How to hone your creative storytelling instincts
In my early career I worked for one of Australia's biggest corporations. Which means I’ve had my fair share of frustrating conversations. But one of my first bosses telling me there was nothing I could do to improve my performance except “spend more time on the job” has to be right up there.
Give me a list of actions, tear apart my decisions, red pen strikethrough my work! But don’t tell me there’s nothing I can do except wait for time to pass.
The worst part? She was (kinda) right.
According to Malcolm Gladwell it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert at something. The 10,000-hour theory has since been debunked, but it’s still true that doing a lot of a thing will almost certainly make you better at that thing.
I spent six years at that first company and another five in a government comms role. And I got really good at my job. I’ve now spent 7 years running this freelance business of mine— building on the skills from my earlier career and putting everything I’ve learnt about language, writing, communication and people into practice.
I’m not good with numbers, but I do know that’s a whole lot of hours.
I’m now at a point in my writing career where I have great creative instincts and a nose for good stories. Which is fortunate, because I also have an impulsive personality so I tend to make quick decisions and rely on these instincts to steer me in the right direction.
The 10,000 hours rule is the reason why movies like Top Gun and Rocky have montage scenes. Because the doing part that’s required to get to a point where you can rely on your instincts is so mind-numbingly boring and repetitive the only way to make it fun is to speed it up and give it Eye of the Tiger as a backing track.
If you’re in a “putting in the time” part of your career you might find this advice frustrating. And I don’t blame you. But the good news is that my old boss was also (kinda) wrong.
There were some specific things I did while I was putting in the time that helped me sharpen my creative instincts and hone my storytelling nose.
Here are five of those things (ps: I still do these today)—
Put yourself in the way of creativity, storytelling and inspiration
Pay attention to what makes a thing “good”
Find people who will give you better advice and more specific feedback than “spend more time on the job”
Get in rooms with people who are smarter and more experienced than you and soak up as much knowledge as you can
Go broad— practice your craft in as many forms as you can and practice creativity in as many ways as you can.
Good luck getting through the training montage if you’re in it, friend! You have full permission to play Eye of the Tiger as many times as you need.