Just Pick One

A great piece of advice.

Story writing is a big endeavor, a long form process. Not for the faint of heart, it is a long journey and requires determination. And no proper guide would be suggesting otherwise if you were about to climb a mountain. But there are also tools and tricks of the trade that can support you and make your trip successful. I want to give you one.

It came from a friend who was a TV director at a high level and worked on award winning shows. He was faced with something regularly that any story writer is faced with and I want to share his insight.

He was frequently bombarded on the set with producer/writers who would stop production with multiple new ideas, variations on a scene, and changes in dialogue as shoots were underway. As every minute not shooting on set costs money he needed to find positive creative outcomes. He would listen attentively to all of the ideas, pause and lead with this single piece of advice:

“There are a thousand ways to do something right here. Just pick one.”

Years ago this positive approach made me re-think my own process. Rather than look at multiple ideas as obstacles, or becoming paralyzed with attempts to create a hierarchy of better to best ideas, I reassessed the process entirely. Many ideas are a bounty. Many of them are good. Picking one should not be paralyzing. You need to allow forward movement that builds momentum so that creation continues.

I’m not suggesting careless abandon in selection, one always uses discernment. But if you have five good ideas for a sequence, character, scene, know that they could all work well. Just pick one to continue forward.

I found the framing of this unusually positive approach a welcome change to a process where I often found I was fighting myself. That ended with this piece of advice and allowed me not only a continuation of my process, but also helped me reach my endpoint.