In this episode of The Writing Coach podcast, writing coach Kevin T. Johns responds to a challenge issued by author Daniel Pease.
Pease challenged Kevin to watch a drum video by El Estepario Siberiano and develop training advice for writers based on the performance.
So that’s exactly what he did!
Kevin identifies 8 key things writers can learn from watching Siberiano’s video.
Listen to the episode or read the transcript now!
The Writing Coach Episode #175 Show Notes
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The Writing Coach Episode #175 Transcript
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Hello, beloved listeners, and welcome back to The Writing Coach podcast. It is your host, as always, writing coach Kevin T. Johns here.
This episode was a challenge issued to me by a former client and author—no, he’s a current client. He’s in STORY PLAN right now! But we’ll get to that in a moment.
If I sound excited, it’s because here at the Writing Coach headquarters, it is an exciting week; we are opening up the doors to the latest cohort of FIRST DRAFT writers.
FIRST DRAFT is my group coaching program and community where we help writers write an incredible first draft of their book in six months or less, while making incredible progress on their writer’s craft skill set and knowledge.
It’s a coaching program: we’ve got question and answer calls, we’ve got intense hot seats where I’m going over members of the program’s pages in detail the exact same way I do with my one-on-one clients only for a fraction of the cost because you’re in there learning as a group.
FIRST DRAFT has over 20 writer’s craft training courses. We’ve got a community, a private community separate from Facebook, separate from social media so that you can focus on your writing and your creativity and your skill development separate from the distractions of the rest of the internet. We have so much more: positivity partners and tons of other incredible supports inside that program.
The doors are open this week. They close this Sunday, October 1. We kick things off next Monday, so now is the time to join FIRST DRAFT.
Okay, as I said, on today’s episode, I am responding to a challenge from author Daniel Pease. I will link to his novel Careless in the show notes for this episode. He’s an incredible writer. I highly recommend you check out his work. He’s someone I’ve worked with off and on for a couple of years now, and he’s always a delight to work with.
He sent me an email that said, “Your mission is to develop a lesson around El Estepario Siberiano smashing his drum kit.”
I was not familiar with El Estepario Siberiano, but I sure am now, thanks to this challenge.
I took a look at the video that Daniel sent me. In the video, this drummer, El Estepario Siberiano, does a drum cover of the song “Everybody Dance Now”, that old 90s dance song. I know you know it.
This is the video here:
I watched this video, and I thought, how can this apply to writing? What lessons can a writer take from a three-minute video of a drummer drumming along to “Everybody Dance Now”? And I think there are about eight or nine takeaways that I came up with that I think any writer can learn from this video.
I will say off the top I do have a musical background. My origins as a writer were not as a novelist or screenwriter or anything. I wrote songs. I was a punk rock kid. From the time I was about 13 years old, I was writing my own songs, composing them on guitar and writing the lyrics. For most of my teenage years, I did a bit of fiction, some short story stuff here and there, a bit of screenplay stuff, but for the most part, I was really writing songs.
I do come at writing and coaching from a musical background. Certainly, if you’ve listened to this podcast, or if you’ve worked with me as a coach, you know that the ideology and kind of mindset of punk rock absolutely has carried over to my approach to writing and coaching in that I don’t look for perfection. In fact, I like rough edges. All those things that I learned from punk rock certainly apply to my approach to art and business and coaching today.
As such, someone sending me a video of a drummer isn’t totally out of the blue. I do love music. I’ve played music. In fact, I did play drums in one band. Most of the bands I was in, I played guitar. I was a bass player in one of my latter-day bands. And I’m almost certain I was in a band where I played drums. We didn’t stick around too long, possibly because my drumming is not that good.
All that said, I think I can look at music and take writing lessons from it.
Lesson #1: Fundamentals cross genres.
Siberiano is obviously a rock guy. At least, I think he’s a rock guy; his style, his look, and his approach to drums definitely suggest a rock and roll background. And yet, what is the song he’s playing? “Everybody Dance Now” is an early 90s pure electronic dance number!
Why is the video so good? Why is he so amazing? Why does it sound so good?
It’s because he has the fundamentals of drumming, the craft, the art of drumming, so mastered that to him, it doesn’t matter that it’s a 90s dance song. It could be a 40s jazz song or a 2010 crunk song, It doesn’t matter because at the foundation of the art form are fundamentals that cross genres.
Of course, that applies to writing with things like character arcs, things like story structure, things like scene structure. I mean, all of the fundamental elements, for the most part, of writer’s craft cross genres Whether you’re writing historical fiction, a mystery, a horror story, or a sci-fi, you still need environmental descriptions, you still need dialogue, you still need sense descriptions, all of these fundamentals transfer over from genre to genre.
