Blogocentric Formulations

Day 29: "The brave flee forward in the face of new things."

*Written as part of the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" 

Day 29 Prompt: Give me your best advice when trying something new. On the first day (today), tell me the story of when you tried something for the first time and failed. What did you do after that? On the second day (tomorrow), tell me about a future plan to try something new (a New Year's Resolution perhaps?). We all know writing down our goals can help in motivating us to achieve them - so don't delay! Your blogging peers will support you!


When it comes to trying new things, I only have two rules:

1. Embrace the challenge.

2. Don't be afraid to fail a few times.

Granted, I don't always heed my own advice, but I think it's important to remind yourself that you don't have to be perfect when you're trying something new, and - perhaps more importantly - that you should have fun and enjoy the experience. First time cooking? That souffle probably isn't going to come out so great. First time trying the Viennese Waltz? That waltz is probably going to be a little clunky and awkward. Even if it's something within your own wheelhouse, a different application could bring new challenges. First time writing a novel? Even if you're a proficient short-storyteller or blogger, chances are that first novel is going to need more than a little work. The important thing is not that your first attempt be anywhere close to perfect; it's that you immerse yourself in the process, allow yourself to enjoy it, and don't get hung up on the finished product. It's about the journey before it's about the destination.

When I first started writing screenplays, I was in high school. I had only read a couple before, and really didn't know what I was doing in terms of format, content, structure, characterization, etc. I thought I could just start with "Fade In:" and write until I felt like ending it with "Fade Out." It was a terrible, awful script and as much as I was tempted to just give it up, I instead wrote another screenplay. And another. And another. And have continued writing them for nearly fifteen years now.

When I first started trying to play the guitar, I was also in high school. I didn't really have any musical training or experience with music other than as a listener, but I thought it would be neat to learn how to play the guitar. ('Cause chicks dig guitar players, right? ). The first few times I tried to learn the chords and the finger positions, it was a disaster. Much like my terrible screenplay, I had no sense of what I was doing or how to even go about getting better. I stopped trying to learn how to play the guitar in frustration.

And now, fifteen years later, I'm a fairly decent screenwriter (if I do say so myself!) who has actually made money from his writing and is sought after for his insights on story and character problems in other peoples' scripts. I still do not know how to play the guitar.

You have to stick with it if you want to learn something. Through the point where you have no idea what you're doing. Through the point where you know what you're doing is terrible. Through the point where you manage slight glimpses of competence and grow frustrated at your inability to repeat them. Through the point where you're competent on a regular basis, but frustrated because you have a few moments of brilliance that you can't always seem to replicate. Learning something is a gradual process for most of us, where proficiency (and subsequently excellence, if we're lucky) is learned through lots and lots of trial and error. And you'll never have all those moments of trial and error if you're afraid to fail and/or don't embrace the challenge of learning something new.