Earlier this year,
I watched first the Grammy Awards followed by the Super Bowl several weeks later. And as a storyteller, I had an Aha moment. One might wonder why was I inspired by what I saw? Bright and eye-catching advertisements drew potential viewers in before the actual shows were televised. But the reason for my Aha moment was not the marketing strategy.
Let me explain and share what I noticed. The artists received a Grammy nod. The Super Bowl team’s players had to prove they were the best in the league. In my mind, these individuals have one commonality.
When a musician arrives on stage, as an artist, they had an idea. The football player had a notion of how he might succeed.
Finding the Seed of Inspiration
A word or sentence inspired the artist to write lyrics for a song.
The football player spends hours exercising, running the field, perfecting a particular play that would define his success.
Nourishing the Seed
Both have teams of professionals who work with them to improve their skills. This isn’t a single day or week process; it takes months of work and discipline to perfect a technique.
Finding (Growing) the Rhythm
A song or story in its original form seldom “sees the light of day” until it’s refined.
A musician practices hours to perfect a note, rhythm, or sound that will be recognizable. Days and weeks of refinement comes over time from the many rewrites. Then they hire an orchestra, musicians, to record a song.
Football players spend months on a diet, exercise and practice with coaches and teammates, playing multiple games before a debut at the Super Bowl.
The Harvest
Musicians sacrifice time with their family and friends in order to create and release music that appeals to their audience. It takes a team of professionals to cultivate a setting, select a wardrobe, makeup and look that attracts the artist’s audience. The executive producer, or other key businesspeople may suggest additional changes so the song will resonate with the artist’s fans and public.
The football player practices relentlessly off season to prepare for the football season. Whether they play a game on Thursday, Saturday, or Sunday, each game is unique based on the team they play. They watch the game to see what they could have done better. It all requires time and discipline.
The Unrecognized Effort
In the scheme of things, a Grammy nod, or Super Bowl selection, what we don’t see is all that time, effort and frustration that leads to the onstage moment. The hours and time of creation are unaffected by a win in a particular artistic genre. Despite the outcome, it is the support of their peers that makes their time and effort worthwhile.
The Storyteller’s Toil
Few people see the hours we, as storytellers, agonize over a word, line, or sentence in order to create a paragraph, then a page, and another page to create a cohesive story. Taking an idea and nurturing that idea into words takes time and discipline. We have our own way of writing and putting words on a page.
Our writing practice is as diverse as an award category. We bring our style to the pad, computer, or whatever device one chooses. At the point that we complete a rough draft, the revisions and rewrites begin. We may spend time on one scene, slicing and dicing words or the character to reach what we think is perfection.
After rewrites, the author decides their story is ready for a critique partner or team to read their draft. We know what we want our readers to feel when they read our story. Often we share this with our critique team. After the critique, there are more revisions and rewrites. The critical feedback might make us want to admit defeat, but we discipline ourselves to persevere. This is what it takes to create a well-written story.
Here we do not differ from the musician or football player. We surround ourselves with our team to help us perfect a story for release. By the time our editors read our stories, chances are it has gone through many reiterations of the original draft. After the editor has gone over the piece with their red pencil, we spend hours rewriting and refining until our work is flawless.
The story our readers hold is the same as the musician’s finest record or the best play by a football player. In the end, our public sees the final product and not the balled-up pieces of paper that litter our writing space floor. Achievement is the recognition received after hundreds of hours dedicated to perfection.
My aha moment… regardless of whether it’s a Grammy nod, a winning team, or MVP, is that we all appreciate the recognition of our artistry in a beautifully created story.