Making myself post something every day this month has been an interesting experience. I expected that it would make it easy for me to post some dumb thing that I’d normally post on my Tumblr or whatever, but the old habit of making everything on the blog mean something just refuses to die. So instead of finding permission to just post a picture or a video and be done with it, I’m finding myself spending a lot of time thinking about what’s going to go up on the blog today or tomorrow.
The fully unexpected side effect of this has been a complete halt to all my other writing. Now, part of that may be that I finished a draft, sent it for feedback, got feedback, and I’m putting off applying the feedback because the stakes are higher now than they were when it was just a puke draft. Or maybe I’m just lazy. Or maybe I’m getting creative satisfaction from making other things, and I don’t have the discipline to write every day on things that I consider capital-W Work. Or maybe I’m convincing myself that writing for the blog is capital-W Work, so it’s okay to go tinker with a computer for a few hours instead of getting to work on the rewrite.
It’s likely a combination of all those things, with the fucking horror of the incoming Cheeto Hitler administration as a force multiplier.
This is now a test of my discipline and work ethic, and I’m not entirely sure I’m going to pass it in its current form.
Good luck, friend. You’ve done a braver thing than I. You focused your output, and I just pretty much tried to resign from the world. It’ll get better because you’re Wil Wheaton, and you’re prolific because it’s who you are.
Cheeto Hitler can’t burn the whole world.
I totally agree. I’m sitting here, supposed to be working on a customers research proposal, but I’m distracted by Wil Wheatons blog about raspberry pi’s!
Now – back to work.
I feel ya. My stories and my blog are constantly competing for my creative energy. Like all things, learning how to split them takes practice. Unlike many things, splitting it doesn’t tend to evenly divide my creative energy, so much as cause both halves to grow into a fully functioning energy burst.
Which I guess makes my creative energy an asexually reproducing amoeba?
Anyway, good luck on your writing endeavors. Also, just so you know, you’re not the only one whose mental writing space has been depleted by Cheeto Hitler. Not the only one at all.
Wil, I know that this is the first time I’ve commented here but as you admitted in this post, you’re being very hard on yourself on what counts as Work. Not once have you mentioned that it’s the freaking holidays! I completely understand not turning into a lazy slob (routines can help fight depression) however, just the details you’ve posted here show two things you can take away from this. First, being a writer is not only about word metrics. It’s a craft much like acting and if one gives a good flying fornication, quality does matter to you, even if it’s just a blog post. You’ve also been posting political essays and those definitely count as important writing too. Secondly, you’ve finished how many drafts in last few weeks, one of which you just got feedback on? It’s ok to take a break, let things settle a bit and then go back with fresher eyes and a little less tied to the work emotionally. More than one writer has compared editing to killing your children; not the most cheerful of thoughts for the holidays. If you wouldn’t be riding Hardwick’s ass if the situation were reversed, then quit riding your own. Finally, it’s the freaking holidays! Nobody wants to be at their most productive this time of year, except retailers and tax planners. Relax, enjoy the season and tackle things in a couple of weeks.
And I said I would comment every day as like, some kind of reward or encouragement? I’m glad this month is getting closer to being over. I feel like a stalker. Stalk. Stalk. Do you feel stalked yet? Lol.
My brother and his wife visit santa each year at Macy’s in NYC and each year they have a different theme. I got their card in the mail today and they are in halloween costumes. My family is amazing. http://imgur.com/a/nq1ZI
Keep it up! You’re doing great. The holidays are always a good time to take a vacation from regular stuff anyway. The other W-or will be there after the New Year ready for you.
I’ll be interested in seeing how you analyse and score your writing and creativity in this month’s year revamp post!
Thank you for taking on the challenge and offering things for us to read and think on this month. You are doing an amazingly creative job.
I write, quilt, knit, do crosswords, garden, walk, ride with friend on a Harley, and more. I think going between different activities makes the writing fresher. I get so many inspirations doing the other things that are rather like meditation.
It’s probably that the blog and the revision both feel like Work. When I write stories for fun I hardly ever look at the clock, but come next month should I still be fleshing out the same story, you can bet that I’m doing word-counts every hour and judging my productivity.
I think it all comes back to structure versus whimsical exploration. When it’s you delving into the unknown recesses of your imagination you can get lost in the absence of time, but if that thought comes into focus enough further focusing seems to resemble reality and it’s pull to toil, so future work may lose it’s fantasy.
I feel like this is precisely why it’s said that work and hobbies must always remain separate, even if they are both in the same field of thought or action, two separate projects will suffice.
Hi Wil,
I had many negative feelings around the election, and it quite frankly left me feeling disillusioned, and posted the below, to FaceBook. For a long time when I’d post something silly, it was marked with a “Keep it festive…” referring to a Texts From Heroes that mentioned Deadpool putting Christmas hats on Sentinals keeping it festive. But the election marked a shift. The image referred in the text below is the final exchange between Max Lord and Blue Beetle (easily found on Google). I’m posting this here as we, at a Gen Con, geeked out a moment over you playing Ted Kord’s voice in The Brave and The Bold,
This may seem silly, but, ya know, it oddly energized me. I will be who I am, in spite of those that want otherwise. The amazing thing was the amount of positive response I had for the post. So don’t despair and let it get you down. You are not alone. When faced with whatever the Creamsicle Express comes up with, grit your teeth, and remember Ted Kord…
“The day the festive died
I’ve wrestled with what I’ve seen in the past 24 hours and what I want to do. Then a quote popped into my head… “Rot in hell, Max”
You see, growing up in a, well, I’ll use ‘troubled’, home, I escaped to comics. My favorite character being Blue Beetle. A while back a scenario with this character played out and he was offered to join a regime that was based on eradicating those that were different, and you can see his decision in the attached image.
That’s my choice…
Not to join…
To look this all right in the eye, facing the worst, and say…
Rot in hell, Max…. ”
Cheers…
Jason
I did a drawing exercise KINDA like this once with a booklet of blank postcards. I used a pen to draw the cards with no pencil or guidelines (sorta like doing a crossword with a pen). So if i made a mistake, i had to make it look like part of the act (which is only really visible in one of the cards). But it’s an interesting experience to place a requirement on yourself to meet a criteria or a limitation…it’s a nice way to surprise yourself. heh.
(my other favorite, to use when working, is Oblique Strategies cards…where you draw a card if you’re stuck in a project. The card may say something like, “take the smallest part and expand it” or “honor error as hidden intention” or “try faking it”. The cards have a way of making the frustrating fun…)
anyhow…just made me think of cards. haha.