as much proof that there’s magic as anyone. If they can become their full selves, imagine what's possible for yourself.

Watch The Venture Bros. Art: @claygrahamart

All of that diversity, all of that evolution, all of those choices—that's the world worth showing. That's what's been at the heart of every single story we've grown up adoring. Not homogeneity. Not everyone looking and thinking and being the same.

Never trust anyone who tries to convince you that a person living authentically isn't valuable to us all. When you create, be sure to celebrate that diversity. It's not political, it's reality.

3: Build Allyship Into Your Creative Process

Here's what I've learned in over two decades of making things: creation is resistance. But the worlds we create matter just as much as the act of creating.

I'm a white male filmmaker. I've had advantages in this industry that others haven't. And I could make the easy choice—tell stories about people who look like me, hire crews that look like me, and stay safe to ensure those up top can visualize ROI on their investment because they don't have the imagination or fortitude to see anything else.

But that's not the world I live in or want to show people.

Research shows that promoting contact between members of different groups has the potential to move us from numerical diversity, where people merely coexist, to relational diversity, where people actually relate to one another as human beings. This happens when you commit to true allyship in your work—not as a checkbox, but as the foundation.

Because bigotry stems from ignorance, fear, tribalism, and scapegoating. It lacks empathy and openness to differing cultures. Fascism thrives when we're separated, suspicious, and afraid to trust anyone different from ourselves, when we direct our fear to the left or right of us rather than... Up.

Art does the opposite. Art celebrates difference. Art says: Look at all these ways of being human, aren't they incredible?

Ally Basics:

• When developing your projects, ask: whose stories am I telling? Who's in the room when we're creating? Who's on camera? Who's behind the camera?

• Make diversity non-negotiable from the start—not something you figure out in pre-production.

• If you have privilege in this industry (and most of us have some form of it), use it to platform voices that are being actively silenced. Fill your world with the world around us.

When I'm ultimately directing The Crimson Pool, I'll build a cast and crew that reflects this actual world. When The Empress of DäGar gets made—a story about a Black girl and an alien warrior forming a found family—it will be made by artists who understand that experience from the inside. When The Great Zombie Recess War shows kids of all backgrounds surviving together, that won't be an accident.

Films create empathy bridges that show people there's nothing to fear in difference. So cross the bridge already.

Sense8, a beautiful action-heavy story of humanity from the Wachowskis

4: Do Nothing. It's Okay*.

I'd be lying if I said this was easy.

Some days I can't write. Some days, just surviving is the victory. Hell, most of 2025 was just surviving, remember? You don't have to be productive every single day. You just have to not quit forever.

'Harness Your Fire.' 'Perseverance is Key.' These aren't just my slogans—they're survival strategies forged across decades of rejections and closed doors and strikes and pandemics and the tech-broification of our entire industry and now... whatever this moment turns out to be.

Don't Do Something All The Time:

• On days when you can't create, do something else that matters. Go to the movies. Read. Play video games. Show up for your community. Support other artists—especially those whose identities are under attack right now

• Find ways to stay connected to the work without the pressure of output. I recently worked as a script supervisor for a day to help out my pal Matthew S. Robinson on the film he's directing.

  

  "men"

  I had the time of my life. I wasn't writing. I wasn't directing. I was just there, helping bring someone else's vision to life, celebrating his wins, being part of the magic of a set. Often, just being in the work, even if it's not YOUR work, recharges you in ways you didn't know you needed.

• When you can't help, rest without guilt. Rest is resistance when the system wants you to be burnt out. (And it always wants you burnt out.)

• But never quit. That's how they win.

5: Create Like Your Life Depends On It (Because Someone's Does)

The Crimson Pool is still making the rounds—there's movement. It's slow, like everything else for everyone who's trying to get things made right now. But I never rest all my eggs in one basket. As I mentioned above, I'm well into writing a new feature. I'm developing other stories into comics. I'll be sharing more about that and what my actual process looks like in future entries.

Everything I do is to get back to yelling 'Action' on set. That's the goal.

Because when I'm behind the camera with a crew that reflects the actual world and actors bringing their full selves toa story that celebrates people becoming who they truly are—that's when I can show audiences: See? This isn't scary. Look at all these facets of being human. Isn't it incredible? How can you not think that this is incredible??

So, Let's Be Incredible:

• In a fascist state, the most dangerous thing you can do is imagine a world where difference is celebrated, where diversity is the source of strength, where people become who they truly are without fear—and then show it to people.

  
  

  That's why they ban books. That's why they silence artists. That's why they stymie education and want us afraid of each other.

• So create anyway. Celebrate difference. Build diverse teams. Put the actual world on screen—not some sanitized, homogeneous version of it.

  
  

  Not because it's easy. Not because we're sure it'll work. But because the alternative—silence, surrender, homogeneity—isn't an option.

Now It's Your Turn

You're not alone in this. None of us is.

What are you creating right now? 

Tell us in the comments. What are you doing to keep the fire burning? What's your survival strategy? Let's build something they can't tear down.

Remember, we're here because not everyone approaches life with curiosity and imagination. We do. That's why you have to remain creative. To show everyone that we all thrive when everyone's seated at the table.

If you're ready to keep going, join the revolution.

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My next blog will be a little lighter, I promise. I've created so many concepts that have never seen the light of day. I'm going to share one that almost made it into a project, and the process that went into bringing it to reality. I'm pretty jazzed to share it.

Subscribe, and you'll get updates on new projects, a peek at my creative process as a writer and director, behind-the-scenes stories, and reminders that your work matters—especially now.

If this resonated, share it with one person who needs to hear it. The filmmaker who's doubting. The writer who's stuck. The friend who's desperate to be accepted as their authentic self. We're stronger when we create together.

Remember... the moment shows up whether we want it or not.

Let's be dangerous. Together.