Feb
1
Objectivity (via Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott)
“In the heat of creation, the writer is the writing — until you type The End on that first draft. From that point forward, the script is an attempt to communicate to others who you are. And that’s how it’s judged by others — and should be judged by yourself. You go from author, to audience. Not: this is ‘who I am.’ Rather: this is an effort on the part of a writer to communicate ‘who I am.’ If others judge the writing as ‘poor,’ they are not judging you as ‘poor’ — they are judging this one specific attempt to communicate as ‘poor.’ But the good news is: since communication is a learned intellectual construct — you can learn to do it better.
If someone says your characters are weak, you can learn to make your characters stronger.
If someone say your dialogue is wooden, you can learn to make your dialogue more natural.
If someone says your story does not move them, you can learn to make your stories more compelling.
But if you assume ‘not suitable’ means they only want family members’ scripts, or they only want bad scripts, or they don’t have the aesthetic ability to recognize a good script, or Hollywood is plotting against you — then there’s little chance that you’ll learn anything.”
I think this concept can and should be applied to art and should be in the mindset of all artists during creation and contemplation of a project. I’ve had the discussion before about how hard it is to show your work to people because you feel like the art is YOU and they are judging YOU. That’s not necessarily the case, especially if you know you haven’t perfectly communicated yourself through your art. Every piece of work is practice. You are always practicing. And if you can look at your own work objectively, you are already a better practitioner.
