Book of Steve Job

I learned after working on The PriVILEged for eight years that pain and suffering make for a great story. The Book of Exodus serves as an example of tremendous pain and suffering. I also believe the same could be said of the Book of Steve Job.

We know that Steve wasn't exactly the embodiment of happiness. In fact, I'd say he had a depressive personality, yet he created such genius gadgets that forever changed our world. I wanted some of what he was feeling all those years because I have similar ambitions with my storytelling.

The idea of writing a story about Catholic priests and children of God was quite an undertaking after having been raised by atheist parents, so to tell the best story I could I felt as if I needed to suffer along with Catholics. Steve had this tremendous capacity for empathy and therefore understood exactly what his customers needed. I thought similarly and that if I suffered alongside Catholics, I could show my own capacity for empathy and demonstrate an understanding of their need to heal from sexual abuse. 

The story of The PriVILEged doesn't stray from themes of suffering and humility and that's why I think it took so long to write it. As I kept writing, I kept waiting for some kind of happy ending to surface but there wasn't one and I found that to be rather depressing. But for Steve, maybe suffering and depression was happiness. After all, just because we're happy it doesn't guarantee success, a longer life, or even acceptance. I'd even argue that Steve's personal trials of depression and suffering were very much like that of the Book of Job and that he used these feelings in a state that could be considered fertile ground for greatness.