On Simply Writing
Edition 002
Image by Matt Hoffman
Edition 002
In The Artist’s Manifesto I talk about the importance of making stuff for the sake of it. All ulterior motivation is put aside, money included.
Not that there should be an anti-money vibe in our creations, but rather that money, success, fame, and any other outside validation of our worthiness should be secondary, or off the list of priorities altogether.
But hold on…
This is in direct opposition to what we told, right?
I mean, the world says we’ve got to be productive and efficient. We’ve got to produce, we’ve got to contribute to the machine of society.
It says if we can’t make a dollar we’re fucked.
Time is money and so we’ve got to be efficient with our time.
Medium is chock full of people who think they know what you need to know about managing your time and achieving success and they are not shy about telling you.
They share over and over again ad nauseum the same puke about productivity it’s just not even funny any more.
How About This Instead…
Every day I water and tend to the plants that grow on my window sill. They don’t concern themselves with productivity.
They don’t wonder if what they are doing is worthwhile. They don’t worry themselves about making it or not. They simply do what they appear to be programed to do.
Their natural inclination is to grow and produce fruit, so they do that. In their own time they will mature and produce much more than they started with.
Now aside from how utterly remarkable this entire apparent process is to me, it is also remarkable to me that we think we are any different from the tomato plant.
Yes ok, we appear to possess a waking consciousness but fundamentally it seems to me that we are the same as the tomato plant.
It is this waking consciousness that actually gets in the way.
So do we let go of this?
Are we brave enough to trust it?
Well, as my dead guru Alan Watts says;
You better give it away because there’s no way of holding on to it…
Be it writing, making music, or any other creative endeavour the only way to make something worthwhile is to simply do it.
Whatcha reckon?
StoryBy Stuff This Week
Since I last wrote to you I’ve finished my day job. It feels good — I was getting too soft, I was losing my edge.
I handed back the phone and laptop this morning and walked out as light as a feather.
However, it has given me new perspective and time to straighten out a few things so it did serve a purpose.
Full time writing here I come!
Anyway, when I’m searching for things to share with you, on Medium I generally bookmark them. Elsewhere I save them to Google Keep.
Here’s what I’ve pulled together for you this week.
Books
Zen In The Art Of Writing
If you’re a writer then chances are you’ve read this already. If you haven’t read Ray Bradbury Zen in The Art of Writing then I’d strongly recommend it.
It’s not only valuable to writers, it will offer any creative person some fundamentals to muse over. It’s a short read too, and demonstrates in what I’ve written above in real terms.
Articles
Horrors
I like Little Fears. They produce these short flash fiction stories that you can digest in a moment. The artwork that accompanies each story is cute too.
Horrors
“How do I get to the beach?” asked Horror.medium.com
Create So Much They Can’t Ignore You
This article resonated with me, and many others too going by the recommends. Alex Mathers explains how volume makes people notice you.
Create So Much They Can’t Ignore You
Isn’t the Internet great?artplusmarketing.com
Why I Vlog Every Day
I’m not a big Gary Vaynerchuk fan but I do recognise when he’s on the money. This one stuck out for me. Again it harps back to sticking to the daily task of making whatever it is you make.
Why I Vlog Everyday!
A lot of people have been asking me lately why the vlog is so similar? They tell me it’s the same thing over and over…medium.com
How To Be On Holiday All The Time
Laurence Shorter Lazyguru tells his story of entering the workforce and forgetting about what is important. Then one day he stopped…
Yeah guess what, this one resonated with me too.
How to be on holiday all the time
A manifestomedium.com
Until Next Week…
More from StoryBy next week. In the meantime, share your best work with us here and help us build and reach more people with the Storymaker content.
Have a great weekend
Larry