For marketing purposes, many authors tend to stick with one genre. That said, they totally have the ability to write in other genres. We can look at someone like Stephen King; he’s obviously the horror guy, but he’s also got some fantasy books. He’s also got books in other genres as well. It’s because when you’ve mastered the fundamentals, you can tackle any genre, and so seeing Siberiano just killing it with a live drum cover of a 90s dance song doesn’t surprise me.
Lesson #2: When you master something, you don’t flail.
If I sat down at a drum set and tried to play along to “Everybody Dance Now,” I’d largely be flailing about, but Siberiano has clearly broken down the art form into little chunks, into rhythms, into fills, into when to hit the bass drum and when to hit the hi-hat, when they hit the cymbals and when to hit the floor tom drum. It is a clearly calculated performance that he’s doing to create a certain effect.
Ultimately, music and drums in particular is math. Rhythm is mathematical, and you can almost see that in this man’s masterful performance of the drums. He’s calculating, he’s doing little equations saved him in his mind. I know that if I hit the ride cymbal, this way, at this certain time, it’s going to create a certain impact on the listener.
And this is the same thing with writing.
With so many beginning writers, you’re really flailing about on the page. You’re not thinking in terms of the literary elements, you’re not thinking, “Oh, I’ve got too much dialogue in here. I need to work in some internal narration.” I mean, most people don’t even have a point of view locked down or understood when they’re approaching their first novel. There’s a lot of flailing that goes on. You’re kind of just throwing things at the page and learning as you go.
That said, as you continue to master the art form of writer’s craft, you do become much more calculated in how you’re approaching your story at the macro level and at the micro level.
I think of my scenes in a very structured manner, and I have a certain scene structure that I like to follow. I have certain literary elements I like to mix in at certain times and certain amounts.
When you are a master, you’re not just sitting down and hoping magic flows out of you. That’s definitely not what this drummer in this video is doing. That’s not what experienced writers do, either. When you’ve put in the time, when you put in the effort, when you study the art form, and when you’ve written a few books, you become a lot more confident and a lot less flaily (is that a word?) when you sit down to write your book.
Lesson #3: Knowing when to mute yourself is just as important as knowing when to show off.
There’s a moment in Siberiano’s video, where he’s playing the drums, and then all of a sudden, he hits the crash cymbal, and then he catches it with his hand and mutes it. We have this little second of silence, that creates drama, that creates tension, and then he’s back into the performance. It’s not just about when he hits the drums in the cymbals. It’s about when he chooses not to hit them, and when to silence them.
We see this in writing as well.
What is a scene break? What is a chapter break? These are intentional pauses. These are intentional moments of silence to create dramatic effect in the reading experience of the story. In the same way that music is made up of a series of noises and silences, our writing in our storytelling also involves pauses, silences when we’re turning the page and starting another chapter or pausing one story knowing when to pause one story, or storyline or character point of view and jump to another storyline or character point of view.
When I look at this video, I see someone using not just sound but silence wonderfully.
Lesson #4: It’s surprising what becomes iconic.
Here’s another takeaway for me. The second I hear “Everybody Dance Now,” it feels iconic. At this point, I feel like everyone knows this song and that it’s considered a classic of 90s dance pop.
But I can tell you as someone who grew up in the 90s, that song was pure cheese. It was what, in modern terminology, we would call that cringe.
I can tell you that punk rock Kevin in the early 1990s would probably rather stick a pencil in his ear than listen to “Everybody Dance Now.”
In fact, if you have watched Cunk on Earth, the incredible comedic documentary (it’s so funny, you gotta check it out) there’s a reoccurring joke where every episode they end up randomly cutting to “Everybody Dance Now.” The joke is it’s such la silly cheesy song to cut to in a faux serious documentary about the history of humanity.
Yet, as cheesy as the song is, as cringy as the song is, here it is 30 years later, and someone’s doing a rock drum cover to it, and it’s kind of iconic. When I hear it, it kind of brings up good memories of my youth in my childhood.
And so, what’s the point here? It’s that what feels cheesy, what feels contrived, what feels melodramatic or histrionic in the moment, might actually end up being iconic, somewhere down the line.
If something is making someone cringe in the moment, it might be because it’s pushing boundaries, it might be because it’s pushing people’s levels or boundaries of comfort, and sometimes the best art, the art that stands the test of time, the art that is iconic is the art that presses boundaries.
Look at a film like Pink Flamingos, by John Waters. I mean, it’s pretty cringe and yet it’s also iconic and it will also stand the test of time just because it’s so weird and so out there and causes a guttural reaction in the viewer, and it’s so different from anything else.
