“Producing is about discouraging creativity”

That’s a lesson Tina Fey learned from Lorne Michaels, which she describes in Bossypants:

You would think that as a producer, your job would be to churn up creativity, but mostly your job is to police enthusiasm.

Editors also need to do this, and frankly it’s probably one of the least fun aspects of the job. 

It requires restraint; this discouragement often means doing the hard work of dampening the creative team’s enthusiasm and killing darlings, discerning between ideas that move the work forward, and focusing each person’s energy. 

All in service of making good work.

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