I came off with this phrase, “Enough Drama” today at home – and riffing off of that, we began imagining:

“That would be great for a book title!”

“The thespians would hate it”

“Yeah – but they’d buy it so they could rant about it and gave it bad reviews – so it would sell”.

“Oh yes, I can just imagine it: someone would write ‘this was as compelling as a trainwreck, you just can’t drag your eyes away from it’…… and then it could appear on the book cover as “compelling…. you can’t drag your eyes away – Thespian 1’ – conveniently leaving out the word ‘trainwreck'”.

We were just having ridiculous fun. Then I came across this really good short video by Ricky Gervais. Someone asks him about his creative process (ie. the old question “How do you get your ideas and how do you write?”) – and he bursts out laughing. This is overwhelmingly arty-farty for him, apparently.

Then he gives an honest anecdote of what got him into writing – and yes, it was a teacher – who basically challenged him not to write melodrama. Then Ricky decided to teach his English teacher a lesson ….But the story is interesting, best to let the man tell you himself.

“Being honest is what counts – trying to make the ordinary, extraordinary – it’s so much better than starting with the extraordinary”

“As a creator and a director, it’s your job to make an audience as excited about a subject as you are – and real life does that.”

What a brilliant insight for this blog – perfectly fitting for the blog about “the continuing conversation between art and life.”

Creative Takeaway

Have you written a story that you think is full of drama – but other people don’t respond or it doesn’t sell – is it melodrama?

Have you tried writing about the more ordinary, but making it extraordinary by what you notice and feel?