God I hope I can stick to these. The first that just came to mind is: no analytics. No knowing which posts do “best.” But isn’t that…useful? For people who come here? damn it I’m already folding like a lawn chair. well, that’s not really a problem right now - no one reads this, and I sort of want to keep it that way. well, A PART of me wants to keep it that way while another part of course wants people to read this and it grow. ...
I love collecting prompts and just found a bunch of real weird ones in a book titled Learning for people who prefer not to be taught Some prompts: Just add hot water and stir Internship Lottery Performative Artists’ Talks
ChatGPT wrote that as part of a summary of my Create a Loops email sequence experiment. And i like it. I like that idea a lot. 85% is good enough, at least for this blog. Maybe for Substack too?
ChatGPT wrote that as part of a summary of my Create a Loops email sequence experiment. And i like it. I like that idea a lot. 85% is good enough, at least for this blog. Maybe for Substack too?
“I don’t write because I think I have something to say. I write because if I don’t, everything feels even worse.” From Lily King’s “Writers and Lovers”
The whole process of creating my own blog/home outside Substack feels like RollerCoaster Tycoon. I’m inviting people into the park, but nothing is actually built, and everybody is going to be vomiting up the side. Truth be told, I haven’t even started to invite people. I haven’t opened the park. I kind of don’t want to. I sort of want it to feel like a park you have to stumble upon to use the parlance of an old URL. But then I am also creating the loops and I do want to move people through them. I just have a lot of doubt about that. ...
There’s a special magic when someone writes something based on an idea you shared with them. That’s what happened when Debbie wrote about the ideas from my funny/vulnerable workshop. Alex explained that this is called a “tilt” – it’s when things get interesting. We talked about tilts a lot; they’re a common feature of improv comedy. It’s when you’ve got an established scene (two people on a park bench, for example), and then one says something that “tilts” the scene into absurdity. Tilts can happen in writing even when it’s not humor writing, per se. They’re what turn the “boring and obvious” into something surprising and intriguing. ...
From Tom White’s piece Everything Has Been Said (But Not By You) Because truth doesn’t live on the page. IIt lives in the speaking. IIn the wrestling. IIn the failing and the finding your way back. It dies in repetition without revelation, iin articulation without authenticity. Anyone can carry a tune. Only you can give it meaning. So say it again. Say it like you mean it. Say it until it’s yours.
I wrote that recently in a little note about prepping for a workshop. I love seeing past me being so giddy about something. About enjoying the process of creating slides for my presentations. And it’s true - I remember the feeling - it’s like this different form of basically writing where I’m creating something and using the medium’s tools to make it as funny and good and weird as I can. ...
Almost every day that there’s a BATWRITE, I think about how I can back out of it. I’ll just say I’m too busy. Or I’ll tell people I don’t feel good. I can’t do it, I just can’t. And then, I do. I’m in one right now, as I write this, and it’s going great. They always do. So what’s up with the fear? Is it just the normal stagefright that I feel before doing basically anything? Like how before going to hang out with my friends I’ll think, ‘ugh I don’t want to do this’ even though I very much do? ...