I’m not a regular listener of This American Life (with Ira Glass), but his radio show clearly resonates with many people.  I came across this interview with Glass somewhere in my information streams and I found it quite intriguing.

Watch this video clip and then we’ll discuss it after:

This clip is part of a series of videos  where he discusses the creative process and how to develop your skills as a writer or storyteller.  Glass makes the excellent point about the importance of taste:  the ability to discern good quality work from poor quality work.  He plays some of his earlier radio work and dissects it briefly during this video.  He’s critical of his older work, even after eight years of working in radio (he’s been in the field for much, much longer, I think).  I think that anyone who’s trying to improve their work over time feels the same way about their older work.

He brings up another excellent point that many of us don’t recognize.  The process of honing your craft and producing sub-standard work is OK.  In fact, it’s normal, as long as two things hold true:

• you’re trying hard
• you recognize that your work doesn’t meet your own high standards

This is where the importance of taste is invaluable.  If you are able to judge the quality of your work reasonably fairly and realize that it’s not where you want it to be, then that’s OK.  The process of despising your own work is normal, according to Glass.  It’s a natural stage of the process of creative development.  Glass counsels the viewer to have some patience with themselves and realize this is going to happen to most creative people.  Dedication, coupled with the ability to evaluate the quality of your work against high standards, can carry you through if you can just keep trying.

I don’t know about you, but I felt a bit better about myself and my writing after I watched this video.