Practice, Practice, Practice...

It's an old joke: "Pedestrian in New York asks a famous violinist, 'How do you get to Carnegie Hall?' The man replied, 'Practice, practice, practice!'"

The oft-used joke is steeped in truth. Steven King wrote about it in his 1999 book, On Writing. Although a lot of writing talent has to do with innate skill, he says, a large percentage of it has to do with the more your practice your craft, the better you become at it. And in academic circles it is believed that you have to practice something for 10,000 hours before you become an expert. That's 3 hours a day, every day, for 10 years.

One of the film editors of the original Star Wars film, Richard Chew began his career shooting film as a news camera man, shooting a one or two minutes piece on a daily basis. He talks about that when he give speeches about his craft and how he is always still learning. When he first sees the dailies on any given film he's working on he makes notes about what resonates with him and his emotional response. He uses that information to help him improve his craft as he completes it, especially since when you work on one thing for so long you begin to lose objectivity toward it.

He also says that when he's working on editing a film, he usually continues to edit on it until someone takes it away because of deadline; essentially stating that any work of art is never truly finished because you always want to make it better.

How much work do you put into perfecting your skill at, say, video journalism? Do you do the least amount you can do to get a grade and then let it go? Or, do you work on learning something new about the process each time you go through it? Do you read websites and articles about the craft of editing or photography? Do you read blogs about improving what you do? Do you try new things (special effects, new transitions, new format, etc.) each time you turn in a project? Do you get defensive when you see your grade or do you use the information to teach yourself how to get better? Do you keep an open mind about other peoples' suggestions, even though your knee-jerk reaction is to do it the same way you've been doing it, over and over and over again?

Let me put it to you this way: if teachers at South Cobb high school taught in the same manner as they did in the '70s or '80s, would that be okay with you? Would you be able to sit in your seat, day in and day out doing nothing but taking notes for an entire semester and be expected to learn the information? No talking, not much interaction, a LOT of reading, very little hands-on experiences, certainly no bathroom breaks. That's the way I learned, but why isn't that good now? The truth is that teaching, just like any other skill or field, evolves and changes the more we learn about what works and what doesn't. But if you're stuck in doing things the same way, every time, over and over again, are you really learning? I venture a guess that, NO, you're not. You're just repeating a task.

As we look around the room now, there are lots of new tools for us to use. Let me remind you of a belief of EVERY professional journalist out there; the tools do not make the editor/photographer/reporter/producer, etc., the ability to tell stories does. I've heard Les Rose from CBS and Steve Hartman say this. I've heard Al Tompkins from the Poynter Institute say this. I've read where Richard Chew has said this. I'VE said this. Hone your craft by practicing and trying new things. Don't just go through the motions. Learn the craft, don't just learn what the buttons do. Don't just complete the assignment to get a grade and be done with it, take in the whole experience of working on a project and enjoy the process. Learn something from it, and practice, practice, practice.