Guest Column ‘HTWFA’ | #40 Your writing is as good as you think you is -

When you were a kid, growing up, did you ever say to yourself, “I can’t write,” or “I can’t draw,” or “I’ll never be as good as _?” That little voice inside your head—the one that says, “I’ll never think of a good idea,” or “Writing is so hard,” or “This idea sucks!”—is the killer of creativity. We all know we create with our minds, and that they’re much like computers. But did you know that by thinking a simple thought like, “My ideas stink,” you’ve just programmed your mental computer with an algorithm that is going to affect all of your writing?

You create and write with thought, and if you think you’re a lousy writer, guess what—you are!
Did you ever tell a child that the drawing they just did is terrible? They’ll stop drawing for a month. But tell them it’s terrific and they’ll shower you with artwork. The point here is that we’re all just kids under our aging skin, and we work the very same way. If you think thoughts like, “I can get lots of ideas and they’re going to be good,” you’ve programmed yourself to do just that. Sound too easy? It’s worked for me, and I haven’t had a shortage of good ideas yet.

Criticism can kill an artist quicker than a hollow point. Don’t be fooled by “constructive criticism,” either. It’s often really a few drops of hemlock in your wine. Yes, it’s important to listen to what people have to say about your writing, and often a great way to learn. But if their criticism makes you feel bad it’s not constructive, it’s an attack! If someone tells you all the reasons why your script stinks and they’re right, after the initial disappointment you’ll actually feel a bit better, because you’ll see what you have to do to correct it. If comments just make you feel worse, then I’ll bet you dollars to donuts they were calculated to do just that. Don’t buy it! Or you’ll be buying a coffin for your creativity.

“In the beginning was the word, and the word was good.” Why was it good? Because the writer liked it, and for no other reason. Remember that when you write! If you think it’s good, it’s good. That’s the truth. If a producer or story editor thinks it’s bad then that’s their truth. It doesn’t mean your writing is bad, it only means you have to adjust it if you want to sell it to them. Don’t worry about whether it’s good enough. It’s obviously the best you can do at the moment. You can always write better. Each script you write should be better than the last because you’ll have had more experience.

Happy thoughts!

(Jeffrey Scott has written over 700 animated and live-action TV and film scripts for Sony, Warner Bros., Disney, Marvel, Universal, Paramount, Columbia, Big Animation, Hanna-Barbera and others. His writing has been honoured with three Emmys and the Humanitas Prize. He is author of the acclaimed book, How to Write for Animation. To work with Jeffrey visit his website at www.JeffreyScott.tv.)

Click here to read other articles from this series.