Not ready for primetime? No matter, just do it.

Back in October, I went to one of my local AMC’s to watch the new Jason Reitman movie Saturday Night. If you don’t know what it is, it’s a retelling of the time leading up to the premiere of the show that would become Saturday Night Live. I liked it, although if I were to talk about pretty much every part of it besides the casting, I would sound like I didn’t like it. That’s just how this movie worked for me. I’m not here to review it, the quality of that film is not why I bring it up.

Instead, I bring it up because of its subject, and how regardless of who was ready to go on, and whether or not the stage was ready, the show would go on. There, in that studio, in that building in New York, at 11:30 PM, the show would be live. 

…

Okay, I could have just led off by talking about Saturday Night Live. There really was no reason to bring Saturday Night into this. I might as well have talked about how Cousin Greg from Succession played both Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson in the movie. It has nothing to do with this newsletter, but it’s an Amy Wren Guaranteed Fun Fact! 

Umm, back to my point, which is that at 11:30 ET on Saturday Night, Saturday Night Live goes live, whether they are ready or not. The same thing is true for this newsletter, as it goes live on Thursdays, whether I have something interesting to say or not.

(Look, I swear this is going somewhere, just stick with me)

For a long time, I had an issue with getting started on creative projects. Okay, that’s not true, I started plenty of projects throughout the years. The real issue was that I just could not finish things. There are plenty of reasons for that, but one of the biggest ones was that I didn’t want to put anything out there until it was “just so”. But I could never get to “just so”, so the awkward rough beginnings would just peter out.

In the last five years, as I’ve really started writing and creating videos in earnest, I’ve come to be more forgiving of just getting things out. They may be imperfect, they may not be everything I wished they were. But they are out there. Each and every thing video and story and newsletter post I’ve written has had something about I like. And something I would improve. I hope I’ve learned something every time I create something, and that my work is getting better. I think it is, and I suppose that’s the most important thing in all of this?

This was especially important with videos, as I’ve not really worked in anything approaching that medium for like twenty years. I had to start from scratch, with almost no budget, and try to put something out. I think the lack of experience shows in my videos I’ve created to date, for sure. But so has my desire to get better at it. I do believe my latest videos (now created over a year ago, but we’ll get to that) are better produced and tighter works than the first ones. 

Unfortunately, 2024 just was not a very productive year for creative works for me. Or at least, in the sense of projects that have been released. My video ideas have mostly fallen apart, or had to be put on hold because the rest of my life intervened, or my ideas hit plateaus where my aspirations outstrip my current capabilities. As for my writing, well, outside of this newsletter and my Letterboxd, that’s not really happened much either. 

But things do feel like they are picking up again. I’ve started work on new videos, and should have one (or if I’m lucky, two) out by the end of the year. I have a writing project in progress that I am the most excited I’ve been about a writing project in a good while. And I’m feeling pretty good about getting this newsletter up and running regularly. The idea that I need to find something to write about in a few hours a week feels invigorating to me.

But it’s not just the smaller scope of a newsletter that excites me. It’s the idea that as this is a regular thing, I don’t have to build up the stakes so much. Because I’m doing this every week, I can do my work, put it out there, and move on. An all timer? Cool, pat yourself on the back, and come back next week to do another one. A weird incoherent mess? Tough break, kid, come back next week. Lord knows the batting average of Saturday Night Live is pretty low. But then the next week after a total dud of a sketch, they’ll come back with an all timer. In the end it all works out. 

That isn’t to say I don’t want to do the best possible job I can do. Because I do, for sure I do. Rather, it’s to remind me that at some point I just have to let it out there, and move on to the next work. Which means that it’s time to say goodbye to this newsletter, and let it be. And next week, we’ll be back here all over again with a review, or a story, or some kind of weird combination of the two. And that’s an Amy Wren Guarantee.

Do you have thoughts about this week's newsletter, or about creating things? Do you want to talk about the film Saturday Night, or argue over which era of Saturday Night Live is the best? Do you want to make a totally original Saturday Night Dead joke? Head to the comments section and have at it then!

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