Skip The Stepping Stones

Photo by Gladius

I’m impatient and shamelessly unafraid of failing.

So says Seth Godin, in this interview.

I can be impatient too, and especially so when I start something new. I tried playing guitar on a number of occasions when I was younger, but gave up because I wasn’t instantly amazing. However, sometimes I find something that I have some initial success with I’m also greatly attracted to. When that happens, I try to figure out the “short cut”, for want of a better phrase. People always say there are no short-cuts, just hard work; but I think there are short-cuts—it’s just that they’re harder work.

I released my first game in February 1996, and it was great to get a whole lot of fanmail directly from that. Then, instead of actually going off to work in the games industry and get experience that way, I worked on general software for a couple of years then just started a company with zero contacts. It was a huge and tricky learning curve, and although it ended in sadness, I wouldn’t swap the experience for anything. I didn’t go and do an MBA (and some may say that I should have done), but I don’t think I would have learned as much about life and about myself.

I’d been thinking about screenwriting since 1996 (strangely), and when I got around to doing something about it, my first attempt was shortlisted in a competition. I received extra training for it, and I’m drawn to writing more than ever. Currently, I’m thinking about how I can learn the most in the shortest amount of time. Working on Buffet of Death was great for this, but what could I do with more than 48 hours? What would happen if I just did something?

As a smaller scale example, I was playing Guitar Hero for the first time a few months back with some expert players. I tried the easiest song, and was more or less perfect (I like rhythm action games!). So then they tried me higher difficulty levels and trickier songs, until I was suddenly on one of the hardest songs on my fifth play of the game—and doing not terribly at it. That led to us wondering if just jumping in at the higher level would actually be better for mastering the skills for the game. I think we were almost right.

Do something small to learn the basics, then jump right in. Skip the stepping stones in the middle.

It will be scarier, you’ll have to run faster to keep up, and you’ll definitely make mistakes. On the flipside, you’ll have fun, learn lots, meet some amazing people and achieve more in a short space of time than many people achieve in a lifetime.

Writer Song Meme

Laura tagged me:

Find a song that sums up what you think it means to be a writer and post the lyrics on your blog and why you’ve chosen it. NB: It doesn’t have to be your favourite song, it just has to express how you feel about writing and/or being a writer. It can be literal, metaphorical, about a particular form or aspect of writing – whatever you want. Then tag 5 others to do the same (reprint these instructions).

I found it difficult to choose, because I basically see scenes or stories when I listen to music, so then I was flicking through the music when R.E.M.’s Imitation of Life jumped out. That seems more than appropriate for writing:

Charades, pop skill Water hyacinth Named by a poet Imitation of life

and:

That sugarcane that tasted good That’s cinnamon, that’s Hollywood Come on, come on No one can see you try

See if you can spot Michael Stipe’s imitation of dancing (‘cause obviously I’m hot-to-trot on the dancefloor and can thus decry anyone else).

I think I’m the end of the meme’s tentacles, since everyone I read has already posted it, so I tag any writers reading this who haven’t already done it.

Life of Riley

Last Friday, I went along to the recording of the first episode of Life of Riley, a new BBC sitcom starring Caroline Quentin and written by Georgia Pritchett. I’d never been to a TV studio before, so it was interesting to see how it was all set up.

I have to say that I doubt I would have laughed at the majority of the show if it hadn’t been for the fact that you’re surrounded by other people who are laughing, and also the audience was entertained between takes by Graeme Thomas (the fluffer, although I’m sure there’s a family friendly version of that term for sitcoms). I managed to get into a bizarre debate regarding how best to get rid of furniture in Leith with him.

There were a couple of parts which I thought were inspired, though, one of them delivered expertly by Marcia Warren. I think the show is broadcast from January, so I’ll have to watch the first episode to see how the final cut compares to what I saw in the studio.

Edivacation

The title is a new word I invented:

n. a period of suspension of work, used specifically to partake in intellectual, moral or spiritual improvement.

I spent the last week in Agios Georgios, in the south-west of Corfu, on just such an edivacation. Basically, I just went away to read books, think and generally re-charge. Bill Gates does something similar, but he calls it a think week. Apart from a multitude of mosquito bites, it was great, and was exactly what I needed.

Here’s a selection of my reading topics (I’ll restart book reviews soon):

• Architecture
• Prosody
• Managing Creativity (now requires a subscription)
• Organising Without Organisations
• Urban Planning
• Sociobiology
• Unity of Knowledge

I also read the classic novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg, and Nocturne, a play by Adam Rapp.

I thought a lot about the past, the future and all the bits in-between, and you’ll hopefully start seeing some of the results of that in the coming weeks, months and years. I also learned some things I hadn’t really anticipated:

• Coke and chocolate peanuts make the perfect late night snack for insomniacs;
• I’ve been in Scotland so long that my skin tone effectively just becomes slightly less white;
• 90% of tourists wear Crocs;
• Cats can simulate a cockerel crowing. They especially like to practice for hours and hours during the night, right outside my window;
• Greek daytime TV is even odder than here in the UK —I have no idea what that woman was supposed to be doing with that octopus, but I felt sorry for it even though especially because it was already dead.

Anyway, as I said – lots more to come soon.

Puma Has A Sense Of Huma

Been meaning to post this for a while, but I was amused by what I found on a Puma shoe box:

Well, I found it funny at least.

