Yesterday I ran across a fabulous tweet (From twitter.com) to a link to a video of Ira Glass speaking about story telling. Now he's talking about video production but for the most part you can relate what he has to say to writing as well. He spoke on a point that really hit home for me. That sometimes you have to produce a lot of dreck to get to the really good stuff-and that's OKAY. Producing the dreck allows you to be present and ready when the good stuff comes pouring out. Then the trick is to recognise the dreck for what it is and get rid of it.
(Even if it means cutting whole chapters, sentences, paragraphs... putting aside whole books.)
The hardest part of being creative, he says, is finding a good story. Dreck truly is part of the creative process. It helps you find that good story. (Look for more on this subject on my Sunday blog.)
Here's the link: Ira Glass story telling part 2. Cheers!
I might add that along with creating a good story, the hardest part is actually writing and completing it before the deadline. At least that's often how it is for me.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to remember that word - dreck!
ReplyDeleteL. Diane Wolfe
www.circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com
www.spunkonastick.net
www.thecircleoffriends.net
Martin, it's true. Somedays writing and completing do seem to be the hardest part. But for me it's really been about finding the good idea and then writing it well enough to live up to its promise.
ReplyDelete