Or for anybody, really.
Via Theater Ideas, here is Ben Cameron’s excellent advice quoting of advice from Anne Bogart, offered as he left TCG (Theater Communications Group?):
* Do not assume that you have to have some prescribed conditions to do your best work.
* Do not wait.
* Do not wait for enough time or money to accomplish what you think you have in mind.
* Work with what you have right now.
* Work with the people around you right now.
* Work with the architecture you see around you right now.
* Do not wait for what you assume is the appropriate, stress-free environment in which to generate expression.
* Do not wait for maturity or insight or wisdom.
* Do not wait till you are sure that you know what you are doing.
* Do not wait until you have enough technique.
* What you do now, what you make of your present circumstances will determine the quality and scope of your future endeavors.
When we went to see Neil Gaiman speak at SJSU, he read from his work in progress, The Graveyard Book. He told us the genesis of this work — sitting in a graveyard with his son — and how he kept putting off writing it until he had the talent and ability to do it right. Then one day he said, I’m never going to have the talent and ability, so I might as well just do it now. (This is a horrible and probably inaccurate paraphrase, but it’s in the general ballpark. I remember raising a metaphorical eyebrow at Gaiman not thinking he could do justice to the story.)
Hi there–total stranger here, but I wanted to tell you how much I enjoy your blog. I came across it as a link from some other site (don’t remember) and I started reading back from 1997–ALL the way back, can you believe it? Was that nuts? Probably, but it was like reading a good book where you are sorry when you come to the end.
Oh, I meant to ask (and I have to ask) — whatever became of “Bernice” from the USC screenwriting classes? Those antics cracked me up.
Hi there! Thanks for the kind words. You read the entire archives!!! That must have been…enlightening. Hee.
Re: my compatriots from USC: I have no idea what’s happened to basically any of them. I do know that one, David Erickson, is the creator of (?) or lead writer on a new show on FOX: Canterbury Law. I guess I will tune in to see what that’s like. I haven’t seen anyone else’s name in the trades (which doesn’t mean none of them are selling; the trades are not the be all and end all of sales). David was definitely one of the most talented writers in the program, so I’m not surprised he’s doing well.
Re: Bernice: most of what I’ve found about her on the web are letters to the editor type missives. So I don’t know what she’s doing, either.
Just a note: apparently Cameron himself was quoting Anne Bogart. So the list is from a speech he made in which he quoted Anne Bogart.
Ah, okay. Sorry about that. Will fix.