Stories that Last

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Stories that Last


Disney writer and director John Musker on writing with a collaborator, which feedback to take and which to ignore, and how to keep going when you’re stuck.

I almost expect the bunny to start talking to me.

I stare as it hops silently into the greenery outside the home of John Musker, the man who brought to life a mouse detective, a blue genie, a frog prince, an ocean voyager, and a little mermaid. I’ve been listening to John’s words since I was three-years old. I walk past the hiding bunny to John’s door, remembering the first time his art affected my life.

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the missing ingredient in most creative plans

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the missing ingredient in most creative plans


Inspired by Samin Nosrat: Chef, author, and host extraordinaire of the Netflix show Salt Fat Acid Heat

It’s fine to do some things fast. There is a time for all that speedy goodness - to whip something up and get it out. Done is better than perfect and all that jazz.

We live in this amazing time where we can create quickly. Like, right now. I had an idea and I rushed to my computer and here I am, with you now, because I just got going.

But what about those Big Creative Projects?

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Surviving Instability

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Surviving Instability


Actor Zach Knighton on the ups and downs of the creative life, and what to do on the “down” days.

Think about your favorite TV show of all time. You know the one. It’s that one you watch over and over again - on airplanes, in hotel rooms; you devour it like your favorite food after a rough day or a big life transition. Something about it feels like home.

It’s also the show you and your partner (or best friend) quote so much that at some point you realize almost half of everything you say to each other is quotes from this show (and in that exact moment you realize you and this person have the perfect relationship).

Now think of your favorite character on that show, the one who brings you the most joy.

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Hiding in Your Room

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Hiding in Your Room


Singer-songwriter Molly Jenson on showing up as your real self, especially after heartbreak.

So much about being a professional artist is showing up.

Again and again and again and again. Even when it hurts.

It also requires a transmutation of rejection, seeing it in a new skin.

What a professional artist knows is that rejection is part of the job – not a sign you’re wrong for the job.

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Childhood is Better than Awards

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Childhood is Better than Awards


Oscar-winning songwriting team Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Bobby Lopez on finding their dreams and what’s even better than winning an Oscar.

Today I saw the movie CoCo for the first time (spoiler alert: I cried 17 times).

Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Bobby Lopez wrote the Golden-Globe and Oscar-nominated title song, “Remember Me,” for the Disney Pixar film, and I couldn’t help but smile as I watched the Golden Globes recently and caught a glimpse of them sitting in their finest at a round table with other artists I love (like the director and writer of Frozen, Jennifer Lee). A few months ago I sat at a square table on my porch in San Diego, California, phone in hand, about to call Kristen and Bobby.

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When it's Time to Walk Away

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When it's Time to Walk Away


Broadway performer Morgan Marcell (Matayoshi) on walking away from something good to pursue what lights you up.

Morgan Marcell is a force.

You might know that from hearing her on the Hamilton cast album, seeing her on Broadway, or maybe you saw her on TV that time she performed at The Grammys.

(If you’re a super Hamilton fan you definitely saw her perform “My Shot” as Alexander Hamilton for a few minutes outside The Richard Rogers theater, or caught a glimpse of her at The White House performance.)

I know it because I met her backstage at Hamilton once where her smile literally changed the electricity in a room already lit up with stars (and cake).

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Making a Living as an Artist

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Making a Living as an Artist


Disney artist Antonio Pelayo on the importance of practice and how to make a living as an artist.

It was one of those Instagram posts that make you scroll back up and stare.

It was more real than real.

And it wasn't done with a camera.

But with a pencil.

A pencil?!

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Feeling Terrified

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Feeling Terrified


Original Hamilton cast member Seth Stewart on taking risks even when you’re terrified, and the surprising ways those risks can pay off.

In my favorite episode of the TV show How I Met Your Mother - "Lucky Penny" - protagonist Ted tells his kids how finding a penny on the ground created a seemingly random series of events that caused him to lose out on his dream job.

