Feb
20
Creative Blogging: Plans Versus Experience
Filed Under Blogging, Writing | 6 Comments
In my past life there was a time when I drew every day. I had dedicated studio space where anywhere from ten to thirty drawings would be tacked to the "good light" part of the wall that was reserved for work in progress. A series of drawings or paintings would start off unified by a general concept - artifacts, Vivaldi, morning light, seashells as instinctual organic architecture - and as I worked on them they'd progress together or diverge to different parts of the wall.
After a few days or weeks on the wall some would feel finished, and some would get recycled as collage parts for other work. A few would hit ye olde circular file - not many, because I like layers and there is a lot that can be done with recycling.
Sometimes, even before drawings were more than a curve in my imagination, notes, bits of poetry, color swatches, pages from magazines and whatever else felt like relevant fertility-builders would get pinned to the wall in groups, like bookmarks or folders in a RSS feed reader. The effect, for me, was a primordial soup of possibilities and landmarks, like a translation of what my mind feels like when approaching an idea. I'd face the wall, breathe, pick up the tools, and GO.
Somewhat unexpectedly, visitors were fascinated by the work wall. At times, having it exposed was too much "naked," and I'd cover it with big sheets of paper, like a burqa between private and public dreams. I found that the need to focus creativity into a discrete and finished piece would lose its concentration if unfinished treasures were too public, too discussed. Too much "burqa" would make going public difficult, and cut out possibilities for the joys of dialog and reaction experienced with friends and detractors. I balanced where I wanted to stand, between vacuum-private and the tsunami feeling of being uncovered.
Art was dance, balance, and experience translated on a daily basis.
I'd like to blog that way.
When I started this frequent posting thing I wondered if blogging might have some overlaps with the old art-me. This is where I am with that hope today:
Barriers
- WordPress's drafts folder is always in "burqa."
- 30 drafts feel more like 30 to-do lists than 30 possibilities. Not good.
- Computers are too self-contained for the kind of art wall I've been missing.
- Writing needs more structure than art.
Possibilities
- Do more display of my own personal bonzo. So far, people seem to relate to my think-different self. Life is short. Dancing out on a few limbs could be invigorating, but will it ever pay the bills?
- Post less. Would giving myself more time help a group of my 30 drafts become real posts with beginning, middle, and end?
- Burn some trees. Print out the drafts and pin them to a wall at home where I can see them and doodle. My bookcases can live elsewhere - like computers, they store and enclose.
- More structure. Could backfire, depending on what I "goal" for. A low-variable goal of baking x dozen cookies for a potluck generally results in x dozen cookies. A goal of coming up with x dozen new cookie recipes in a year could take off in almost x dozen different ways. Goodness knows what a goal of learning about food chemistry through cookie baking would produce, but it could be infinitely more interesting than simply baking x dozen cookies.
Does this tale of WordPress ring a bell with any of you? Please comment.
Tags: 101 Posts
Comments
6 Comments so far
I can definitely relate to this. I have about 40 draft posts in various stages and instead of inspiring me, they seem more like a huge chore.
I like your idea of pinning them on the wall, or even posting less. As bloggers, I think we sometimes put massive pressure on ourselves to consistently produce quality posts in a short time.
Catherine, thanks for your comment.
For yesterday I had two half-finished posts that felt like they weighed ten thousand pounds a piece. It should not have been that hard. I’m sleep on it and will give them another go tomorrow.
I think that *some* kinds of posts should be fairly simple to produce, while some will require more incubation and (LOL) thrashing. Maybe getting them away from each other, out of the drafts folder(s) and on to a work wall will help move out what is at the “fairly simple” phase.
In my mind’s eye there is a manila folder labeled “procrastination burqa” or “stewing” on one side of the wall, separate from what I’m really hot to get finished at the time. Active incubation/research is different from “not ready yet.”
I’m never far from a notebook and pen, even when out walking my dog or spending time with family and friends. At any one time I might be working on a fictional story, a blog post, and a marketing piece or two. When ideas strike, they get written down immediately. Likewise, when I get back to the office, those ideas need organization or they may be lost forever.
Raw ideas get “noted” in Outlook and I refer to them from time to time to see if there’s anything I can use. Sometimes I’ll flesh them out a bit more and let them incubate in my drafts folder in Word. Other times I’ll copy and paste directly into whatever I’m working on.
I agree with you that the WordPress drafts folder is just about useless for holding in-progress writing. It has too many limitations. Instead, I like to work between documents on my computer much like you spoke of working on your art wall. I can have as many documents open as necessary, copy / pasting / rewording as needed from one document to the next.
BTW, do you have any photos of your art wall? It sounds beautiful and quite interesting!
Elizabeth -
I really enjoyed your question about whether the old art-you and the new blogging-you know one another?
As you know, I worked for a number of years as a fine artist before getting into the whole SEM thing. Working as an artist also coincided with being more-or-less bed ridden with an auto immune condition for about 6 years. During that time, I lived like a monk, painting, painting, painting.
Several times a year, I’d reach out to the public and manage to do a show or enter a competition. I’d pull myself together, dress up and be ‘public’, trying not to look like I was about to fall over. I’d sell my work, win some awards and then head happily back to the ‘cloister’.
Happily, I’m in much better health now, in my 30s, and can have a somewhat more active public life, but your question made me think about how blogging has provided an extremely easy way for me to to pursue the create-connect experience.
Much as I did as an artist, I hunker down over my private work, not ready to show it to anyone until I hit publish. Not even my husband sees what I’m writing until then.
But…there’s an exception to this. I always let my nephews and nieces come into my work space when I was painting. They would sit beside me, and it added joy, not nervousness, to the process. Children are non-judgmental. They just want to be with you.
I think about you sitting there with 30 posts in hiding, not ready to come out, and my thought for you would be to be more forgiving of yourself. If you publish something that isn’t the best post ever, that’s okay. If you get too hung up in the details, the joy of the experience of creation gets lost.
This doesn’t mean you have to show your hand before your ready. It means don’t worry too much about your hand.
Miriam
Shari – I packed up the (art)work wall 18 years ago when my daughter was a toddler. She was a high energy kid who wanted to dive into EVERYTHING and had figured out how to put her little chair on top of her little table, and climb up to get up close and personal with my shelves of tempting and toxic art supplies.
At that point I shifted to projects that could be carried in a backpack on trips to the park, etc., and kept doing that sort of work through her gradeschool years. Over Christmas one of the treasures she retrieved from her stuff still here was something I made then.
Pretty sweet.
It’s been years since I thought about reviving the work wall. My life simply took another direction.
When I started blogging more creatively here all sorts of memories and curiosities flooded to the surface – too much to live happily in a drafts folder. However (!) I do have a lovely garage that will be warm enough to re-invent as an art space, once Spring hits. If I go that route I’ll post pictures.
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