Entertainment Professional and Writer Robert Tessman
This week’s Writer Wednesday features Robert Tessman of Commerce, Michigan! Robert is one of our new Writer Wednesday members and is working on a cool superhero comic book. He previously lived in Los Angeles where he created themed spaces for Walt Disney Imagineering and other entertainment companies. Learn more about Robert and his creative passions below!
What is your city of residence?
I was born in Royal Oak, Michigan, and I grew up in Commerce Township. I moved to Los Angeles in 1997 and I’ve lived in Shanghai, Abu Dhabi and Osaka. I work in Themed Entertainment and after COVID canceled my project, instead of moving back to LA, I moved back to Commerce. With all the uncertainty of COVID, it was important for me to be with my family and to finally focus on my passion project. I’m not sure where I’ll end up next or when, but I’m enjoying my time home while I have it. I’m experiencing The Hero’s Journey firsthand.
What does your writing workspace look like?
COVID altered my plans yet again by having to social distance. So, in lieu of co-working spaces around Detroit, I transformed a room in my mother’s basement into my working space. I call it my new old room, and it’s my Batcave. It’s full of an eclectic mix of Batman memorabilia and a Bose sound system with Philips Hue lighting. I have them in so many shapes and sizes, and more in storage that I’m thinking of starting a support group. It’s a themed experience all my own, and it provides me with an escape and inspiration. While I don’t live in my mom’s basement, I do work in it.
What is your favorite part of the writing process?
I’ve been writing since I was 12, and I love the journey my writing takes me on. With the latest pen and ink color I thought was cool in hand, I remember how much I loved to look at a fresh ream of paper on my clipboard, excited for the ideas I would capture. I still love it. If I discover that something I wrote is similar to something someone else wrote, I look at it as a gift. I’m happy I share a great idea and I make my idea even better than I thought it could be. I call those moments, Serendipitous Obstacles!
What is your favorite non-writing hobby?
I love to nest. For work, I’ve helped to theme spaces for Walt Disney Imagineering, Warner Bros. and Universal Studios. For home, I theme my spaces where I’m the character and it’s my meet-and-greet. Where everything I love and find inspiring is unapologetically on full display, for me and for my family and friends to enjoy.
What writing projects are you currently working on?
I’m currently working on my own Superhero Comic Book Spectacle. Think Batman, but with a Civil Rights message without being preachy, chock-full of allegory (J.R.R. Tolkien be damned). I have my entertainment value — a cool car I’ve been designing since I was 10 years old (that will make Detroit and the Pontiac Motor Division’s legacy proud), gadgets (that Batman will be so jelly of), an iconic costume design (that tells its own story)and more. I am equally as proud of my message; I want to show who the real heroes are in life and to empower people to be the hero of their own life.
What is your favorite piece of writing advice?
I learned not to be too rigid with what I think something should be, to let it be revealed and evolve, as I write and as time goes by. I devoured song writing books in secret when I was a kid, and little did I know, some of the lyrics I’ve written and recorded would spawn characters and scenes in my comic book. When I finally shared my secret identity as a writer with my mom, she said I must’ve gotten it from my grandmother who was a musician and leader of a Big Band in 1930’s Detroit. She then gifted me my Nana’s lyrics she’d written including a book on How to Write Songs for Talkies. I get to posthumously collaborate with my Nana by channeling her and that era, adding to those lyrics. How cool is that?! And yes, she’s found her way into my comic book. Nana’s RULE! Writing feeds my soul and it keeps my geek well fed too.