Don’t do something just because someone makes you.
I sat down to write this update and realized I simply didn’t want to do it, that I had nothing I felt like saying. I considered that, that feeling, and almost wrote something anyway, but I didn’t think that would be valuable, wouldn’t give you, as a reader, any sense that I respected your time and attention. I don’t want you to think that, to feel that, because I truly do. I want to give you the best product I can, here and in my books and most definitely in my newly launched YouTube series.
So, instead of writing some forced bullshit, I closed that Word doc and opened up Trezka, then wrote for about two hours. It’s the longest continuous stretch I’ve been able to do that in some time, and it was really refreshing to just pump out a few thousand words without any distractions.
Which brings me to my actual thought of the day: compulsory creation is bullshit.
Now I’m not saying writing every day to keep those skills fresh isn’t a good idea. It is. But the stuff that comes out of it? Not necessarily going to be good. Sometimes, most times perhaps, it’s going to be the stuff you do when you’re just going through the motions, just flopping it down for the sake of it.
Imagine your boss comes to you and asks you to do a presentation and you have to have it done in a week. You don’t particularly want to do it, so you put it off until the last minute possible, crank out something that’s not necessarily reflective of your true skills, and get it out there just to get it out there. It’s not worthless necessarily, but it’s not worthwhile, either. It’s just a time filler. It’s a thing to get a thing done and nothing else. It’s the minivan of presentations.
Now imagine if you went to your boss and said you want to do a presentation. You do, because she says sure, go for it, and you work your ass off on it for the next week, creating something that is the true definition of what you’re capable of, and then you present it with so much gusto you get a friggin standing ovation at the end. Or maybe you don’t, but at least in your head you’re clapping for yourself, because you know you gave it your all. This was the presentation to end all presentations.
It’s the same here, and I’m sure with whatever else you’re up to wherever you are. Work sometimes is just that, work. Just like chores are chores. They need to get done, and sometimes you’ve just got to force yourself to do it. But the thing you really want to be doing—in my case, writing, creating—shouldn’t feel like that, and you shouldn’t feel forced to make something just because it needs to get made (a la an update when there is no update). There should be a drive, a need, a desire. The need to write and create and complete this task/job/whatever should be as compulsory as an alcoholic’s need to have a bottle of Popov (sorry, still reading Man Alone, and the latest sections have been on alcoholism, so it’s on my mind).
I want to do more updates here, but I’m not going to force myself to do them if they’re not going to come. I’m going to put my energies where I’d like, when I’d like. As much as I can, anyway. Which is why I wanted to write this and why, after this, I’m going to go write some more Trezka and then film some Drunk on Writing.
Life is sometimes pretty fun.
So, instead of writing some forced bullshit, I closed that Word doc and opened up Trezka, then wrote for about two hours. It’s the longest continuous stretch I’ve been able to do that in some time, and it was really refreshing to just pump out a few thousand words without any distractions.
Which brings me to my actual thought of the day: compulsory creation is bullshit.
Now I’m not saying writing every day to keep those skills fresh isn’t a good idea. It is. But the stuff that comes out of it? Not necessarily going to be good. Sometimes, most times perhaps, it’s going to be the stuff you do when you’re just going through the motions, just flopping it down for the sake of it.
Imagine your boss comes to you and asks you to do a presentation and you have to have it done in a week. You don’t particularly want to do it, so you put it off until the last minute possible, crank out something that’s not necessarily reflective of your true skills, and get it out there just to get it out there. It’s not worthless necessarily, but it’s not worthwhile, either. It’s just a time filler. It’s a thing to get a thing done and nothing else. It’s the minivan of presentations.
Now imagine if you went to your boss and said you want to do a presentation. You do, because she says sure, go for it, and you work your ass off on it for the next week, creating something that is the true definition of what you’re capable of, and then you present it with so much gusto you get a friggin standing ovation at the end. Or maybe you don’t, but at least in your head you’re clapping for yourself, because you know you gave it your all. This was the presentation to end all presentations.
It’s the same here, and I’m sure with whatever else you’re up to wherever you are. Work sometimes is just that, work. Just like chores are chores. They need to get done, and sometimes you’ve just got to force yourself to do it. But the thing you really want to be doing—in my case, writing, creating—shouldn’t feel like that, and you shouldn’t feel forced to make something just because it needs to get made (a la an update when there is no update). There should be a drive, a need, a desire. The need to write and create and complete this task/job/whatever should be as compulsory as an alcoholic’s need to have a bottle of Popov (sorry, still reading Man Alone, and the latest sections have been on alcoholism, so it’s on my mind).
I want to do more updates here, but I’m not going to force myself to do them if they’re not going to come. I’m going to put my energies where I’d like, when I’d like. As much as I can, anyway. Which is why I wanted to write this and why, after this, I’m going to go write some more Trezka and then film some Drunk on Writing.
Life is sometimes pretty fun.
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