13267: You Can’t Edit A Blank Page

Raw transcript:

There is a phrase that’s used in the
world of writing that is sort of
universal in nature and that phrase is
you can’t edit a blank page. And I want
to dive a little bit deeper into that to
help people over the precipice of just
getting started in this episode of the
VO Heroes podcast.
The phrase you can’t edit a blank page
has a lot of different uses in the world
of performance. Whether you’re an actor,
a voice talent, a writer, certainly for
a writer, it’s a very direct
uh phrase that’s been used a lot. It’s
pretty common to writers if they’ve been
doing it for any length of time. And
it’s describing that moment when you’re
sitting in front of the screen with the
cursor blinking and you’re getting ready
to put something down. what do you do?
And the usual
advice is just start typing. Just start
writing. Just start doing something.
Even if it’s trash, even if it’s crap,
just get something on the page. Because
if you don’t have anything on the page,
you can’t change it. You can’t improve
it. You can’t update it. You can’t edit
it. And that spills out into the rest of
your life if you allow it to. And it
does so in a very productive way
because it opens up possibilities. If
you don’t have anything there for fear
of failure or for fear of success or for
fear of the unknown or for fear of doing
something stupid, whatever the fear
manifests itself as as you you’re just
at that moment when you don’t have
anything yet. You haven’t recorded a
version of the audition for the thing
that you’re doing. you haven’t shot
anything on camera. Uh you haven’t even
decided anything about the character
that you’re doing or as a writer you
haven’t put anything down on the page. A
little bit more obvious meaning of this.
That moment after
you take that first step is very
empowering because now you’ve got
something to work with and it isn’t
clear.
It isn’t obvious to people when they’re
first starting. They have this canvas
that has nothing on it. whatever that
canvas is, whether it’s a a word
processor document. Yes, I’m old. Word
processor. Jesus, what is it? 1978. Uh,
you know, you have a blank document or
you have a blank recording line in uh
Audacity or whatever digital audio
workstation you’re using. You haven’t
recorded anything yet. You’re just sort
of sitting there and there’s nothing on
the screen. Take that first step. Even
if that first step ends up being not the
best possible, and it likely will be not
the best possible because it’s the first
iteration. And from there, from there,
you have all kinds of power that you
didn’t have before, right? You have
something to work with. You have at
least a first stab at it. You have you
have the draft.
And it doesn’t really matter what
pursuit or what category of artwork
you’re pursuing in.
When you think about a painting, often a
painting starts as a sketch and the
sketch is never seen by the final uh you
know viewer of the artwork. It’s
something that guides the artist as they
do their things. And you can you know uh
do a lot more work with a a draft sketch
of something than you can with nothing
whatsoever. So, my my full-on endote uh
uh advice to you is whenever you can,
jot something down as quickly as you can
or record something as quickly as you
can. Once you have looked at the
whatever the creative brief is, the
breakdown if it’s an audition, you know,
your your uh your log line if it’s a if
it’s a writing project, just get
something on the page. just get
something recorded
and then you have something to work with
and then you don’t have to worry about,
you know, you can’t edit a blank page.
Yeah. Uh let me know if there’s that
moment that you get just get stopped
like I don’t know how to start this. I
don’t know how to do the very first
iteration of it. Do you find yourself at
that point and worried that if you do
something wrong, you’re going to be a
complete and utter failure. Or do you
just get on with it? Tell me what
happens in the comments below. I’d like
to know what you do. Hit the like button
if you like what you’re hearing.
Subscribe to the channel. Click the
notification bell to be told when the
next episode comes out. Share this with
a fellow creative person who needs to
hear this this push to just get
something down, get something started.
I’m David H. Lawrence 17th. I thank you
so much for watching and for listening
and I’ll see you in the next episode of
the VO Heroes podcast.

(from YouTube)