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Words for Beginners in the Creative Field

I found this tidbit on my Facebook page, and thought I’d share it. Ira Glass is a radio personality in the USA, and he has the following insightful words for those who are wanting to enter the creative field. It helped me to understand my frustration in the early 1980’s, when my hands were fresh at learning how to do what my mind’s eye could clearly see:

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners. I wish someone had told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is a 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 its 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 juts starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know that it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that each week you finish one piece. It’s only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as a 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 a while. It’s normal to take a while. You just gotta fight your way through.”

Thank you, Ira!