Nobody Tells This to People Who Are Beginners

Rachel T. · Ocelot Joined: 15 Jan 2008 Posts: 1912 Location: Michigan

I stumbled on this quote a while back, and it helped me through a rough patch. Since a bunch of us are finishing up STCrenzy (the STC version of Script Frenzy), and a few of us are gearing up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and there are, or will be, pages of disheartening rough drafts staring at us, I thought I'd pass along the encouragement. It's a quote by NPR's Ira Glass:

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners -

I wish someone told me.

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, 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 its 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.”

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Don't be afraid to admit that inside you is a seething, fiery core of ambition and lust for success that would appall Napoleon.
-Russell Galen

writingmama · Huggy Cat Joined: 13 Aug 2008 Posts: 2496

Thanks for this, Rachel!

Writer hugs!

Bryan Reeves · Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2012 8:21 pm Post subject:

Rachel, thank you for posting this; it came at an opportune time for me. Since I semi-publicly pronounced over two years ago that I was going to try writing, this past month I met something akin to writer's block.

Frustrating.

I had a decent outline and structure for a little ten minute play... basically about four scenes. I knew the characters sufficient to get a first draft. But every time I sat to write, nothing. Getting two or three lines would take an hour. Doubts gave way to distractions. Then with effort, the doubts became so heavy I just could not write.

Well, I did get five pages done. Five banal pages.

Rick, if you're reading this, you're right, I am a loser. I lost because I didn't make my goal. I didn't win.

However, I believe in treating each loss and each victory the same... learn from it and move on.

I think I can see on the horizon a couple of lessons, maybe more.

1. Passion is important, but not the only necessary ingredient to writing. I felt good about this project... still do... but if that passion doesn't turn into energy and motivation, it will only devour my soul. It mocks me. I feel it in the pit of my stomach and around my heart.

2. Making a habit of writing is important. Even when research is the key element at the time, I must develop a habit of writing each day.

3. Similar to 2 is to not get stuck on one project. I know the maxim to work on one project at a time. However, I want to explore the idea that writing still needs to be done, even if it is just to kick start the project at the top of the list.

4. Friends or co-writers are important. I've been ashamed to admit to the lack of discipline to write, to gut it out and push on through. So, I didn't want to engage other writers. I'm perfectly/procrastinatory enough to hide behind this sham. No more.

I hope this is the wall of the cocoon that is weakening and I'm about to bust it wide open.

So, Rachel, thanks again.

_________________
"The standard doesn't change."-Mike Tomlin

Thor's Hammer · Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2012 11:27 pm Post subject:

I'll have no loser talk in here....got it?

Look, a friend of mine from High School who is in the business (producer, actor, writer, etc) said a lot of the same things to me that Rachel posted above, and I was lucky to hear it. I asked him to read my first script, he asked if I had read Save The Cat, and when I said, 'no', he told me he wouldn't read it until I read the book and made sure my logline, beatsheet, 40 cards, and script followed STC. So, I did...and it changed my whole outlook.

Then he read my script. And he spent over two hours of his precious time telling me EVERYTHING about that script that sucked (and, by the way, it did), how my dialog was stilted, too on the nose, etc. It was not discouraging, it was needed.

Then he told me what I really needed to hear. He was really afraid to read my script and have to be the one to tell me that I had no talent, that I should just get out of writing, and do something else. I had asked him to potentially be a dream killer...which I hadn't thought of. And then he told me I had something. Something that jumped from the pages, something that was visual and he could see, even though the genre I had written wasn't what he really watched much of. He told me that with lots of practice and writing and re-writing and practice and re-writing, I could hone this gift and really do something....really make something. He wasn't just saying it because he was my friend, he was saying it because it was true. But writing every day was really important, and if you weren't writing, you were reading other scripts, or reading books to get ideas or you were dreaming up characters...something related to writing, every day.

Bryan, Rachel, Debbie, Rick...all of us Cats in here...we got the talent. We ARE writers. We just need to keep polishing that apple every day. Keep working on it, every day. Set those goals and then work toward them. And when we don't make them, realize we're farther along than when we were when we started down the path, and work from that point.

We are writers, people. And we will see our works on the stage, screen, television, print...as long as we keep those goals in front of us and work toward them every day.

Keep Writing.

Bryan Reeves · Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2012 9:50 pm Post subject:

Thanks, Rich.

Reprimand taken. No loser talk... just a little about delay meeting a goal.

Still pressing on....

in no small part thanks to the great writers here.

_________________
"The standard doesn't change."-Mike Tomlin

Mike Rinaldi · Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2012 4:38 am Post subject:

Although not everyone has good taste. But... um... yeah.

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The Slusho's gone? Why is all the Slusho gone?

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