The point being: don’t be afraid to create your “Everybody Dance Now.” Just because everyone around you right now might think you’re out there or weird or cheesy or cringe or any of that doesn’t mean that down the line with the 20/20 vision, people aren’t going to be looking back on your art and saying, “Wow, it is iconic of its time, it was ahead of its time. Given distance, I now appreciate it.”
Watching someone completely rock out to “Everybody Dance Now” really emphasized that for me. I now happily listen to a song that, in my youth, I never would have been caught dead listening to.
Lesson #5: Style counts and iconography matters.
Siberiano is not just drumming, he’s putting on a drum performance. He is not just playing this in a dark room by himself. He is very aware that there’s a camera on him. He’s spinning his drumsticks and he’s making cool faces, and he is putting on a performance for the viewer and for the listener. This is not a self-indulgent performance. This is not him creating music for himself. It’s him creating music and performing it in a way that viewers and listeners can appreciate and can enjoy. He is creating his art for someone, not in a vacuum.
Building on that idea of style counts and performance matters, iconography matters, he’s wearing a very minimalist outfit. It says the same thing on his shirt as it says on his hat. They’re the same color. And as casual as his outfit looks, it’s actually very specifically chosen. It’s striking and recognizable and memorable in its minimalism in the fact that it says the same thing on the hat and the shirt that things are the same color. This is not someone flailing about creating art in a dark room. This is a master who’s consciously put together a piece of music that he’s now going to perform in an entertaining manner, wearing clothing that will make him identifiable and distinguishable and iconic.
So, carry this over to our writing!
Don’t just write for yourself. You are creating your stories for an audience, so entertain them, throw some drum spins in there, make sure that you keep things fun and exciting and ultimately keeping the reader on the edge of their seat laughing or crying or engaged.
Writing in your journal, maybe writing even the first draft of your book, that’s for you. But everything after that is for the reader.
You are trying to entertain someone or move someone or teach someone or inspire someone. Don’t forget that. Keep them in mind. Do some cool drum spins along the way.
If you can be iconic, if you can be minimalistic in some way, it’s probably going to help. And what do we mean by minimalistic? Well, don’t make your book about 12 things; make your book about three things that you come at 120 different ways. Have your shirt and your hat be the same color and say the same thing within your writing.
Lesson #6: Have fun with your art.
This guy looks like he is having a blast. He is just coming at the drums from a place of joy. And that’s always the funnest art.
I mean, I’m someone who writes from a place of darkness and who is trying to evoke feelings of darkness. But ultimately, if I’m not having fun doing it, and if the reader isn’t having fun reading it, then it’s all kind of pointless. Life is hard enough.
And why do I like dark art? Why do I create dark art? Because to me it is a better representation of life than something that’s all cheery and fun like “Everybody Dance Now”. That said, I think when we find the dark art that we resonate with, it brings joy to our lives. We feel like we are not alone. We feel like we are heard, we feel like people are going through the same pain that we’ve been through. And ultimately it is an uplifting experience.
So regardless of whether you’re writing the darkest, grim-dark story or the happiest light rom-com, just have fun doing it. I used to really focus on productivity and more and more focused on fun. Have fun creating your art, have fun being a writer, trying to have fun living life.
At the beginning of this episode I talked about my coaching program, FIRST DRAFT. Why join FIRST DRAFT if it’s not going to be fun? That’s one of the things I have in the back of mind when I’m creating tools or resources or developing new ways to run that program. I’m always asking myself, “How can we make this easier on people? How can we make it more fun? How can I make it something they look forward to participating in week after week?”
And so when I look at Siberiano smiling as he plays the most incredible drum performance of all time (or one of them), it’s just wonderful.
Enjoy your art and try to enjoy life!
Lesson #7: Make it look easy.
Now, the video Daniel sent me was actually a reaction video, so it was another person watching Siberiano do his performance and then reacting to it. At one point, the person reacting says, “It’s so easy for him. It’s insane.” And I think that’s really interesting.
As I talked about earlier, Siberiano is a master. So in a way, it is easier for him. But not really. He’s putting in an incredible drum performance that’s very easy to mess up and that’s very physically demanding. It took a ton of mental calculation to develop it and to develop it, and it took a lifetime of studying and practicing drums to get to where this performance looks easy.
It’s kind of like magic, stage performance magic I mean; it only works if it looks seamless, if it looks easy to the audience.
It’s the same with writing.
