too old for this shit… or not (video)
I've been thinking about aging, and about how we unfairly stereotype different generations (both younger and older generations). In this video, I try to process all this aging crap alongside the novel that I've been writing for most of my adult life.
I’m Stuck (2 videos)
So I set out to make a video about how stuck I am in my creative projects. In the process of making this video, and through a writing getaway, I got myself 12.789% less stuck. Check out my clunky process… 📝📽️📚 Also, while I’ve (sorta) got your attention, I recently did a video about how I’m hooked on a deckbuilder video game called Balatro. Wanna watch that video as well? 👾🕹️
14 Years of Videos About the Creative Process
Exactly 14 years ago, I posted my first video online. I did it out of cowardice. I was getting my Masters at Antioch University and I needed to lead a 50-minute lecture. I was so terrified of public speaking that I recorded a 20-minute PowerPoint presentation to kill some time during the lecture. The video was about my obsessive short story submission process, navigating the slush piles (which were mostly physical piles of papers back then). While recording it, I was so worried it would be boring that I told a few jokes about my insecurities, through my recorded words and through visual gimmicks on the screen. The presentation went well, people liked the insights, laughed at the jokes, and I even had fun with the Q&A afterward. I graduated, but more importantly, I learned that I loved making these silly videos and I've been making videos ever since, always experimenting with different low-budget low-skill ways of adding humor to these videos. I've taken some detours to talk about health issues, chronic pain, gaming, and other weird things, but mostly I've circled around the creative process. 🎭🎭🎭 Anyway, to celebrate these 14 years, I thought I'd share with you 14 of my favorite videos about writing… 📽️📽️📽️ (This post was original published on Writer Unboxed.) 🎙️🎙️🎙️
Herald of Darkness & Creative Joy (video)
So I just played a video game (Alan Wake 2) about a writer who is stuck in a nightmare-ish alternate dimension. I loved so much about the game (it doesn’t hurt that I’m also a writer who is stuck). BUT… it’s a horror/suspense game that most of my writer friends aren’t going to play. So, in this video, I thought I’d tell you (in a non-horror-y way) about one chapter in this video game that I found particularly fabulous, and how it connects to one of my approaches to creative projects.
Intentional Disappearing: Ghosting Your Creative Projects (video)
So I disappeared for a little while... I haven’t posted a YouTube video in more than three months. My blog hasn't seen much action. I haven't been writing much over the past few months. 😭 Even though I didn't do a good job of communicating this disappearance to you, it was an intentional disappearance. And it's something I do when personal issues, health issues, family issues, or coup attempts come up in my life. 😱 Check out my new video to get a better feeling for what the hell I'm talking about. (What? Did you think I would spill the tea right here in this post? How else is my video going to get 12 views instead of 0 views?! And also, SOMEONE is going to have to appreciate how crooked my glasses are in this video! And ALSO, did you notice that I'm keeping up with the kids these days by saying "spill the tea"???)
I’m a failure!… And I love it! (video)
It’s easy to analyze my creative ventures and come to the conclusion that they are failures. 😩 And it used to be easy for me to conclude that I was failure as well. 😭 But I’m not a failure… I was just looking at the wrong numbers. 📉📈 I love what I’m up to… ❤️️ And here’s a video where I talk it all through… 😜
a fuzzy reflection on my creative life (video)
I'm not so into new year's resolutions 🎉, but I still wanted to awkwardly think through my attitude (mostly around my creative life) 🧑🎨 in 2022, and whether it needs to change in 2023 🌪️😭 (beyond just using fewer emoji in place of real feelings)…
more than zero: an overly simple plan for my creative projects (video)
I’m not the fastest writer in the world (ten years between novels!?). ✍️ I’m also a really slow reader. 📚 I’m slow at creating YouTube videos. 📽️ I’m slow at a lot of things. 🐢
But I also continuously nudge myself to create interesting things. As I mentioned in my last video (wait, what!?, you didn’t watch it!? here it is: to hell with your productivity tips), I’m not into having a rigid productivity plan for my creative projects. But I do try to follow one simple rule: More Than Zero. I need to make more than zero progress on all the important projects each week. Roughly. Mostly. Usually.
to hell with your productivity tips (video)
Around ten years ago, I was VERY into productivity. I was always on the prowl for a new TO DO app, or a new mail app, or a new productivity hack, or some new technique that would magically make me ultra-super-hyper-productive. The thing about it was that I spent way too much time with these tools and tactics, and not as much time doing the things I actually wanted to be productive about. Nowadays, I’m much less into productivity methods, and I just try to do the things I want to do, with as minimal structure as is reasonable. Here’s a short video about my anti-productivity journey (which, I’m sorry to admit, takes a short detour into a Rick and Morty episode)… 😜😱
my (semi-animated, semi-authorized) book launch event, now on YouTube!
