‘But the differences between directing a five-minute short and directing an 85-minutes feature are many.  Doing the former is merely a baby step on the road to the latter, not the intermediate step we thought it was’*

I was talking with someone yesterday about writing; they told me how writing a novel is very different to writing a short story.  This seems to be what Ed Catmull is saying about making Pixar’s animations, above.

My experience is that it’s very difficult to “write” a great short story, when this is about living out our purpose with a daily purpose, focus, and clarity.

These daily stories still need a “spine,” or narrative arc, but they’re rarely about making mighty leaps, offering the opportunity to make what Frans Johansson names purposeful small bets, chosen because of their affordable loss, rather than return on investment.**

These small “bets” aren’t going to ruin us but afford us the opportunity to try and fail and learn – another term for which is deep practice.

Then there’s passion.

Much of what I’m about is helping people to identify their talents, key experiences, and passion.  Passion is the all-important motivation which keeps us going through hundreds and hundreds of hours of practice.  All short stories need to be filled with passion.  Johansson encourages us to ‘use passion as fuel to get past the inevitable failures.’**

(*From Ed Catmull’s Creativity, Inc..)
(**From Frans Johansson’s The Click Moment.)