Alec

McNayr

I just asked my wife what I should write about, and without a thought, she answered, “Maybe you can write about Jack.”

By “Jack,” she means Jack Skelington from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Some backstory: when October 1st comes around every year, our house gets transformed into a scare palace, and the 1993 Tim Burton masterpiece goes into our DVD player.  And it doesn’t leave for 31 days.  I had no idea this would happen when I said “I do,” but it’s a pleasant surprise.

In the movie, Jack is very successful at his job: scaring people.  His whole world is wrapped around his innate talent.  Everyone pats Jack on the back for doing his job so well.  But he’s frustrated with the monotony.

What does he do?  He changes his world.  He goes to “Christmasland,” where his talents are so unique that they’re shocking to people.  They literally change the world, in a Guy Kawasaki-type way.

As I try to apply this to the business of creativity, I consider my own hodge-podge of skills.  Writing and comedy.  Graphic design, Photoshop, and photography. Presentations and public speaking.  I’m always trying to apply them in a better way than others, but what about applying them to a new world?

I’m pursuing a career in TV screenwriting, and I’ve been thinking about how my skills beyond screenwriting will make me stand out there.  Coming from the worlds of marketing and online media, my skills may be shocking in a world that seems so rigidly defined.  I’m hoping it will make me stand out…

My tagline for myself: “A new breed of TV showrunner, a writer with an eye for digital media and marketing.” Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but it’s a start.

What are you good at?  Is it the same thing as 1,000 other people?  That level of competition makes you irrelevant; the line is too long to compete head-to-head.  So put yourself in a new world… one that makes you unique.  Stand out!

[Posted in the Pursuing Creativity series]

A few years ago, I found myself with all kinds of angst about my career trajectory.  I was fully employed at a good job, doing creative projects on the side, but always stressed out about “what I was doing with my life.”  Maybe you have that problem, too.  I call it “your 20s.”

What helps me now?  A saying.

Do the work.  Do the work.

It’s a mantra I picked up while doing an interview for Script Magazine (“Big Names Change the Online Game”).  I was talking to Justine Bateman, Jill Kushner, and Wizards of Waverly Place EP Peter Murrieta, and during the interview, Peter took a call from what must have been a stressed-out, unsure understudy of his.  Like an AA sponsor to an addict about to take a sip, he said, “I don’t care if you’re tired, do the work.  If you’re frustrated, do the work.  If you’re sick, do the work.  No matter what, just do the work.”

It was probably the most poignant thing I personally received from the interview, and it happened in the background while trying to listen and take notes from Justine and Jill.

There’s some calming wisdom in those words.  That inborn talent matters little in the face of time.

When it comes to “honing your craft” or “getting good-er” or “putting in your “10,000 hours,” it’s all about getting better, step by step, at something that is really hard (like screenwriting, photography, lawyering, painting, negotiating, or anything that takes artistry).

Unfortunately, the AA analogy holds up.  We’re all a little addicted to ‘Not Doing the Work.’

It’s just too easy to get distracted.  To go to bed early.  To have “weekends.”

However, the people that succeed in anything worthwhile find a way to overcome that addiction and do a little bit of work every day.  Find that nanometer of improvement.  Over time, it adds up.

As for me, I’m not too worried any longer.  I’m on a journey to improvement, and I don’t expect the fast results I did a few years back.  I can’t stress about it.  I’m too busy doing the work.

Further reading on this subject: Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh MacLeod, The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) by Seth Godin, Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell (“10,000 hours”), and Stephen King’s On Writing (“Get a closet and write there everyday.”).

[This is will be part of a series of posts under the Pursuing Creativity banner.]

Two weeks ago, Bob and I pitched four comedy concepts to the ABC comedy development team. It went well, to be honest.  We dropped off four spec scripts for them to get a sense of our work… and we crossed our fingers.

And yesterday, they called and passed.

I am not, however, sad.  Let me shout it from the mountaintop that Kelly Luegenbiehl is one of the nicest executives I’ve ever worked with.  She took extra time to give us some feedback and welcomed us back anytime to pitch new pilot concepts.  She deserves all the accolades she’s getting right now for the ABC Wednesday night comedy line-up (sans Hank, of course).

It reminds me of a related funny story.

I’ve been in to pitch ABC three times now. The first time, the floor receptionist asked us if we wanted any water.  We said yes, and she offered either chilled or room temperature.  Giddy like unpopular schoolgirls asked to sit at the A-Group’s lunch table, we asked for chilled water.  We received a pair of perfectly cool Fiji water bottles.  It was a good meeting.  We sold our project.

Our second trip, right around the Writer’s Strike, we came in to re-pitch a few ideas, and were again offered water.  The receptionist didn’t ask our temperature preferences, so we assumed that she remembered!  What joy!  We had made it.  We were important producers!  Then the receptionist handed us some room temperature Arrowhead bottles.

Then, two weeks ago, we again approached the receptionist desk, and, this time, there was no mention of water.  Not even a look towards the mini-fridge under her desk.  So we grabbed a seat… right next to the self-serve Arrowhead water cooler.

Tough economic times have forced us all to scale back… even ABC!

It just goes to show you that no matter how far you’ve come, you shouldn’t take yourself too seriously. It’s just drinking water, and it’s just doing work.  Keep on doing both.

(PS — During all of our visits, Kelly’s assistant offered us water, coffee, and candy!)

I just quoted blogger/artist/marketer Hugh MacLeod in a proposal to a potential marketing client:

Marketer and artist Hugh MacLeod writes in his book Ignore Everybody,

“Put some of your ideas on a blog and ‘get it out there.’  Eventually the fish will start biting. Just remember that it doesn’t happen overnight.  It usually takes a couple of years of continual posting to build up enough trust to where people are willing to [buy from you consistently].  But you never know; it could be a couple of months.”

So, I should take this opportunity to write a starting blog post.  I started this blog at alecmcnayr.com to be a repository of all my online media, but maybe it can be more.

I’m a partner at a production company, a social media company, a co-writer at a humor blog that nabbed 2.5 million visitors in July,  and through all that, I have a book coming out in April 2010, I’m actively pitching TV and Web series, and I have a handful of active marketing clients, including Nokia, UCLA, and Generosity Water.  A multi-national corporation, a university, and a non-profit.

You’d think I would have learned to specialize.

Every time someone asks me what I do, I squint my eyes and try to formulate an answer.  I’m not prideful.  I’m probably more humble than I should be… I am just trying to contextualize why I do the creative things I do, and I never have a suitable answer.  Perhaps it’s just not that simple, or perhaps my personal confusion about my work complicates it.

Maybe I should just settle on “I create things, some written, some visual.”

All that to say, I hope to use this blog as a forum to explore an answer to that question: “What do you do?”

I hope you find my thoughts interesting and perhaps use me as a sounding board for your creative endeavors.

Like I said, I’m reading Hugh MacLeod’s book.  He’s an older creative guy with a lot of wisdom and experience.  I’m less experienced, but just as creative.

So, if I’m asking the question… how would you answer?  What do YOU do?