4: One Thing Only
We’re starting to loosen up the writing muscles a bit. I still never come into my daily sprint with an idea of where I’m going, but it’s easier for me to just riff for a bit. That’s abnormal for me, as I tend to be the kind of person who dislikes creating without a point. That’s why practice has eluded me: I can’t convince myself that the work I’m doing is “real” without seeing some improvement.
That is, of course, nonsense and poppycock. The change is something you’re supposed to see after a long period of consistent work. That’s why I love Beeplecrap, for example. If you don’t know Beeple, that’s the — pen name? stage name? — of graphic designer Mike Winkelmann. Way back in 2007, he wanted to improve at drawing, so he started making a drawing one a day. Then he moved to photography and 3D modeling.
The 3D modeling and animation is what he’s best known for, but the ultimate idea is just to show up every day. At this point, Winkelmann has done a project everyday for 4,727 days, which is honestly absurd. But it’s also clearly done wonders for his creativity and craft.
Got lost on the internet for a moment finding those images. Back to the train of thought.
My mind is swirling with all sorts of things I can do in this weird downtime that’s not really a downtime. Podcast? Video essays? Webcomic? Too many ideas and not enough time in the day. Instead, I think I’ll try to focus on one or two things. One of them is definitely this ongoing project, which I might split into some creative writing at point.
The other is probably going to be something video-related, because I really enjoy playing with Adobe Premiere and its related programs. (Before that, I was playing around with DaVinci Resolve.) But I’m cognizant of not overloading myself with too much, which is mostly begging for a failure state.
I’m only four days in and there’s a lot of room to fail. Hell, there’s a lot of incentive to as well. As I said in the last blog, I have my apartment set up to cater to most of my needs. It’s very easy to boot up World of Warcraft or The Division 2, throw a video on the TV, and just veg out for an evening. I know,because I’ve done that for many years of my life.
Sitting on my desk as I type this is my sketch book. One of many I’ve purchased throughout the years. That is the one thing where I’ve never been able to get myself to practice at more than a few days. And man, I want to add that to the list. But I honestly feel like that direction might be where failure lies.
Maybe I could juggle writing daily, drawing daily, and the occasional video. On paper, it sounds so easy. But then again, it’s 2am my time as I round the bend on today’s blog post. So perhaps it’s best to keep it simple.
