Per my Distillery Pictures cohort Brenna Eckerson sent me four links to her fave Ira Glass (“This American Life”) talking about storytelling. Today Part 2 (note: slightly distorted audio):

Some choice quotes:

“You have to set aside just as much time looking for stories as you do producing them.”

Screenwriting takeaway: The time you spend generating story concepts is equally as important as they time you spend writing.

“Not enough gets said about the importance of abandoning crap.”

“Things that are really good are because people are really tough [critiquing them].”

“[When you determine it's crap], it’s time to be the super-ambitious person you’re going to be and kill it.”

“You have to record and get rid of a lot of crap before you find something special.”

Screenwriting takeaway: Most of your story ideas are going to be crap. That’s okay because the only way you can surface great ideas is by going through a lot of crappy ones.

“The only reason you want to be doing this is to make something memorable, special.”

Screenwriting takeaway: Write something great.

Tomorrow Part 3 on storytelling with Ira Glass.

The “This American Life” website here.