A VEIL OF VAGUENESS

Table of Contents

• A VEIL OF VAGUENESS

• SIGNPOST 🪧 - PSYCHOPHYSICAL HABITS

• WHAT I’M WORKING ON

• MY CURIOSITY

CRAFT AND SPIRIT
A VEIL OF VAGUENESS

I just had this realization that I've hid behind a veil of vagueness for a long time. And I still do that, too. Not as much as I used to. In a constant path toward growth I’ve come a long way. As a storyteller, I hid behind this veil to appear mysterious, to pull the audience in with questions of what’s actually happening behind that veil, hoping they would pull it wide open.

I felt that staying mysterious was the right way to go. But, mind you, of course, there's a difference between vague and mysterious. Though mysterious can have vagueness, vagueness doesn't necessarily mean mysterious. But I really was just vague.

I didn't tell people many things. I told people a lot of things. But I never really went into detail. I was vague.

In Chekhov, one of the four most important details in art is:

Ease. Form. Beauty. Entirety.

Within Form are tenants, which among them are “Beginning, Middle, End” and “Clear.” To have a clear beginning, middle, and end is to tell the story not just simply, but with a strength that is committed and moving toward a goal, sometimes that means the simplest path from point A to point B - how do you achieve what you want? There’s a great deal of necessity in the form of storytelling.

And I never did that. I think back at the social media posts I used to paste onto Instagram when I was on it. I look at the form of mystery that I took on. realizing how unclear it was to me what I was doing, and I wonder if people could see that, or sense that. That something was off.

That maybe Matt was hiding behind a wall of veiled vagueness. Sometimes I do that in these newsletters, too. I work around a topic to appear as contemplating or questioning or running circles around something. Though I would say, and argue, that many of the questions that come from my articles are genuine. But there’s a difference between asking a question and vagueness. There's a difference between a mystery, as I said before, and vagueness, which doesn't necessarily mean mystery. There's a clear form when it comes to a question. What is the question?

Let's ask the question, and let's discover the answer. That's part of a clear form for me. There's a clear form to something mysterious. What is the mystery? Clarity doesn’t always just come to time sitting and doing nothing, there are some actionable steps to entering and trying to understand.

Where did it come from? And how does it end? But I have to give myself a little bit of credit for how I'm on my path toward answering these questions. I'm on a path toward gaining clarity myself.

Gaining clarity in what it is that I wish to say. Gaining clarity in how I want to say it. The form in which I wish to say it. And most importantly, why I want to say it.

So I would say my why has become more and more clear in the past few years. I wish to inspire change. I wish to be the extrinsic motivation toward intrinsic motivation toward change. But there still has to be clarity in what it is that I'm sharing.

It's hard to be vague and expect people to get much out of it. But yes, I'm still working on it. And I recognize that there's a lot of form that I have yet to discover in my work and in my efforts. Even in my storytelling.

I'm no English major. I haven't read all that many books. I always wish I could have read more. But don't worry, I'm working on that too.

And there's plenty more writing that I'll be accomplishing throughout the entirety of my life. Because I love finding words for what's in my mind and what's happening and what I see every day. And what I'm thinking about. Because I love sharing that with you.

For the sake of clarity, I do want to let you know that I’m moving to two newsletters per week. I’ve been looking back at my newsletters and realizing the speed at which I’ve been writing them hasn’t been to my taste. I want to continue to spend a little bit more time in the drafting stage, thinking about why I’m saying something.

I’ll be focusing on writing on my process in Beauty and the Beast as well as the work that I’m doing with filming. I’ll still grant more of my notes and the open honest work that I’m doing in process, so there’s plenty of information coming your way.

Writing grants me clarity within myself in how it is that I wish to communicate it, but also how to wrap my head around the process or whatever stimuli that has entered. So of course I'm inspired by many, many things in life, and I understand that I could probably do with a bit more focus in life. So I'm just really working on garnering that clarity. The more that I can do that, the more that I know that I can give you value in these newsletters.

Practicing tools of form will also help to communicate what I keep trying to communicate. And hopefully I can do that on a more consistent level. Because at this current moment, I'm not. I'm not consistent, as much as I'd love to say that I am.

I’ll be seeing you twice per week as of right now, so I can’t wait to chat with you on Monday! Monday and Friday are my new posting schedule as of right now.

Become a paying subscriber of Premium to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content.

Already a paying subscriber? Sign In.

A subscription gets you:

• • 2x weekly emails
• • First to receive all video and podcast work
• • First looks into my projects and craft
• • Consciously curated curiosities 2x weekly
• • Signs left on my journey 🪧 2x weekly