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why your stories keep others going

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why your stories keep others going

Aka why I’m obsessed with Angie Thomas

I was walking in an airport feeling like giving up.

It was about a year ago. I was in year three of a book project I thought would take one year. The research was intense, and everything else in life kept getting in the way of me having the long stretches of uninterrupted time I needed to wrap my head around the million words of research I’d created.

I started to feel like it just wasn’t going to happen.

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7 lessons from the artist who gave me permission to dream

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7 lessons from the artist who gave me permission to dream

What did you like to do when you were a kid?

I've been thinking about that question a lot lately.

I put snails in a jar.

I wrote plays.

I acted in my own plays and one-woman shows. (Thank goodness YouTube did not exist then).

I memorized and performed scenes from The Little Mermaid.

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Surviving the Editing Process

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Surviving the Editing Process


Journalist Jada Yuan on why needing 17 rounds of edits doesn’t mean you’re bad at your craft.

You’ve probably never heard of “Jada Yuan,” but you’ve heard of the people she’s interviewed: Steven Spielberg, Taylor Swift, Mindy Kaling, Stevie Nicks, to name a few. But who she knows is not what makes Jada interesting – it’s how she writes; she is one of my favorite writers.

Jada is a storyteller – and I want to find out how she got so good at her craft.

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spinning teacups

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spinning teacups

"Chaos is a ladder," so says Game of Thrones.

My goal is to meet the person who wrote that line.

Like all great art, there are a million ways you can interpret that line. Please, enjoy your own. But mine? Mine came to me like my first book idea jumping into my head while walking on campus - a bolt of lightning that feels like it's come out of nowhere until you realize it is something that has been building for 24 years. 

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When No One Will Hire You

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When No One Will Hire You


Oscar-winning makeup artist Dave Elsey on what to do when no one will hire you for your dream job.

I wish you could hear Dave Elsey’s voice. It’s all kindness and wonder, wrapped up in an accent that makes me long for the two weeks I spent across England in my third year of college, climbing up moors with sheep everywhere, eating jacket potatoes in places called the “Red Lion,” and trying chana masala for the first time in London.

Also there was the Monet room, which I stumbled upon while lost, roaming the giant halls of the National Gallery in London, the art museum guarded by giant bronze Lions in Trafalgar Square. I stood in the exact center of the Monet room, equidistant from each painting, and slowly walked closer until my breath touched the paint.

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when your creative project wants to be something else

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when your creative project wants to be something else

I woke up today and decided it was time to scrap everything on my website (isaadney.com) about the book I've been working on for two years and rewrite.

Over the course of these past two years, the book became something completely different than what it started out as. 

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dandelions

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dandelions

I have loved Beauty and the Beast for what feels like my entire life, but there is one scene that has always stood out among the rest (and that is saying a lot because it had to compete with the library reveal and that time when she's trying to pick out a book on the step ladder and that first "There goes the baker..."). 

But the scene that has stayed with me long into adulthood is the one where she runs into a field of dandelions and sings, as the music crescendos,: "I want adventure in the great wide somewhere, I want it more than I can tell..."

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maybe being embarrassed by your creative work isn't always a bad thing

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maybe being embarrassed by your creative work isn't always a bad thing

Doing creative work can be embarrassing: putting yourself out there for all to see, waiting to see if anyone responds, all the while unsure which scenario you fear more - someone actually seeing it and responding or no one seeing it. Both sound terrible in the beginning. 

I'm sure there are things I probably never published because I felt embarrassed, or maybe things I never said. I'm sure there are projects and ideas I've never shared because I was embarrassed. Somehow I came to think that embarrassment about something before sharing it was a sure sign that the thing would indeed be embarrassing (i.e. a total failure). 

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a cuppa

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a cuppa

I am not British but I went to England for two weeks in college and I fell in love with everything about it. We did London for only a few days at the end - which was great of course - but what really captured my heart was the English countryside.

The gardens. The architecture. The very friendly people and scrumptious food that belied much of what people told me to expect about the place.

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