The trap: on not creating

Last night I was browsing through YouTube and stumbled across this video by one of my favourite YouTubers, Peter McKinnon. He talks about the trap of NOT making videos. It’s worth a watch.

He talks about thinking too much about creating stuff, or rather overthinking it. Rather than jump in and just make something, it’s too easy to get lost in the mulling of an idea, rolling it around and spending time with it.

what that does is puts a lot of time in between the idea forming and the idea being executed, and the more time between forming and execution just means it’s probably not going to happen.

Oh.

That’s me.

That’s me in a nutshell.

I have so many points in the week when I think “oh, that’d be fun to write about”, then forget to make a note, or do actually make a note but then it’s the evening and I’ve spent all day in front of a screen and end up slumped on the sofa watching re-runs of The Vampire Diaries (still no idea what’s going on there), or a James Bond film (and thinking of the BlogalongaBondathon that I’ve been meaning to do for years) then suddenly it’s late and time for bed.

Rinse and repeat, until months have passed and the idea, that little nugget of inspiration, fleeting and ephemeral as it was, has evaporated.

Back in the old blogging days of Livejournal (remember that?) I’d be pinging posts out multiple times a day. Got an idea? Write it over lunch. Write it in a coffee break. Write it while eating in the evening.

Write, write, write.

Was it good? meh, sometimes

Was it out there? Yes

It’s the same with book blogging - I used to read a book, review a book, read a book, review a book. Now it’s read a book, think about a review but it’s late, I’m tired and oh look another book.

And before you know it, I’ve read dozens of books and the blog is sitting there going HEY DAVE WHAT ABOUT ME DAVE I USED TO BE GOOD DAVE WHAT HAPPENED, and my NetGalley review ratio is sobbing quietly in the corner.

And so it ends up that NOT doing the thing becomes the norm.

As Pete says:

not making content makes it easier to continue not making content

So. New Year’s Resolution (starting now): Think of something to write, then jump in and write it.

tip number one: don’t let a lot of time pass between ideation and execution

It doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to be done.

Phew. Hopefully that made sense. Right, I’ve got some reviews to catch up on.

Love you all

Dave

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