So many people can now write competent stories that the short story is in danger of dying of competence.

 Flannery O'Connor

(I don't look like her. I DON'T.)

I'm thinking we could substitute the word 'story' for 'screenplays' or indeed 'young adult novels'...there are a lot of us out there who are definitely competent.

Competence is not enough.

Here's Seth Godin's post of the day. The God in his surname is there for a reason. In my opinion. (Apart from the American spelling which I felt the need to correct.)

"As we get more experienced, we get better, more competent, more able to do our thing.

And it's easy to fall in love with that competence, to appreciate it and protect it. The pitfall? We close ourselves off from possibility.

Possibility, innovation, art--these are endeavours that not only bring the whiff of failure, they also require us to do something we're not proven to be good at. After all, if we were so good at it that the outcome was assured, there'd be no sense of possibility.

We often stop surprising ourselves (and the market) not because we're no good anymore, but because we are good. So good that we avoid opportunities that bring possibility."

Here's to courage and to endless possibility!