Some writer, I forget who, has said something like, “Who cares if they don’t know writing this was impossible? Let them think it was easy.” And that’s good art. That’s good mastery of anything. If you are a master of any technique, or art form, or job or whatever, you want to make it look easy. That’s part of the magic; that’s part of the charm.
And that’s part of writing. No one that needs to know just how hard that book is to write other than you in your community of artists, the people around you. Again, that’s what we do inside the FIRST DRAFT: we say “Man, this is hard, huh?” and we go, “Yeah, it is hard,” and we support each other. But then we release these books that just look easy as hell, that look like Siberiano slamming on the drums, except it’s us slamming on the keyboard. Itt looks smooth and easy to the reader, regardless of how much work and effort and heart and soul and years went into it behind the scenes.
Lesson #8: What works at the macro works at the micro.
Next up something that Siberiano does in his performance is “triples.” At least triples, maybe more than that, which is basically when another drummer might hit the snare drum once, he’s hitting it three times, or maybe four times! I mean, he’s going so fast, it’s hard to tell. But in that same amount of time, he’s just hitting more drums, more symbols more times than I ever could—unless, maybe, I spent the next 20 years practicing, maybe I could drum at that speed.
What it demonstrates is what I call the “Estonian Doll Theory” of writing, which is like those dolls where you open the doll, and there’s another one inside of it, and there’s another one inside of it.
Why did triples work when in the original “Everybody Dance Now” song, there was only one snare hit at that same moment. It’s because in art, things are embedded. What works at the micro works at the macro level.
So if we’re looking at story structure at the macro level, at the most basic level, your story has a beginning and a middle and an end. But then we could break that up into act. And so let’s talk about the beginning of your story. That beginning Act also has a beginning and a middle and an end. And then if you break it down all the way to the scene level, every scene has a beginning and a middle and an end. And within every scene, let’s go back the other direction, now every scene has a scene goal, but acts have act goals. And ultimately, there’s a story goal that’s driving your protagonist forward through the narrative.
It’s all embedded.
In the same way that Siberiano can overlay multiple drumbeats when one could have worked, it’s the same way with what we’re doing at the one drumbeat level of a book, a scene, can also be tripled at the act level or at the macro level.
There are multiple layers of the art embedded within itself.
There’s the eight takeaways that I’ve got from watching this drum performance:
- Fundamentals cross genre.
- When you master something, your performance becomes calculated, and you don’t flail.
- Knowing when to pause or mute yourself can be just as important as making noise.
- Even the cheesiest thing can become iconic over time,
- Style counts. Think about your audience, entertain them, and try to be iconic.
- Have fun with your art. What’s the point in doing it if you’re not enjoying it?
- Things that look easy to the viewer or reader, probably aren’t that easy even if we make it look that way.
- What works at the micro level works at the macro level.
And then my final takeaway from this video was that when you’ve got a fever, there’s only one cure, and you know what it is?
More cowbell.
Thank you so much, Daniel, for sending over this fantastic video and for issuing me this challenge of taking some writing lessons from a drum video.
As I said off the top, this is the week that we are welcoming in a new group of writers into my FIRST DRAFT group coaching program and community.
If you’re a listener of this podcast, if you enjoy the types of discussions we have on this podcast, if you want to make serious progress on your writing, if you want to get a first draft of your book written within the next six months or less, and if you want to do it within a community of creative, passionate artists who care about their writing, and who take it seriously, but who don’t take themselves too seriously and who have fun doing it, and who welcome people from other genres and different approaches to art, then FIRST DRAFT is for you.
We would love to get you inside of our community so that you can get access to our training library of over 20 courses, so that you can get on our question-and-answer coaching calls, so that you can get on the hotseat and I can go through one of your scenes line by line and tell you exactly what’s working and where it can be improved.
I want tyou to join so that you can get a positivity partner every week, someone within the program, a new person every week, who reads one of your scenes and provides you with only positive feedback. This isn’t a critique partner. It’s a positivity partner who cheers you on and says “You’re doing great, keep going!”
These are the tools that you need to succeed with your writing. These are the supports that will get you through those challenges. These are the processes, the goal setting, the milestone tracking, the accountability that’s going to allow you to achieve your writing goals and it’s happening this week.
The doors closed this Sunday, October 1, so now is the time to get registered to be part of the latest cohort of writers joining my FIRST DRAFT group coaching program.
I want you to be part of our community And I want to work with you to help you write the best novel you can possibly write, so join now.
Thank you so much to Daniel for inspiring this week’s episode. Hey, anyone else out there have challenges for me? Would you like me to watch another drum video or some other weird thing and draw writing lessons out of it? That so sounds like fun.
All right, hit that subscribe button and I will see you on the next episode of The Writing Coach.
