Taste

I’ve touted the Scriptnotes podcast before. Yes, it’s focused on screenwriting. (I do not write screenplays.) But I enjoy listening to John August and Craig Mazin talk about stories, storytelling, and all things related.

A recent episode (#501) was titled “Patterns of Success.”

John and Craig talked about a variety of factors and traits and whether, at least in the world of movie-making, they are necessary for success.

1. Work Habits
2. Social Savvy
3. Originality
4. Ability to embrace constraints (in other words, being flexible)

In short, work habits are good. Social savvy is a plus in Hollywood, maybe not critical. Originality is a good thing but so is being able to write in a variety of different voices. Constraints? Yes, it’s a good thing to be adaptable to whatever the project requires.

Of course, movies usually have many writing hands stirring the pot/plot. Writing novels, not so much (until you’re at agent or editor stage).

In the middle of this conversation John August played a clip from Ira Glass (This American Life guy) about developing taste. I’d never heard it—so I’m going to post it here in case you hadn’t come across it:

Ira Glass:

Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, and I really wish somebody had told this to me.

All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But it’s like there is this gap. For the first couple years that you’re making stuff, 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 that good.

But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you’re making is kind of a disappointment to you. A lot of people never get past that phase. They quit.

Everybody I know who does interesting, creative work they went through years where they had really good taste and they could tell that what they were making wasn’t as good as they wanted it to be. They knew it fell short. Everybody goes through that.

And if you are just starting out or if 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. Do a huge volume of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week or every month you know you’re going to finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you’re going to catch up and close that gap. And the work you’re making will be as good as your ambitions.

I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It takes a while. It’s gonna take you a while. It’s normal to take a while. You just have to fight your way through that.

I love that. It’s so succinct and clear. You know good writing. You have taste. You know whether your work is up to your expectations. Right?

So turn up the volume of work. It’s normal to take a while.

Whatever you do, don’t let that disappointment phase get you down.

Just don’t.