So I was looking at the other thread about the "new" Rule 0, and I noticed that some people were going into the usual conversations about the balance of authority at a D&D table, or the issues with a bad DM/GM (hereafter, I'll just write DM), and so on. And I thought to myself, "Self, a long time ago I wrote about some good advice in general that I think also works for new DMs that I think is worth putting out again."
Normally, advice is worth what you pay for it (and you're not paying my hourly rate), but I think that what follows is helpful, Even though it isn't specific to DMing, I wish I had heard it when I was starting to DM, because it would have helped so much.
Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, and I really wish somebody had told this to me.
All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But it’s like there is this gap. For the first couple years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making isn’t so good. It’s not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s not that good.
But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you’re making is kind of a disappointment to you. A lot of people never get past that phase. They quit.
Everybody I know who does interesting, creative work they went through years where they had really good taste and they could tell that what they were making wasn’t as good as they wanted it to be. They knew it fell short. Everybody goes through that.
And if you are just starting out or if you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week or every month you know you’re going to finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you’re going to catch up and close that gap. And the work you’re making will be as good as your ambitions.
Source: Ira Glass on Storytelling.
On the first day of class, Jerry Uelsmann, a professor at the University of Florida, divided his film photography students into two groups.
Everyone on the left side of the classroom, he explained, would be in the “quantity” group. They would be graded solely on the amount of work they produced. On the final day of class, he would tally the number of photos submitted by each student. One hundred photos would rate an A, ninety photos a B, eighty photos a C, and so on.
Meanwhile, everyone on the right side of the room would be in the “quality” group. They would be graded only on the excellence of their work. They would only need to produce one photo during the semester, but to get an A, it had to be a nearly perfect image.
At the end of the term, he was surprised to find that all the best photos were produced by the quantity group. During the semester, these students were busy taking photos, experimenting with composition and lighting, testing out various methods in the darkroom, and learning from their mistakes. In the process of creating hundreds of photos, they honed their skills. Meanwhile, the quality group sat around speculating about perfection. In the end, they had little to show for their efforts other than unverified theories and one mediocre photo.
Source: Atomic Habits by James Clear.
No matter what your level of talent, in any field, nothing is more important than doing. If you are starting to DM, you will make mistakes. You will probably make a lot of mistakes. That's fine! It's part of the process- you will learn from it. Keep on doing it. Don't give up. Whether people talk about "10,000 hours" or "number of reps" or "just keep swimming" or "If I say I can eat 50 eggs, I can eat fifty eggs," it's always the same- the more you do something, the more you learn from your mistakes, the better you get. You became a DM for a reason- because you want to share your joy and fun. Remember that. Remember that you are doing it, and mistakes happen, and you are constantly getting better.
You aren't the DM you will be; they say that if Rome was built a day, I'd use their contractors because my kitchen is still unable to be used. But even Matt Mercer didn't start as "Matt Mercer." He worked at it. And he got better.
So, instead of arguing about what good and bad DMs do, I thought I'd share that advice. You will mess up. You will learn from it. Whether it's DMing, or countless other things. Just stay in the saddle.
Normally, advice is worth what you pay for it (and you're not paying my hourly rate), but I think that what follows is helpful, Even though it isn't specific to DMing, I wish I had heard it when I was starting to DM, because it would have helped so much.
Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, and I really wish somebody had told this to me.
All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But it’s like there is this gap. For the first couple years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making isn’t so good. It’s not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s not that good.
But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you’re making is kind of a disappointment to you. A lot of people never get past that phase. They quit.
Everybody I know who does interesting, creative work they went through years where they had really good taste and they could tell that what they were making wasn’t as good as they wanted it to be. They knew it fell short. Everybody goes through that.
And if you are just starting out or if you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week or every month you know you’re going to finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you’re going to catch up and close that gap. And the work you’re making will be as good as your ambitions.
Source: Ira Glass on Storytelling.
On the first day of class, Jerry Uelsmann, a professor at the University of Florida, divided his film photography students into two groups.
Everyone on the left side of the classroom, he explained, would be in the “quantity” group. They would be graded solely on the amount of work they produced. On the final day of class, he would tally the number of photos submitted by each student. One hundred photos would rate an A, ninety photos a B, eighty photos a C, and so on.
Meanwhile, everyone on the right side of the room would be in the “quality” group. They would be graded only on the excellence of their work. They would only need to produce one photo during the semester, but to get an A, it had to be a nearly perfect image.
At the end of the term, he was surprised to find that all the best photos were produced by the quantity group. During the semester, these students were busy taking photos, experimenting with composition and lighting, testing out various methods in the darkroom, and learning from their mistakes. In the process of creating hundreds of photos, they honed their skills. Meanwhile, the quality group sat around speculating about perfection. In the end, they had little to show for their efforts other than unverified theories and one mediocre photo.
Source: Atomic Habits by James Clear.
No matter what your level of talent, in any field, nothing is more important than doing. If you are starting to DM, you will make mistakes. You will probably make a lot of mistakes. That's fine! It's part of the process- you will learn from it. Keep on doing it. Don't give up. Whether people talk about "10,000 hours" or "number of reps" or "just keep swimming" or "If I say I can eat 50 eggs, I can eat fifty eggs," it's always the same- the more you do something, the more you learn from your mistakes, the better you get. You became a DM for a reason- because you want to share your joy and fun. Remember that. Remember that you are doing it, and mistakes happen, and you are constantly getting better.
You aren't the DM you will be; they say that if Rome was built a day, I'd use their contractors because my kitchen is still unable to be used. But even Matt Mercer didn't start as "Matt Mercer." He worked at it. And he got better.
So, instead of arguing about what good and bad DMs do, I thought I'd share that advice. You will mess up. You will learn from it. Whether it's DMing, or countless other things. Just stay in the saddle.
