On Branding, Writing Without Focus, And A Growing Quietness Of Mind
A Writing Habit
I'm having a blast here on Steemit. While the second month wasn't as profitable as the first (I started off with a few significant upvotes and attracted the generous notice of @curie) it's also been a time for building relationships and - gasp - finding readers! Readers were always in short supply when I tried blogging on my own web-sites and under my own domains. In fact, I was prepared to consign them to the realm of fairy-tale and dispense with the practice of writing as an exercise in fantasy and solipsism.
Now Steemit has allowed me to build something which I've been working on for a long time - a daily writing habit.
Not including comments, I've been averaging a post of about 2,000 words a day. I realized what a habit this has become when I couldn't post over the past couple of days. The AirBnB rental needed to be cleaned, and we're preparing for a family visit, so I just haven't had the energy to do more than read and comment. I started to panic about this, and realized what a part of my life this project has become.
So today I'm back at the keyboard.
Writing Without Focus
Now that I'm generating a steady flow of words, the time has come to decide if I need to focus and direct them. My posts are all over the place. So far I've written a couple Linux tutorials; a handful of music articles; some introductory posts on pipe-smoking; a few poems; tales of naps and narcolepsy; scattered philosophical ruminations on television, family values, and Moore's Law; a couple book reviews; some thoughts on Minecraft, and a smattering of nature photography. (Surprisingly absent: the fiction which I "retired" to write, but which has found its way to the coolest of my back-burners.)
There's not much focus to the blog. No one could scroll through my feed and perceive anything as well-intentioned as a "brand."
All the subjects I've written on, I'd like to explore at length in the future. But where to concentrate? I suppose I could enter each post into a spread-sheet, record keywords and length and comment-count and payout, and then concentrate my future output on the most profitable topics. But I'm not convinced I have enough data for an accurate report. The vote of a single whale would throw off the money curve for a subject. (Champagne problems!) And this sort of spreadsheet-driven thinking is what's brought us to the current state of Hollywood Movies and commercial radio. I have to remind myself that, two months ago, I had no income from my words. And I'm not sure that I want to shoehorn them in any particular direction just yet.
Surprise! Mind, Meet Words.
Honestly, I have no idea what I'm going to write about when I sit down at the keyboard. It comes as a complete surprise. I've got a text-file of ideas I occasionally add to and never consult. If something comes to me on the verge of sleep, I don't write it down; if it's important enough it'll come to me again when I wake up.
A writer's notebook is the best way in the world to immortalize bad ideas. -- Stephen King
Sometimes I'll be leaving a comment on someone else's post and realize I've got enough for a full-length article of my own. Sometimes Spotify will throw a track into my playlist that makes me think - I've got to learn more about this artist, and then share it. Sometimes I'm outraged by an article in the news and need to calm myself down or fan the flames. Sometimes I just smoke a pipe and stare out the damn window for a couple hours until something wanders by.
Okay, sometimes I will have a glance at the ideas in that text file. But only when I'm desperate and sleepy, and can't smoke any more.
The Noise Of Old Ambitions
I've come to accept that I really don't have that much control over my own mind. For the most part, it's quiet. It seems to get quieter as I get older. It wasn't always this way.
I remember walking home from classes twenty years ago. My head would race with what I just heard in a lecture or read in the library, turning over arguments and making plans for further inquiries. This was very verbal thinking. My brain was in a constant dialog with itself, gnawing on problems of physics, biology, literature, and philosophy. Mostly philosophy. Back then, the awareness that I could never know everything had put me into a panic to learn as much as I could by cramming every mental silence with words.
God, how I loathed pop-music and pop-culture and television back then. It had this strange effect on my friends of turning their heads off and letting them "just be" in a state of bovine indifference. Didn't they know that there was so much knowledge to be taken in and processed, and that as human beings they were the only creatures on the planet capable of learning and processing and contributing to this knowledge, but also as human beings they had hideously truncated lifespans in which to do so? How dare they turn their heads off by watching pro football on TV? How dare they get drunk on weekends and sacrifice those hours of thought? How dare the public school system make us listen to Madonna and Milli Vanilli on the school-bus?
