Basically, he talks about starting to do creative work,
and how there’s a gap between what you want
your creation to be - whether it’s a story, a stand-up act, a cake, a drawing -
and what it actually is.
It’s the gap between ‘this story sucks’ and ‘it’s
working’.
Ira says that a lot of people give up as soon as they see
the gap. Like when I write something, read
it over, am disappointed with its clunky emptiness, and lower my head in
despair. How could it ever get better?
But according to Ira if we keep at it, it
will. If we make enough stories,
jokes, cakes, and refine what we do and learn and persist, it will get
better.
For me, a big part of stepping over the gap is
gradually learning to be more discerning when it comes to the voices in my
head. Which voices are encouraging me,
which have story potential, which are worth playing around with, seeing
where they take me, who a character might be.
There are some thoughts - negative, sabotaging
ones - that I need to politely shut the door on. They’re the doorknockers, burglars and
religion peddlers of the-voices-in-your-head world. Because, honestly, I’ve found them about as
helpful as a cat who likes to pee all around my house.
Those thoughts
make me start to think about writing the way I think about childbirth (I don’t
mean to offend women who’ve actually gone through childbirth, writing is
obviously never that painful ... unless you're writing during childbirth), but sometimes it can feel like an overwhelming,
impossible notion that I’ll be able to push any of my baby ideas and characters
out of the tip of a pen.
So now when I
start down that track, I’m going to think to myself: WWID (What Would Ira Do)? And I'll pick up a pen and, hopefully, start to close the gap. 
