I don't know what to write about this week
On writer's block
I’ve had a really busy week. The film business is taking off, the gallery is moving online and I’m slowly getting ready to move countries. I even started writing another article for the week, but it’s not ready yet, and today’s my self-imposed publication deadline. [The article’s coming out Friday. -Future David]
This had me thinking about what it means to put something meaningful out on a regular schedule. The beauty of writing is that it’s flexible — I can write 2 or 3 long articles in a day if I’m really inspired, or I can write nothing for weeks if I’m not.
Sometimes I have ideas that would be really interesting to read about, but when I go about writing about them, I realize they’re half-baked and not as interesting as I thought.
However, the writing process itself forces you to think stuff through; I’ve written some stuff that wasn’t fully developed until all of the words were written down.
I’m flying to the United States in January (that’s not where I’m moving to). This means many hours on airplanes and in airports, the perfect limbo in which to write.
I was a content writer when I first came to Georgia. I found it torturous. However, when killing time in airports, it felt good. I felt inspired (whatever inspiration means when you can’t leave the building you’re in).
I used to fly from Tbilisi to New York via Munich, and that connection was often 6 - 12 hours long. The international terminal in Munich is relatively small, and after walking through it several times, I would inevitably sit down and produce decent work.
About a year ago I landed a consistent content writing gig with some kind of cooking blog. I was writing articles about how to make turkey and other things I’d never cooked before. At the time I really needed the money, so I tried really hard on my first task.
My boss really liked it and started giving me a lot of assignments. However, I got too comfortable too quickly, and the quality of the work declined rapidly. Apart from not knowing how to cook the things I was writing about, I didn’t care to know how to do so.
I remember waiting until the last minute to finish one of those articles. I had just arrived in Munich from New York, and my flight to Georgia wouldn’t be for another twelve hours.
I decided to go into the city. Apart from a brief break looking at the Frauenkirche, I hopped around from café to café writing an article, the contents of which I no longer remember. My boss didn’t like it
Despite forcing myself, I ultimately decided that I would write whatever came to me, ignoring the quality of the results. This was my last content writing job.
I hated content writing. The subject matter was boring, the articles were unattributed, (not that I would have wanted my name on them anyway) and the pay could have been better. I decided that I wouldn’t write things that I wasn’t interested in anymore.
This newsletter is the first thing I’ve written in many years that I’ve (mostly) enjoyed process of making. Even articles like this that amount to a rant elicit some element of joy.
I’ll leave you with this for this week — sit down and do something. Have you procrastinated on writing something? Open your Notes app and spend ten minutes writing the first thing that comes to mind.
Painting something? Paint something.
Taking meaningful action to move your career forward? Go into your boss’s office and refuse to leave until they double your salary (I cannot be held legally responsible for the consequences of my sarcastic advice).
Do something.