I was an insufferable prick in those days. I came to be more forgiving of booze when I discovered the pleasures of alcohol for myself.
The Head Grows Quiet In This Middle Age (For Some Of Us)
What's interesting now, 20-some years later, is that all that mental chatter and churn has faded away. I still have the hunger for books and for knowledge, but I've come to accept just how insignificant my understanding of any subject is going to be. At the same time, most of the "mental processing" that I do seems to have moved beneath the surface of conscious thought. Reading is a strange experience. I don't "hear" and engage with the words the way I used to. In fact they seem to disappear as if thrown into a well. But when it comes time to formulate a response I find they are still there.
Or I'm kidding myself, and there's an empty space between my ears where my ideas used to be.
It's funny, because my wife is a great out-loud thinker, someone whose ideas are not just on the surface of her mind but on the surface of her lips. She considers a question from both sides and argues both positions with impressive eloquence. Coming to a decision is a very verbal process for her. It's hard to know when a response is desired and when she's just speaking to herself. (I was raised to believe that interrupting someone in conversation was a grave sin, while her family spoke with regular interjections and overlaps.) She'll look at me in surprise when she realizes I haven't spoken in several minutes, and say, "Well, what are you thinking about?"
And all I can say is "I'll let you know, when I know."
Writing every day has become a way to bring some of that mental processing to the surface in another way: through the fingers and onto the screen. There isn't a great deal of focus to it, nor much control. (Plus I face the interruption of falling asleep at the keyboard a couple times a day.)
It's been satisfying to see thoughts and ideas crystallizing into a semi-permanent record. I like that I can access a record of my comments and replies as well. I sat here and I thought about this. Ideas, however mundane, that would be otherwise lost to time.
I type more words than I speak in a given day, and their appearance on the screen is often my first encounter with them. They get edited and re-arranged and polished some. If they come to rest in a form which communicates with a reader, then I've succeeded at something. This process is as close as I come to what I used to consider "thinking about stuff."
Gratitude
That's why I'm not going to worry about a "focus" or a "brand" just yet. It'll emerge eventually, if it's meant to. And if you've read a couple of my posts or even just this one, I'll thank you for your indulgence, and the generosity of your time.
If you care to share a bit more, I'd ask:
What's your writing process like? If you focus on a particular subject, how did you settle on it?
And have you found, as you got older, that the space within your head's gone quiet?
Yours,
Winston
Well said winstonalden. We must be connected together in a frenetic stream of consciousness :) I have found that my unsettled mind has been a strength, as I am able to move from project to project with the greatest of ease. Once I developed the ground-rule that things had to get completed, my output as a creator increased dramatically.
Now that I am here in Steemit (1 week) I am finding that, like you I am writing about any number of topics that interest me at that moment. I too find that in responding to an article I get carried away and write enough for a posting of my own. Much like I am doing here now hahahahahaha.
Anyway, at this point I am just riding the stream of consciousness wave in my own postings and I plan to consider which areas of interest warrant focus later. I agree that while laying everything out on a spreadsheet may be logistically sound it may take the spontaneity out of it. This happened to me with YouTube. After millions of views there I was in a content rut that I COULD NOT get out of.
Well thanks for this posting. I appreciate you sharing.
Upvoted and following.
Cheers,
buckydurddle
Thanks for taking the time to comment, @buckydurddle.
Yes, sometimes a scattered mind can be put to great use, if we can find the right way to harness it.
The other nice thing about Steemit is that it gives us an incentive to write, and then edit, and then publish. I've got so many notebooks full of unfinished and unshared stories, and what's the point of that?
Agreed. I too have many orphan projects that need a home. Perhaps we need to come up for a Steem-Dump haha.
I start writing on one topic and realize how dull and lame the whole article sounds. Then I restart said article from a different angle and it doesn't quite sound right either. The final version shows up some time later and doesn't look much like what I started with. Usually some stream of consciousness slips in there at one point or another.
Right! I usually end miles away from where I began, then go back to the beginning and delete that stuff until what's left is reasonably coherent. For me, the whole process is about finding my stream of consciousness.
