{"id":25,"date":"2008-07-22T18:07:31","date_gmt":"2008-07-23T02:07:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mossor.org\/blog\/?p=25"},"modified":"2008-07-22T18:07:31","modified_gmt":"2008-07-23T02:07:31","slug":"on-creativity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mossor.org\/blog\/on-creativity\/","title":{"rendered":"On Creativity and Storytelling"},"content":{"rendered":"

My nephew asked me recently to look at a story he’s writing and give some feedback and asked if I had any advice about writing.<\/p>\n

While by no means what I consider to be a writer, I had a few things to share that I thought worthy.<\/p>\n

The first question was what makes a writer.<\/p>\n

I don’t recall where I ran across this or if it was phrased this way (a bit of googling failed to turn up a quick answer), but here’s my favorite definition:<\/p>\n

Writers write.<\/p>\n

It’s short.\u00a0 It’s two words!\u00a0 But, it’s also a true thing.\u00a0 Writers write.\u00a0 You are a writer if you write.\u00a0 You write, therefore you are a writer.<\/p>\n

If you want to add all sort of qualifications, you can.\u00a0 Things like “professional” or “paying” or “talented” can always be placed before “writer” as achievements or judgements or justification or decoration, but none of them alter the basic truth: Writers write.<\/p>\n

Same, of course, can be said of most creative endeavors: Writers write.\u00a0 Painters paint.\u00a0 Potters pot (not entirely sure that’s a viable verb here – ah, yes, m-w.com<\/a> agrees that it’s a decent enough verb).<\/p>\n

This is my own observation: The distinction between where you are today and where you could be in the future is mostly hard work, with a strong dash of good luck.<\/p>\n

I recently ran across a set of YouTube videos by Ira Glass (This American Life<\/a>) on story telling and, more generally, how to improve your craft, be it story telling, writing, painting or nearly any creative endeavor.<\/p>\n

For those who don’t know Mr. Glass, he, along with a number of very talented contributors, does radio stories.\u00a0 Definitely worth listening to.\u00a0 He has also recently branched out to a video version of the same idea on Showtime.\u00a0 At the end of the day, though, he’s telling stories.<\/p>\n

Go to you tube, search for “Ira Glass on Storytelling”.\u00a0 There are four of them.\u00a0 About 20 minutes total.\u00a0 Watch them, pay attention to them, listen like someone is handing you free gold, because that’s what it is.<\/p>\n[Note: Linked below]\n

The third section has a critical lesson: Being good at something takes time and practice.\u00a0 Don’t give up!\u00a0 Keep producing, preferably on a deadline.<\/p>\n

Gordon, a good friend of mine, states is slightly differently: We get better at the things we practice.
\nObvious, perhaps, but still an important realization.\u00a0 Talent will give some people a head start, but the reality is, the vast majority of us can get far, far better than we are at whatever we set our minds to if we practice.<\/p>\n

My daughter is doing some videos on YouTube.\u00a0 Mostly for friends, but obviously anyone can watch them.
\nThey’re not all good, but some of them are.\u00a0 She’s also getting better the more she does, whether we’re talking editing or presentation.\u00a0 But, regardless, she is creating.\u00a0 And practicing.\u00a0 With time, if she keeps doing it, she’ll get better.\u00a0 Or, as Ira Glass talks about in the third video, she’ll begin to close the game between what she envisions and what she can create.<\/p>\n

That last is a really powerful idea and it’s one that is worth reiterating.\u00a0 Lots of people have ideas.\u00a0 Not all good, but ideas.\u00a0 They want to write something, make something, dance, sing.\u00a0 What keeps many people from doing that is that they picture the end result and they look at where they are now and they don’t know how to close the gap.<\/p>\n

The short answer is: practice.\u00a0 Like most things in life, there aren’t shortcuts, only hard work.<\/p>\n

Much of writing (or painting or singing or dancing) is mechanical.\u00a0 The rules, the structures, plotting, dialog.\u00a0 Those are all things that can be learned and can be improved.<\/p>\n

Does that mean you will end up as a top selling author\/artist\/singer\/dancer?\u00a0 Perhaps not, but if you could get 90% there on hard work, I think many of us, perhaps most of us, would be pretty happy and would be able to create what we see in our heads, or at least come close and enjoy the process!<\/p>\n

Ira Glass: On Story Telling #1
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Ira Glass: On Story Telling #2
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Ira Glass: On Story Telling #3
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Ira Glass: On Story Telling #4
\n<\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My nephew asked me recently to look at a story he’s writing and give some feedback and asked if I had any advice about writing. While by no means what I consider to be a writer, I had a few things to share that I thought worthy. The first question […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-make","category-personal"],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"darrin","author_link":"https:\/\/mossor.org\/blog\/author\/darrin\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mossor.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mossor.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mossor.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mossor.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mossor.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mossor.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mossor.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mossor.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mossor.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}