setting a timer for ~20 minutes and just writing without stopping until the timer goes off is *really* good - because at the end of it you have a draft you can revise, which i think is easier and feels a lot more like making progress than emotionally preparing to write something you might not like.
dan harmon has this quote that i think was really helpful to getting me to see the value of just getting the reps in (without all the self-loathing):
*âMy best advice about writerâs block is: the reason youâre having a hard time writing is because of a conflict between the GOAL of writing well and the FEAR of writing badly. By default, our instinct is to conquer the fear, but our feelings are much, much, less within our control than the goals we set, and since itâs the conflict BETWEEN the two forces blocking you, if you simply change your goal from âwriting wellâ to âwriting badly,â you will be a veritable fucking fountain of materialâŚProve it. It will go faster. And then, after you write something incredibly shitty in about six hours, itâs no problem making it better in passes, because in addition to being absolutely untalented, you are also a mean, petty CRITIC. You know how you suck and you know how everything sucks and when you see something that sucks, you know exactly how to fix it.â*
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I write lyrics/poems/prose/essays/the occasional substack/text based art/performance art and the most successful process I've found works for me is just 'hold a pen and hope that it happens'. I can't get any real ideas done on a laptop (my substacks are all drafted in bullet points by hand first). I don't write every day because I don't have the energy or time or enough that is important to say. I only write when I really get the urge in my fingertips and then I get my notebook and just open the page and get whatever out I can. Sometimes it's an idea I've been mulling over that finally comes out and others it's just nonsense sentences that eventually form something.
Basically my advice if you're struggling to get started is just whenever you think you want to do it, just hold a pen and a blank piece of paper and just do it. Maybe it'll be brilliant from the off. First lines are hard so don't worry about it if it's not, fourth lines are where it gets good. I definitely produce 70/30 shit/good writing and that's okay because who's reading it??
Also sometimes you go back a few months later and realise that what you thought was terrible was actually great all along it just needed a different context!
May 3, 2024
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I was told when I started that you just had to be disciplined and do it regularly until itâs as necessary for you as brushing your teeth.
I was also told the really good writing/insight happens after youâve written the surface stuff away. Like you gotta write everything that comes to mind, throw that away, and then everything after that, which is usually much more difficult, is actually good journaling.
Apr 27, 2024
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It's way too easy to over-write, over-paint, over-create. Just because it felt easy doesn't mean that it's bad. In fact, that zen feeling of inspiration *should* feel effortless. Don't let your work ethic ruin something good.
At the very least, step back before you do more. If it needs more work, you'll know the next time you look at it.
Sep 1, 2024
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Mar 23, 2024
a treatise on the attention economy - checked it out on libby and got through it over the course of a work day, a lot of really interesting social and cultural explorations about how time itself is the final frontier of hypercapitalism and what decommodification of our attention and time should look like
the book starts with a story about the oldest redwood tree in oakland and how the only reason itâs still standing is bc itâs unmillable, and how being uncommercializable is essential to our survival. it ends with an exploration of alt social media platforms (mostly p2p ones) and what keeping the good parts of the social internet and rejecting the bad ones should look like
all in all a super valuable read; my only nitpick with the book is that odell isnât just charting the attention economy but also attempting to âsolveâ it and relate it back to broader concepts about labor and social organizing, but her background is in the arts which leads to some really wonderful references to drive the points home while also missing some critical racial + socioeconomic analyses that one would expect (or at least really appreciate) from the book she promises to deliver in the introduction. but this does also make the book easier to read which is good because everyone should definitely engage with what she has to say
will definitely be revisiting
Mar 25, 2024