Saturday, October 1, 2011

Ira's Advice

“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.”
Ira Glass

Oh, Ira. I love you. (photograph by Stuart Mullenberg)

5 comments:

Carole said...

One of my favorite radio guys.

Love the photo of you and Guilia.

x
Carole

simon said...

I could not agree more. With my music/dance I was either "on" or "off." One mistake,even in rehearsal would send me into orbit ( even if I did not show it),

I never enjoyed it, I was driven, like a job, to reach that perfection. Then,if, & when everyone said I did well, or got great reviews, I picked over it until i found fault.

When I danced I could not care if noone was watching It was not about pleasure for an audience, it was about the music and me. The relationship..and thats all. If it was not perfect I would become harder on myself. Then oneday. I threw all the dance equipment in the bin. and that was that (more to it but...)

My piano now sits in a separate room under a cover and thats that.

Iras advice is perfect.

Julie@beingRUBY said...

This is brilliant.. I'm going to show this to a friend.. we were having a similar conversation the other day.. but this.. this hits the mark.. xxx Julie

Emily said...

Just what I need to hear right now. I'm often so frustrated with my own creative efforts and wonder how others do things effortlessly. Knowing they've also been through rough patches really helps.

Giulia said...

Glad all took something positive away from this...I love Ira.

So far behind...I may never be able to catch up to you but thanks for commenting! Susan