In television writers’ rooms, there is a practice called “beat the joke.” The idea is that there’s a joke written for a scene but can it be better? So the writers will all pitch variations or new jokes. Sometimes the original joke ends up staying but more often than not, something funnier is discovered along the way. 

This practice of not going with your first idea is relevant to most creative endeavors. It certainly is with writing and drawing which is the focus here with The Middle-Grade Writer’s Resource. 

This is talked about in a Twitter thread by Michael Rianda, writer/director of The Mitchel’s Vs. The Machines. These are some of the things he learned from movie rockstars Chris Miller & Phil Lord. 

Chris and Phil, if you’re not familiar are the team responsible for among other things, The Lego Movie and Into The Spider-Verse. The latter of which really reinvented what an animated movie could be. I’m going to hit some highlights from that thread here.

“Fight against formula in EVERY FRAME”  or line of dialogue, panel, or sequence.

 When the team on Mitchell’s had gone as far as they were able to with the look of the film based on their budget, Chris and Phil responded “Pretty good- but could it look more like the stuff you love? The job isn’t to hit the budget- it’s to make something great.” 

Yes, there are some things that are out of our control but when we remember what we set out to accomplish in the first place it will prevent us from getting derailed with something that may seem important in the moment but will cost us in the long run. 

A small example of something that went from generic to character-specific was the Raptor Bash.

 “Aaron+Katie used to fist bump+ say “Ride or Die” but Chris+Phil said: “How could their fist bump be more unique to them?” So we came up with this Raptor Bash. Suddenly this moment(+relationship) was more specific, memorable + unique!”

You’ve probably heard the quote “Fail fast, fail often” by John C. Maxwell. Rianda approached it as “Quantity… THEN Quality. If you’re looking for the right solution to something: Instead of crafting ONE PERFECT IDEA in 8 hours- 25 imperfect ideas in 1 hour will get you there faster.”

Don’t get paralyzed with getting your work perfect. I personally get hung up on this, trying to get something just right before moving on to the next thing. Then inevitably getting stuck and not moving on. Fill your page with enough dumb ideas and you can’t help but come up with something good. 

I’ll close with a quote by Maya Angelou. “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”

There is waaaaaay more in the thread. So check it out. And make great work (after you’ve made a bunch of bad)!

Michael Rianda: What I Learned from Chris Miller + Phil Lord on The Mitchells Vs The Machines 

Other Stuff

I made a short animation of Niles & JB.

Family Stuff

It was River’s 2nd Easter. So, old enough to sort of join in some activities. Sophia found a process for dying eggs that used colored whip cream. It didn’t really work but was tasty. 

Thanks for reading. See you next month!

-Josh

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