Ira Glass
December 9th, 2011 § 2 Comments
“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.”
Thank you Ira for explaining my current frustration with every single creative thing I attempt to do. Time, all I need is time.
He speaks truth, that Ira. And I have to say that just now, almost five years out of grad school and almost eight since I started writing about my present characters, I finally feel I am approaching the novel I want to write. I finally feel like my skill is catching up with my taste. But it’s been a long time coming…
Isn’t it amazing how long that takes? I’m not a writer, I never hope or have a desire to be a writer, but I understand the frustration. There are so many things I’m trying to do and they’re just not very good right now. But reading that gave me hope that one day, not today, but one day I’ll get it. One day Valli I hope to read your novel. That would really be something!