Advice to beginnings

Via Done Deal and The Writer's Underground:

"Ira Glass of PRI’s This American Life talks about creativity, and absolutely kills it (via these wonderful transcriptions from the Design Talk blog):

“What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me . . . is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not.

But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story.

It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

He’s referring to those producing video, but alter a few words, and it maps to pretty much any creative endeavor. Including writing."

http://writerunderground.com/2011/04/28/ira-glass-on-creativity-or-the-gap-between-our-taste-and-our-work/

YEEP! Should have been "advice to BEGINNERS"

this is one of those things that cannot be taught. everything is too subjective and some people will not believe it. it's the thought of nepotism that might make people realize this is true. think if you had Clint Eastwood or Spielberg or Coppola or Ron Howard as a daddy. growing up with these guys is training in itself. and none of them would let crap from their kid go out to the public.

@at Lori; if you do a workshop I would pay.
call it serendipity, i just watch a interview with paul haggis- the best picture writer of Crash 2006.
he said he gives himself a goal when he is given a project. 2 pages a day. and this has worked since Crash.

Malcolm Gladwell says in "Outliers" that the process of becoming proficient in a creative field takes about 10,000 hours. That seems reasonable to me.

Ira Glass did indeed nail it. Thanks for sharing, Lauri.

Thanks, Chris -- but you missed it. :)

Last night I spoke to my 11-year-old's book club about screenwriting. They happened to be reading "Riding Freedom" which is about the stagecoach driver Charlie Parkhurst. My script "Whiplash" (posted here) is about the same person.

Thanks again Lauri:

Those who say there is no value in this forum forgot about you. Always appreciate your contributions.

Blush. :)

Thanks, Calvin!