More Reading Material

Detailing Diablo III: Interview with Jay Wilson, game director of Diablo III:

… I think the key is identifying what the core philosophies are that made the game popular in the first place … to a certain degree, you’re going to have to challenge conventions, and you just have to have the guts to do that. But the best way to do that is to learn what core things are important to the game.

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Nick Hornby interviews David Simon, creator of The Wire:

My standard for verisimilitude is simple and I came to it when I started to write prose narrative: fuck the average reader. I was always told to write for the average reader in my newspaper life. The average reader, as they meant it, was some suburban white subscriber with two-point-whatever kids and three-point-whatever cars and a dog and a cat and lawn furniture. He knows nothing and he needs everything explained to him right away, so that exposition becomes this incredible, story-killing burden. Fuck him. Fuck him to hell.

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Q&A: Joss Whedon:

None of us is going to become a billionaire from doing this but yes, I think it’s very tricky and most people will tell you it can’t be done. I had one person who might actually be a billionaire, and he said, “Yeah, you’ll make $2,000.” And he wasn’t being mean. ... I’m happy to say, we’ve topped $2,000.

Hal Varian: 14 Free business models:

Most information is born digital and that digital information is typically very easy to copy and distribute, it is conceivable that copyright laws may become almost impossible to enforce. Are there ways for sellers to support themselves in such an environment?

Saul Williams is hecka smart:

Although I cannot boast a lifetime of keeping my views to myself, I have seldom taken on the responsibility of trying to change someone (alright, maybe a few girlfriends, but you’ll never hold me to that). However, this year for me has been one of aggressively shifting from a reluctant pursuit of change and growth to taking a proactive stance on what I believe in times that I see as clearly representative of a societal paradigm shift both necessary and urgent for our country and world.

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Note to self: less with the reading, more with the making.

A Bijou Update

I’ve been a little bit quiet here recently – job hunting, a weekend in Krakow, and then my gran passed away. I now have a new job lined up, but more on that in the future.

I’ve spent this afternoon doing a bit of a redesign on the site (which you won’t be able to see if you’re reading the feed version of this) – it had been bugging me for a while. I find it a lot more readable, and hopefully you will too.

Proper semi-regular posting will now resume, but here are a few links I’ve been reading recently:

• Who Moved My Brain?: More from Merlin Mann on time & attention.
• Complexity Without Commitment: Denis McGrath provides a link to an article about JJ Abrams balancing serial and standalone episodes in his shows. There’s also a follow-up post, I Was Lost But Now I’m Found.
• Spanking Death: Interview with game designer Ron Gilbert (Monkey Island).

As for my writing, I’m very behind. I keep having new ideas, which I suppose is good, but really, the big thing for me is to get a draft of my entry for the Red Planet Prize together. That’s my goal for this week.

Oh, and I love this Paddy Chayefsky quote on Denis McGrath’s blog:

Artists don’t talk about art. Artists talk about work. If I have anything to say to young writers, it’s stop thinking of writing as art. Think of it as work.

Weekly Reading

Some recent reading material and quick hits:

• 4Talent Talent Arcade: On Monday (Aug 11^th), I’m chairing a panel session at this, titled ”Publish or Be Damned”. I think there are still tickets available on the day, but all the pre-registered tickets are taken.
• I’ll Take That TV Deal, Please!: Daisy Whitney writes about the “sell-out mentality” of web-video creators (or actually, the accusations of being sell-outs if a web property moves to TeeVee). Too often people get stuck in “tyranny of the or” thinking, is my opinion. I wonder when the core concept of a web series will be developed and scaled up to a TV series, just as Firefly scaled up to become Serenity? Has that happened yet?
• Old Masters and Young Geniuses: ”The main idea is this. Instead of people being super creative when they’re young and getting less so with age (i.e. the conventional wisdom), Galenson says that artists fall into two general categories”.
• Why we insulate: Scott Kurtz of webcomic PvP on the “sense of entitlement” some fans have towards the work of the creator. I don’t recall where I found the following, and I don’t have a note of who said it, but it seems appropriate:

Don’t mind criticism. If it is untrue, disregard it; if unfair, keep from irritation; if it is ignorant, smile; if it is justified, it is not criticism—learn from it.

Making Time to Make

Merlin Mann just posted the final part of his Making Time to Make series. If you haven’t already, go and read it:

• Bad Correspondence
• The Job You Think You Have
• One Clear Line

Do you generate more IMs than comic panels? Have you drafted more web comments than scenes in your screenplay? Or, for that matter, do you find you’re taking more meetings than photos these days?

Hmm. Quit shaming me.

What is it that you really do? What’s the last thing you made that really excited you?

Double hmm.

Patterns in Writers

Not patterns in writing, but rather traits in writers themselves, taken from Julie Gray’s experience as a scriptreader. I’ve picked out a few below, and you can read the full list here:

• Most beginning writers have no second act
• First time writers usually tell biographical stories
• Structure is confusing for the first three scripts – then something clicks
• Writers who can’t articulate a quick logline have sprawling, confusing scripts
• Good writers never include pictures, maps or music with their script
• Most fresh ideas are in fact not fresh at all
• Most writers have not built up a good arsenal of scripts; all eggs are in one basket
• First scripts suck
• Second scripts suck
• Third script suck a little less
• Talent is delightful and easy to spot on page one
• A bad script is a bad script from page one

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