Enjoy the Kill
I feel that the most prominent advice from Ira Glass in this piece is the notion that one must ‘abandon crap.’ He also says that one must enjoy the killing to make something else better live. It sounds interesting but enjoy the kill? Sounds a little dramatic… Doesn’t it? Well if you think about it, it really isn’t. Ira Glass explains how an idea can seem brilliant during the brainstorming phase, or even be brilliant during a preliminary interview, but the final product may be missing something. Even if the ‘something’ that is missing cannot be explained, the piece should be scrapped. If it isn’t your best, then it is your worst. And your worst simply needs to die… (Also dramatic, but true.)
A question remains though, why did the idea that seemed so good, turn out to be so bad? Well, there are many reasons… For one, not all of us are geniuses, and sometimes our ideas can use some improvement. But other times, the execution is what ruins it. As Mr. Glass expands upon, people aren’t always interesting. So even if a story is interesting in itself, certain people can spoil the idea with their boringness. It is our job, as the producer of the audio project, to make sure the ideas are conceptually great and executed greatly.
This idea relates to me because I was thinking about changing my proposal during class, but then I decided to leave it and see what happened with it. But, now that I think about it, Ira Glass is right. After I finish this blog post, I am going to go back to my proposal and one of two things will happen: I will scrap it, or I will edit it. I am curious to see how my mind destroys in order to create.
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Seeing as this is a mandatory assignment for us though, what if one of us (what? me?) is just boring? (Not in general, guys, I mean as a radio host.) Hopefully I’ll find a way to put an interesting spin on whatever I’m doing, I’m just not sure I’m cut out for the job…
“Best” and “worst” are very subjective words – something may be the best for one person but the worst for another. So ultimately, I think the best is actually just something you are proud of, something that you think you gave it your all for.
As for enjoying the kill, it is certainly something we all must do to improve our writing. But I wonder how that looks like – someone with big smile across their face whenever he or she cuts out something insignificant in his or her work? Seems funny to imagine.
Why an idea seemed good in the first place is a good question, and sometimes we are just caught in the moment and think we have something really good. I could be only thinking of mediocre ideas all day, and I might want to get it over with, so I pick one of them instead of trying to think of more. It’s true that execution is just as important as the idea, and people have to be careful and aware of that. I hope that when I abandon what doesn’t work out, I realize quickly and am not too hesitant about it.