We recently connected with Benjamin Marcus and have shared our conversation below.
Benjamin, appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
I honestly think writers are born with the “Writer’s Brain” just as musicians are born with the “Music Brain.”
And I also think these traits are inherited.
My grandfather Joseph Schafer taught history at University of Oregon and wrote books about the history of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest.
There’s a building there named after him at U of Oregon = Schafer Hall. And then he was director of the Wisconsin Historic Society.
I’m good at writing history and making it interesting and I’ve written like 30 books or something and dozens of articles.
Wonder where that came from?
So I think I was born with the Writer’s Brain but then had to evolve and exercise and refine it.
That started when I got hired at SURFER MAgazine in 1989 and was there for 10 years.
When people say they want to learn to write, I say: “Get a job where you have to do it, every day. You make mistakes, you learn, you evolve your voice, you gain confidence, you see what works and what doesn’t, you get efficient.”
I wrote a lot and got confident and evolved a voice and now they can’t shut me up.
I also say: “You want to understand a topic; Write a book about it.”
Ask me anything about surf history or skateboard history or Malibu history.
I know it because I’ve written books about all of it.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Right now I am the Communications Director/Rasputin/flak-catcher for a woman who just won a seat on the Malibu City Council. I helped her campaign until she fired me, like Scaramucci got fired after 11 days in the White House and Bennet Marco was fired in The Manchurian Candidate.
Our interviews caused too much negative flak on NextDoor and it spooked her and she had to distance herself from me.
But now that she has won I am working with her to get her messages out.
I told all the squawkers on NextDoor: “You put the crone in cronyism.”
Right now I am waiting to make her transparenCITY website go live.
Wix.com is taking forever to transfer her domain and I don’t know why.
I am also working on a big, ambitious book about George Greenough with the surfboard shaper Marc Andreini. It’s gonna be a masterpiece if we can find the right art director.
I am also proofing a book about surf lingo for a guy in Hawaii. Found some big mistakes and little mistakes.
I just finished a custom crossword -puzzle for a family in Massachusetts. I have the ability to make custom crossword puzzles because my grandfather was a code-breaker during World War 2- did you see Imitation Game? The code-breaking mind is the crossword mind.
Im working with a gal in Nigeria who does a good job, but it’s hard to get money to her.
http://www.benmarcusrules.com/custom-crossword-puzzles
I write a weekly column for the Malibu Times where I can say pretty much anything I want, and I also do longer features for them from time to time.
I caught three mistakes in The New Yorker and emailed the editor about one. He responded and apologized and then I pitched a bunch of stories but they already have a writer with my name so whatever.
I’m also working on a long-delayed project called Chumash to Hard Cash which is a history of Malibu going way back.
That, too, might be a masterpiece if I ever finish it.
The gal re-creating the photos of Clara Bow and Joan Crawford is the daughter of the woman who played Daphne on Frasier and Marla the Virgin on Seinfeld.
http://www.benmarcusrules.com/chumash-to-had-cash-malibu-histoy
And some other stuff.
I gots a busy brain. I admit it.
I thought I was Spicoli but now I’m closer to Winston Churchill
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
I’m good at writing – it’s a natural blessing I suppose – and it’s just good to be good at something.
So I do it as much as possible and try to help others wherever possible.
I’ve got about 15 ideas banging around in my head at al ltimes.
Go on my website and you’ll see:
A TV show called Malibu Fire = Baywatch x Entourage x Californication x Northern Exposure x High Noon
Bubblehead = A girl with super powers idea based on Macbeth
Swipe = A graphic novel set in Hawaii.
Deus ex Machina = a musical space opera.
No Man Needs Nothing = An answer to the homeles problem based on the English transportation system of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Chumash to Hard Cash = A visual history book.
Breaking Point = A movie for Scott and Clint Eastwood
Flexicon – A collection of my neologism/portmanteau words.
http://www.benmarcusrules.com/flexicon
I would love to get all those ideas out of my head and onto pages or the screen.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
I have a thing called The Ten Year Rule, where after you have done something for 10 years it is time to do something else.
After 10 years of working at SURFER Magazine I figured I had done enough.
I slugged an ad salesman and got kicked out of the office and that was that.
I moved to Tiburon with my wife but then I nuked that so had to wander for a few years before I found another path.
Then I started writing books and wandered quite a bit but the good thing about the writer brain is everything is interesting and it all goes into the creative calabash.
So I got fired from SURFER in 1999 and wandered until I ended up in Malibu around 2003.
I’ve been in Malibu off and on since 2003.
I’f you’re going to be a broke creative who used to surf and still loves the ocean, this is the place.
There are smart, talented, successful people here and I want to be one of them.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.benmarcusrules.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ike.thecat/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ben.marcus.3950
- Twitter: https://x.com/thebenmalibu
- Youtube: @benjaminmarcus17
Image Credits
All photos by Ben Marcus and a couple by mom.