Very good reading. I admit I was curious whether you had any tips on branding, as I cannot seem to do it myself. I'm not sure I even want to stay in a niche when there are all sorts of ideas going through my head.
Sorry - hope I didn't mislead with my title!
I think the secrets to branding are being consistent with the subject of content, using recognizable elements in your thumbnail images, networking and commenting on accounts with similar interests to yours, and maintaining a signature (well written and edited) style.
Let's look at a few successes:
@jerrybanfield really gets it - you can see his face in every thumbnail. Or @steemitadventure, whose cartoon style graces every post. And of course @sweetsssj, with her pinup-cute face posed in one exotic (usually oceanfront) location after another.
But personally I'm more inclined to follow the example of @stellabelle. A quick scroll through her feed shows she's writing on a wide range of topics. Her thumbnails don't have a consistent theme, and she re-steems a lot, which can actually dilute the look of a brand by mixing a lot of different images in with yours. But she always writes such engaging posts that she's got legions of followers eager to read everything she writes and shares.
Personally, I don't post as much as I comment because most of what I post is my (visual) art. So my writing process tends to start once I've completed a project. While I'm drawing I let my mind go usually. Once I'm done my mind wanders back with the words its found.
Not exactly quiet, but a lot less depressed, confused, anxious, enraged. Now my mind's space is more peaceful, reflective and (most importantly) enthusiastic!
I appreciate you sharing your thoughts on your thoughts, @winstonalden. My favorite posts are the ones with questions for the reader at the end ☮ ♥ 😊
I'm fascinated by the differences between written and visual art, and the way we engage different parts of the brain in the process. I'm hopeless as a visual artist, but it's interesting watching my wife work. She wants TV, music, or lyric heavy music playing while she paints. With writing I can't have a single sound around that hints of language, or my fragile focus is totally shot. I'm jealous of your opportunity for drawing while letting the mind go. When I want that sort of experience I've got to mow the lawn or dig ditches. Also satisfying, but not the same.
Well, maybe we're just mellowing out. I think it's easier to get enthusiastic when you don't think too much about the details. And when we're young the details seem so much more important. Do you agree?
Thanks for responding to my questions! I'd much rather have a conversation than just sit in a dark room, typing to the walls!
You say you are hopeless as a visual artist - that's your biggest limitation right there! Perhaps that mindset is your only true limitation to creating visual art.
Personally, while I am drawing, reading or writing, I prefer either silence or non-lyrical music (usually classical or jazz, sometimes electronica) because I have a lot of difficulty focusing on my work with noises competing for my attention in the background. In my younger days, however, I had to have some kind of background noise, as you mentioned your spouse does.
As far as becoming more mellow with age is concerned, I agree for the most part. I still sweat most of the details - because that is the way my personality seems to be built - but it's getting easier not to internalize the negativity that can be a part of said sweating. These days I try to focus more on absorbing the lessons of life (rather than the despair), which frequently leads to enthusiasm and renewed vigor.
I'm glad we could exchange these ideas also! An intelligent conversation with a stranger isn't always easy to come by 😤
really interesting content!!! You wrote "Honestly, I have no idea what I'm going to write about when I sit down at the keyboard. It comes as a complete surprise." and I can say that's the same for me when I'm in front of a white canvas and I want to paint. Maybe it's a part of creative process and if it works, it's good ^_^
Interesting to hear that it's the same for a visual artist. Really goes to show that you've just got to have some faith and report for work in front of the blank page/canvas - doesn't it?
:) The brand is "Personal Essays" I found this bit of loverly info some decades back. Now I've found a way to monetize on it. But I forget to brand it as anything other than "Random musings"
Nice to make your acquaintance.
And no. Not a quieter brain, here, just a more fragmented brain. My ADD has gone completely wild.
Nice to meet you too! Looks like we joined around the same time.
Yes, Steemit can be hard on the ADD brain. There's just so much to look at! Usually, after a few minutes at the computer, I've completely forgotten what I sat down to do.
But that's part of what makes it wonderful as well.
indeed!