By Laurens Grainger

Too many cooks spoil the broth

This has been a tough week.  I started it with a couple of D&Ad ideas that I was pretty happy with and I’ve ended it stressed, eating a half price pizza from Tesco, wondering why I’m so shit at life.

That’s the SCA for ya.

This type of frustration and confusion comes to me on a regular basis.  The source of it – I think – is not having a clear idea of what I need to do.  

So, what’s the remedy?  My Mum would tell me that it’s to ask someone for guidance.  She’s kinda right, but kinda not.

We’re really lucky to have so many bright people walk through the SCA’s doors every day.  All of them have an opinion and all of them bring a wonderful way of looking at things.  I’m not just talking about the guest mentors, I’m talking about the house mentors and the other students too.

But there’s a point where if you ask for guidance from too many people, your thoughts become a mess.

Just think, when you ask Marc for advice, you’ll get one idea.

Then when you go and ask for Pete’s thoughts, you’ll get a contrasting idea.

And when you ask a mentor from an agency, you might find out that you’re missing the idea entirely.

And then when you ask another student, they’ll say you’re over-complicating the idea.

Holy fuck.

You’re fated to fail.  It’s not physically possible to produce something that pulls in so many different directions.

So how the hell do you get a clear idea of what you need to do?  I wish I had the answer, but I don’t.

All that I do know, is that it’s some mixture of the following:

• Being able to stand up for your idea when you’re presenting it
• Knowing who to ask for advice and when to ask for it
• Not being precious about your idea
• Getting your proposition right

I’m sure there’s a lot more to it.  Hopefully I’ll come back to write a SCAB about this one day with all the answers.

In the mean time, any guidance would be appreciated.  But please, not too many of you, you’ll confuse me.