It’s a new year, which means a slew of unnecessary, unwarranted highly opinionated Writer’s Takes! This year we are going to get into some really fun film and TV show reviews, such as my thoughts on THE LAST OF US, MONARCH - LEGACY OF MONSTERS, GODZILLA MINUS ONE, PANTHEON, and some of my favorite films, MATRIX, ARRIVAL & more. But today I wanted to focus on something all of these expressions have in common. The creators of each of these DARED to write something.
Each and every great show, film, book, or experience started because someone dared to write. They either wrote a story, or an idea, or a plan. The single thing that separates people who have created commercially viable products and those who haven't, is the initial act of daring to make it. I am a pretty avid gym goer and one of the classic mantras is the hardest lift is the one off the couch. Similarly, when it comes to creating something, the hardest moment is staring at that blank page and putting the first draft of the idea down on that page. I want to spend today’s Writer’s Take talking through methods I have used to get from empty page to a vast plethora of words waiting for you to chisel them down into a tight proposal for your end product.
Always give yourself an empty schedule for the first day. Schedules can be the killer of great ideas. Make sure you have room to stare at a blank page for as long as you need without the pressure of something on the other side. Sometimes the idea comes out of you instantly and sometimes you need to read a bunch of non-related articles, play a game on your phone, or watch an episode of god-knows-what before you realize exactly how to put your idea down on the page.
Don’t let perfect be the enemy of coherent. I know so many people who try to make their first draft of an idea a Pulitzer worthy document. And because of this, spend months, if not years trying to perfect it. Now I say this with all the understanding that everyone has their own method, but that is not the right way to do it. Get the idea out, do not try to make it perfect, don’t even worry if the wording is fatty, the “magic” of the idea fades with every waking moment that it is not memorialized for you to review. Because that is the key. Getting the idea down, not perfecting it, that comes later.
The first draft is going to suck. And that’s how it's supposed to be. Doubling down on what I just said in point two, the first draft is about the essence, capturing that lightning in a bottle, and maturing it later is the goal. The ideas are most important, the dressing, packaging and way you present it comes with time and refinement, but that core nugget is what's hard to find again. So let the first draft suck, just make sure you capture that initial magic in that process.
Don’t look at it for a week. Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines, they destroy the magic of creating. Now, I know this might be hard for some to do depending on what you're creating, but after that initial creation, it is really important to not read what you wrote for a week. Let it sit, marinate, and fester for a long while before you review it and start manicuring your creation into something more presentable, or realizing flaws or changes to the core idea you're going for.
It’s ok to toss it. Fear of wasting time is the biggest kryptonite to starting any idea. It is all part of the process, and the journey to create and throw away. Don’t be afraid to spend time writing something out, and then looking at it a week later, and realizing it is not what you had initially thought it would be. That is OK, and even more so, it is great that you could identify that. Being able to identify when an idea isn’t as grand as you thought it was during the initial inception, is a skill to cherish, not to fear.
These five points of view don’t work for everyone, but they do work for me. They are guiding principles that help you get closer to what matters most: a creative expression you can be proud of.
It is always easier to edit something down, than to imagine it from a blank canvas. That is why zero-one thinking is a different breed of thinking from one to hundred, building something with a roadmap is just easier than building the roadmap. But when it comes to creative expression, getting the idea down on paper in any form, will allow you to feel more like an editor nurturing your creativity, which for me, makes the process much more manageable, and I think it will for you too.
Welcome to 2024, an election year, Crypto's year(?), and the year of the Dragon. So strap in and get ready, it's going to be a wild ride.
Oh, and get to damn writing!!!
A favorite sound track to play while writing:
Stay curious & keep writing.
Matt