Why You?
Fri. November 12, 2010
The bane of every creative person’s existence can be boiled down into two potentially freeing (or frustrating) words. The ability to answer them can give you immediate credibility, or just as likely poserdom (from the Latin root: The land of the posers). They could even make or break you. And the question, in case you just glossed over the title of this rant is “Why You?”
The moment you tell someone you are a writer/actor/painter/performance artist/magician/synchronized swimmer or a single one of those slashes or other creative pursuit, the listener’s eyebrows shift. You’ve either piqued their interest or you’re being judged. While I’m not privy to other people’s inner monologue, I can only speculate. But here’s the thing, I’ve been sitting across from people of all ends of the spectrum– Extremely successful film and TV writers, actors, comics, blah blah blah as well as folks who fancy themselves professional writers, actors, comics who haven’t so much as taken a baby step in that direction. “I have a great script,” a friend of mine says. “I’d love to read it,” I retort. (I retorted all over the place.) Then my friend clarifies that he hasn’t actually written anything yet. It sounds so obvious and ridiculous. But the world is full of people who talk a big game without so much as doing an ounce of the work. And that’s what makes the world so challenging for the rest of us who keep at it– for years.
But this isn’t just about doing it. One of my dad’s favorite quotes is “The difference between genius and aspiration is that the genius does it.” I couldn’t agree more. But I would like to add to that and say that a true genius doesn’t just do it. A genius is someone whose pursuit is in some way unique to them. Why is what you’re doing different from what someone else can do? Or more importantly, what do you bring to the table that’s specifically you? You need to know the answer to this. People used to ask me if I was worried about folks stealing my jokes or my story concepts. Um, no. If my stuff is so stealable, then I’m not doing my job well enough. Because the fact of the matter, and this goes for every pursuit: There’s nothing new under the sun, but rest assured there are millions of permutations of greatness. If you can do the work and put your unique perspective into it, you’re not just some hopeful, you’re a true artist.
Leave a comment
Category: Uncategorized
- Add this post to
- Del.icio.us -
- Digg