A Negative Force

"Good moaning"

 It seems like everywhere I work these days the staff are moaning - and it's usually about their boss who is
a) incompetent
b) incapable of rational thought
c) never listens and
d) all three.

I've certainly worked with some interesting people over the years, some who were brilliant and wildly inconsistent, some who were solid but strange and and some who left me wondering how they got past their tenth birthday without being strangled.

But does moaning about your boss help the creative process? We know that drama needs conflict, without something to push against there's no story - no drama, no comedy. But if your boss is a bully,  incapable of understanding what you're trying to get at, it's inevitable that frustration will set in and moaning will take over.

At that point it's really, really hard to put that to one side and concentrate on what you're trying to create. Office politics take over. The moaners go off to mumble and plot in dark corridors and behind pillars, juices stop flowing. Moaning is the death of creativity because it is negative. There is no such thing as good moaning.

Arguments are something different.  I push my point, you counter with yours - something new can come out of argument, it can be a huge creative force - as long as everyone knows what they're trying to do is make things better. However, if I push my point and you push yours with a closed mind that says I'm right, he's wrong we're just going to argue about this until he gives in and I get my way, that's negative. When a colleague or your boss takes that kind of stance in an argument you may as well punch him in the face and walk out the door. The creative process is never served by anyone who sets their early thoughts in concrete.

That's why we rewrite.

When the first draft is done it's a FIRST draft. That first draft - the one I send out into the world - may be my third, fourth, fifth or tenth draft but when it leaves me it's The First Draft. But however many times I've tinkered, rewritten and tweaked I know that draft is going to attract notes and thoughts and opinions and suggestions that will lead to a second draft and on and on. If I'm arrogant enough to believe my first draft is perfect I'm going to react badly to notes. I'm going to moan about how the producer or director is an idiot and wouldn't know a script if it fell out of Aaron Sorkin's overcoat pocket. And - at the point at which moaning takes over - I'm dead. Moaning is a negative force and nowhere in Star Wars did I hear the line 'let the negative force be with you'.

That doesn't stop me occassionally moaning - but I've come to recognise it's a waste of time. If you're working for an idiot, work around him. If you're successful they'll be happy to take the credit. If the weight gets too heavy move on.