At last, some practical advice on editing your own work:
by Patrick AllanYou may have heard the old quote “write drunk, edit sober,” but it might actually be better to edit when you’re still hungover.
Knocking back a few beers can be good for your creativity, but you’ll usually pay for it the next morning. While you might feel like you’re dying, Frank Kelly Rich, the Editor of Modern Drunkard Magazine, explains that hangovers might be pretty useful after all:
…Maybe the only joke in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. And we all missed it. Who knew?
For almost 25 years now, we’ve been quoting some of Dr. Hannibal Lecter’s more memorable lines from Silence of the Lambs. One such line has found sustained repeatability even among many who have never seen the movie, (perhaps due to the fact that Dumb & Dumber parodied the line as well) Dr. Lecter’s iconic “I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.”
When I first moved to California, long before reality television seemed like a real career, I was hell-bent on writing for sitcoms and films. I shelled out what I could afford (and what I couldn’t afford) on pitchfests, consultants, and anything that I thought would help me get a leg up in the entertainment universe.
It didn’t do much to move the success needle in the short term. I mean, I made some great friends and watched them bloom into amazing professionals, but that was usually incidental and a result of just being in rooms with like-minded people.
It’s also one of the reasons I was so slow to ever consider consulting, which I’ve only done sporadically, and only when I feel like I can genuinely offer useful input to the client. More than half of the calls and meetups, unfortunately, end up being a waste of time and gas for both of us. If I think someone’s grip on the reality of the business is tenuous at best, I’ll politely end our session and refund their money. I don’t want to become anyone’s party story as the cruddy consultant (oh, how they love to blame a consultant) who couldn’t deliver them a rose-petaled path to the top of the mountain and a jetliner view in the Hollywood Hills… something few consultants ever even manifest for themselves.
As mentioned in a previous article: “Archetypes Are Here to Stay” – storytelling in one form or another and the ‘characters’ created therein, have been around for a very long time. Homo sapiens, radiated out of Africa into Europe by around 700 000 years ago, into Asia by 400 000 years ago and then onto remote island-continents like Australia, at around 80 000 years ago. So, we’ve had ample time to hone the craft. Important to note, we’re all related – thanks to our common ancestry way back on that African savanna.
“So what!” you say? Well, it’s interesting to note – and Joseph Campbell did, that archetypes within ‘stories’ in whatever form and across cultures, are essentially the same: – Hero, Villain, Messenger etc. Did story-telling and generalized archetypes in the form of memes, go along for that ancient ride? Hard to say, but recent brain research has provided important implications for us as writers – although we intuitively knew it all the time – the way the human brain thinks and responds, regardless of cultural nuance is essentially the same.
Story-telling could have been passed down through the generations as memes but that for us, is now inconsequential – the human brain seems ‘hardwired’ to be receptive towards storytelling and able to recognize archetype.
Want to make the jump from YouTube video Queen or King to Big Media Boss? Here’s the deep, dark secret you need to know: It isn’t entirely about getting tons of subscribers and views. It’s also about what the ad agencies think of you. And the way they think is molded in a very great part by – oh, you’re gonna hate us for saying this – social media.
Aaargh!!!
Step off a New York subway or drive a Los Angeles Freeway and it’s hard to miss billboards promoting YouTube’s biggest stars by the size of their fan bases. But how much value do beauty guru Michelle Phan’s 8 million subscribers really have?