Here’s this blogger’s conundrum. I’m in the middle of some exciting project and I’m nerding out on every stinking thing I see, but I’m so absorbed with the project itself (deadline! deadline! deadline!) that I find it hard to make time to blog. And then, during off-weeks when I’m between projects (like now) I find myself idly starting at the innernets, only vaguely taken with its offerings. Boom, another barrier to blogging. Cause of course. OF COURSE. The creative process is backwards that way. In the end, it comes to this: I have to provide myself with some form of additional compensation/legitimization to keep this place alive like I want it to be. Otherwise I will just continue to dink around, finding excuse after excuse to put it off. Like it’s some frivolous dalliance, just mindless happenstance doodles at the perimeter of my *real* work. It’s really not though. Not even a little. But I don’t have a breath of a chance convincing anyone of that if I don’t spearhead it and figure out my own way to take things further. So that’s just what I’m going to do.
I’m not naive enough to think it’s an overnight process, but to start I’ve got some design/feature-related upgrades planned (!!) which will start rolling out in the next week or two. Content-wise, compensation-wise… Well, that’s the touchy-feely hard stuff that I still have to suss out so I’m devoting the entirety of next week to…writing on the internet, several hours a day to brainstorm and scheme. Seeing how easy it is for me to find excuses to stay OFF the internet though, I’m wondering if you’d like to help me. Tell me how you see this space. We can dream up a collab, or send me a submission, offer support, even just heckle me on on twitter to keep my ass in gear. Just tell me your words, any and all. I’ll be available via Skype, IM, and of course email too. Let’s break the 4th wall people, sweep out the cobwebs, and re-focus this space together. I’ll even toss the first pitch.
Starts Monday. I hope you’ll play along.
{Image Credit}
Amen, sister! I feel you’re pain…
I have the same problem Margot. I keep lists and lists of things that I want to write blogs, essays, and everything else about, but when it comes to dividing my day into things that either a)help me survive monetarily and b)are of genuine and unique interest to me, I find it really hard to stay motivated and quickly lose focus on the things that genuinely interest me. I can’t count how many blog posts and pieces of writing that I’ve begun in earnest and started to sink into, but ultimately came to a place where I forgot what the grander point of it all was for. So, for me, my problem is fully executing and completing things. To combat that I’ve been trying to think smaller and “microwrite” about very specific things with a narrow focus so as to slowly build a better habit of completion, because when it comes down to it, I think everything is about habits, and developing good habits takes oodles time, frustration, patience and sometimes just plain ol’ grueling practice.
That’s my two cents. Good luck and keep it up!
hey there I saw a post about this project on Post Family.
I have personally thought many times about the possibility of an internet outlet for creative things and I think it comes down to two questions.
1. Is this more engaging than my real life creative things?
2. Does this fill a social element in my life that I find important to keep up?
That being said, sometimes you avoid things because they are not as engaging as you thought they were before. This is something that personally happens to me with internet things. At least with curating things on the internet. On the other hand, sometimes you are just juggling too many things to get anything truly investigated.
That being said I think the internet is really great for archiving a big gobbly goop of things you can look back on later. And then you can show people this archive, share, ect. I think it becomes hard though because you theoretically have unlimited internet space. So it becomes a matter of curating content and I believe you just have to set some loose structures to narrow things down. I honestly believe that the most difficult task for creative people is finding ways to keep things focused (pick an idea, only one!), but also keeping things open to a bit of meandering in the process.
For example, I have an ever rotating list of crazy things I want to do/try/experiment with. It is easy to want to do all this things and do nothing. I find that things like seasonal goals (have a book-a-thon summer, push my cooking skills in the winter, learn new skill in spring), have helped me narrow down the overwhelming amount of stuff that clutters up my ability to actually pick something and have a go at it.
There is so much stuff on the internet! And so many things you could do WITH the internet. I say stick to one project, keep it loose, and give yourself a month to explore a particular idea. Your brain will stay on track, you will gain momentum, and you will still find yourself discovering things.
And in the meantime, write down your good ideas in a notebook labeled “good idea book” that you can keep with you all the time.
goodluck!
-kathy
Seems everyone has their creative rabbit holes that we lose ourselves down… I love hearing your perspective! You already know exactly what I’m wrestling with and I’m just hoping I’m able to milk this week as a tool for all it’s worth to actually make progress. I’m not at all certain what will come out of it, but that’s what’s so exciting! Also a tad intimidating too. ACK.