Love Your Drivel: Media Training Tips

Summary:

During a conversation with Sherry Richert Belul and Alison Luterman, I discovered that writing with a specific goal hindered creativity. Embracing “drivel” and allowing it to flow freely had a transformative effect. Not only did my writing improve, but also my productivity. This reminded me of a ceramics class where focusing on quantity led to higher quality results. Instead of pursuing perfection, consider prioritize generating a lot of work without fear of judgment.

Love Your Drivel

I had a big slump in my writing group.

For a year. I’d put pen to paper in a beautiful journal and out would pour — drivel.

Sometimes I’d write to get all the minutae out of my head. Other times I’d write a list. But the end “result” was nothing of consequence.

I mentioned the writing process we go through in Wild Writing to Sherry Richert Belul and Alison Luterman the other night as we crunched skinny French fries and sipped bubbly water at the Zuni Cafe in San Francisco with before her poetry reading at Martuni’s.

Alison said that as she was writing she was always looking to have a finished product – be it a play, a poem or a story. So to write without a “goal” wasn’t easy.

I was in the Alison camp. Until I wasn’t.

I’m not sure what happened exactly, other than I let go a little and just allowed the drivel to flow. And there was plenty of it.

I realized that in our quest for perfection, we often overlook the impact of letting go – just letting our thoughts roam free. And not just in creative writing but in media training as well. Allow the drivel to flow. Spontaneous, first-word-out-of-your-mouth responses help to simulate the real feel of different scenarios and often amazing stories emerge fully formed that just need minor tweaking or slight changes in the order of the information.

During media training sessions with my clients, I do roleplay exercises that mimic live interviews. These roleplays are designed not to produce a perfect answer on the first try, but to help you become comfortable with the unpredictability of the media spotlight and to (non) thinking on the spot. By focusing on small, incremental improvements – by letting the drivel flow – my clients can experience a significant shift in their ability to handle interviews effectively.

For me and my writing, one day something shifted. In my business writing too. I’m writing up a storm and creating new videos and products and stuff at such a speed I wish that there were more hours in the day!

Like this video about how to be kinder to yourself after a media appearance (or any new venture for that matter).

I’m not yet in the place where I can totally love my drivel.

I read this short parable in Sunil Bali’s ezine which put me on the path (another shift!).

“The ceramics teacher announced on the first day of class, that he was dividing the class into two groups. One half of the class would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, and the other half would be graded solely on the quality of their work.”

On the final day of class, the teacher would bring his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the quantity group: fifty pounds in weight of pots rated a Grade “A”, forty pounds a Grade “B”, and so on.

Those being graded on quality, however, needed to produce only one pot – albeit a perfect one – to get a Grade “A”.

Come grading time a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the quantity group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes – the quality group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a not very good pot.

Whether it’s business, art, or sport, it’s not the quest to achieve one perfect goal that makes you better, it’s the skills you develop from doing a volume of work.”

Just as the students in the class learned more effectively through the process of creating numerous pots, my media training clients improve through repetition creating numerous stories that often surprised and delighted them. It’s common for them to say, “I’ve never said that before.” Or, I’ve never told that story in this way.” Through this process, they often have insights about their life and work that surface and inspire them and serve to develop and define their personal and professional brand.

Research shows that it takes 10,000 hours of practice, including consistent iteration, in order to master a complex task.

So each interview scenario, question posed, and answer given is another pot shaped on the wheel. It may not be just right, but with each iteration, you refine your skills, hone your message, and become more adept at handling the pace and pressure.

I loved the lesson at the end of the story: “Focus on the repetitions that lead to your desired outcome. Focus on the iterations that come before the success. Focus on the hundreds of ceramic pots that come before the masterpiece.

In other words: Try. Fail. Learn, Repeat.

Don’t be afraid of making a load of rubbish. Be afraid of making nothing at all.”

So, let’s make loads of rubbish together and not worry about judging it or using it or improving ourselves.

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