Did you know that I foolishly went around from bookstore to bookstore with all my crazy A/V equipment in order to show animated videos and presentations alongside my book readings? Yep, it cost me a lot in therapy visits and chiropractic visits, but it was also really fun to mix up the book reading event with some of my bad drawings and animation gimmicks. If you didn't get a chance to see this stuff at a bookstore, then you're (arguably) in luck, because, here it is!
The Fuzzy Secrets to Writing a Decent Novel (video)
It’s been on my mind lately how the act of writing (and completing) a decent novel requires some particular qualities beyond just learning the craft of writing. And so here is a fuzzy video about the fuzzy art of writing a NON-fuzzy novel. 🌪❤️️
Most People Don’t Give a Shit About Your Thing (video)
This latest video talks through the mindset shift that I’ve taken on this year (for all my creative pursuits). I knew that I didn’t want to be too disappointed by any activities related to my new book. There are just too many factors to consider with a book release, and many of them are out of my control. As much as possible, I wanted to savor the good stuff without having unrealistic expectations. I also didn’t want to ever feel gross with how I share or promote anything. So I boiled down the mindset to “most people don’t give a shit.” Think of it like a second-rate, neurotic version of Buddhist ideas related to unmet expectations and the problems with a “wanting mind”… or something like that.
some honest and chaotic thoughts about creativity and book launch week (with A LOT of pictures)
So I did a reading at historic Powell's Books on Tuesday — the day of my book launch. But I also decided to use the days leading up to the book launch to push out all kinds of crazy creative things. I’m not positive that I can come to a grand conclusion about what this all means. But I’ll try, and at the very least, I can meander us through a picture-filled story that involves books and apps and social media and videos and music and essays and podcasts, and then I can land us (in the final postscript) inside a messy gazpacho filled with guilt and passion and triumph. Who wouldn’t want to go on that kind of adventure!?!?!? 🎢🛼🚌
8 musical shorts from an insecure writer (video)
About a year ago, somewhere in the dark corridors of 2021, I got stuck in my creative life. At the same time, I knew that my novel was going to come out with Red Hen Press in 2022 and I wanted to keep creating things. So what I did was take some of the basic stuff I learned about music from my friend Joey Helpish, along with some of the struggles I was feeling about the creative process… and I made eight, short, awkward, animated music videos about my creative struggles. In the past few weeks I’ve posted them on TikTok and Instagram, but since I totally don’t know what I’m doing on those platforms, I also compiled them together into one video (with some explanations between songs) for YouTube. And here it is. 📽📽📽
Gatekeepers & Creativity (video)
My novel is coming out in just a few weeks! And I’m thrilled to be publishing the book with a great press like Red Hen Press. At the same time, it’s been on my mind that—right now—we have this ability to share our creative work with an audience in so many different ways, some ways involve gatekeepers, and some don’t. And so of course I made a video about that.
Arthur Morgan and the Hero’s Journey (video)
I forget, who was asking me to make a FORTY-MINUTE VIDEO about how the hero's journey storytelling structure works in a 2018 video game called Red Dead Redemption 2? Oh, no one? Well, shit. My bad, because I spent a TON of hours working on this damn video. I've tried to make it accessible to non-gamers who are curious about storytelling in a modern video game (a game that happens to have an amazing narrative).
every draft has a purpose (video)
So here’s an approach to working through each draft that has been helpful to me. I’m not sure if it’s helpful to others or if it’s obvious or something else… All I know is that it was tiring to change my shirt so many times in order to demonstrate each draft in this video…
you should consider quitting (video)
Oh! I forgot to tell you that, a few weeks ago, I made a video about quitting... Or, not really quitting, but how I think about quitting... Or maybe it's more about whether it's worth quitting… Or maybe… You know what? Just watch the damn video.
acknowledgments (video)
So I thought it would be amusing to create a video where I make fun of myself attempting to write the acknowledgments for my book. But in the process of making fun of myself, I mistakenly stumbled into a sincere desire to stop and appreciate the things that allow me to be creative. So here's a video that's a mish mash of all those feelings…
the insecurities of one writer (video)
So I've had this sorta-close-to-ready video sitting on my laptop for over two years now. It's about various voices in my head that make me insecure as a writer. The thing about the video is that I don’t think I quite strike the right tone. It's a little too cheesy, but also a little too dark, but also not quite funny enough, and it has 12% more cursing than usual. So I guess I'm insecure about my video... that’s about my insecurities about my writing. And now, a few years later, I'm totally busy with other things, and I don't have what it takes to revisit this video and get it to the proper finish line. On the other hand, there’s something about this video that still speaks to me. I don't want to just throw it into the (digital) fire. So, I did what any mediocre YouTuber would do, I pooped out this messy content for the world to see anyhow.