Into the Void

I captured this brave little fellow as I was going out for a run this morning. As you can tell the sun had yet to rise but this slimy character/possible all-nighter party animal was well and truly up. I took a couple of photos before I scared him enough for him to very slowly seek escape into this crack in my front steps. Unfortunately I didn’t get a very clear shot thanks to the poor lighting but I still like the overall feel of this shot.

He’s climbing into the void, into the unknown, something we all have to do at one time or another, something I sometimes find hard to do. I wouldn’t say I was a perfectionist but I would say I like to do things right. This can be a great quality in ensuring most of the work I do is at a good standard but it can also be a bad quality when beginning that work. This is because I don’t want to start something unless I know exactly how to do it, and how to do it well. But when do you ever know how to do something well without never having done it before? Never. This can cause me to not procrastinate, but hesitate when starting something new, thinking that if I just have some more time to think it through I’ll figure out how to do it exactly right. Foolishness, obviously.

The real trick is to do exactly what this snail is doing and just throw yourself into the void, or as my Dad would say, throw your hat over the fence. By just jumping in you’ll at least have something to work with, somewhere to go. You might not get it perfect on the first try but you’ll at least have a better understanding of the job involved and how to work with what you have to improve it to the point that you’re satisfied.

This lately has been an issue with my screenplay. I want the story to be as good as it can be, but writing it perfectly on the first try is impossible, or at least restricted to the incredibly talented which I’m not. I need to write something rather crappy but at least close to what I want to say, and then piece by piece improve upon it until it’s gets closer and closer to the final product I have in my mind. Tedious and challenging yes, but ultimately rewarding. Also who really want to get things right on the first try, without mistakes you’ll never learn anything.

Either way it all starts with that first step into the void.

- Damian