Friday, September 30, 2011

Inspirational Words from Ira Glass

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. For example, you want to make TV because you love TV. There is stuff that you just love.

So you have really good taste. But you get into this thing where there is this gap. For the first couple years you are making stuff… but what you’re making isn’t so good. It’s not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, your taste is still killer. And your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you’re making is a disappointment to you. It’s still sorta crappy.

A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. But the thing I would say to you with all my heart: most everyone I know who does interesting, creative work, went through years of this. We knew our work didn’t have this special thing that we wanted it to have. Everybody goes through this.

If you are just starting this phase, still in this phase, getting out of this phase, you gotta know it’s totally normal and the most important, possible thing you can do is do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week or every month you know you will finish one story. You create the deadline. It’s best if you have someone waiting for the work, even if it’s somebody that doesn’t pay you. 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.

In my case, I took longer to figure out how to do this than anybody I’ve ever met. It takes a while. It’s going to take you a while. It’s normal to take a while. And you just have to fight your way through that.



Ira Glass is host and producer of This American Life.

8 comments:

  1. "And your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you’re making is a disappointment to you. It’s still sorta crappy. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. But the thing I would say to you with all my heart: most everyone I know who does interesting, creative work, went through years of this."

    I really like this, Sister Steph. It's hard to recognize that we haven't achieved "perfection," when we're still immersed in our work, but we eventually do. And like Glass says, the difficult part is to continue despite the self-doubt and frustration, and keep writing and learning. This reminds me of what Mario Vargas Llosa says about nobody being born a "novelist prodigy". This is something that has to be learned (even though, as with any other art form, it's hard to determine how much of it is skill and how much is talent.)

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  2. But what would be the meaning of "pefection"? How could we identfy it? Most of us think that those who do get published have reached that stage, but have they?

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  3. Well, I don't know that there is such a thing as perfection (in anything, not only literature) but particularly in creative endeavors because they're very subjective. What some may consider "perfect" others will think is flawed. What I meant was that sometimes we think what we've done is perfect and then we come to realize it's not.

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  4. Maybe not perfection, but satisfaction. When you see the words on the page, and they reflect what you envisioned — what you wanted to say — the feeling of satisfaction is profound. When that starts to happen more than that feeling of disappointment, I'll know that I'm making progress. That I'm getting somewhere.

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  5. I believe Ira is talking about his own expectations. I think I can identify with the feeling of knowing in my head what the final product should be (whether it is a cake, a photo, a drawing) and what my clumsy hands are able to accomplish :) It takes practice and patience so dont give up is what he is saying right? Truly inspiring. I love this blog btw. Congrats to all the sisters.

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  6. Practice and patience...and time! Welcome and thanks for your contribution, dear former Socia (and current boss)

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  7. Welcome Socia Mari C! It's nice to "see" you again. Did Violante tell you I wanted to borrow your papi during DB? ;) (Now I wish I had included a photo of him in my telenovelas post, ha!)

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  8. Hey my novelera socias! Thank you for the warm welcome. Lorena, you can borrow my papi whenever you want :) Im not a writer but I am enjoying reading about writing very much.

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