Today my inspiration is derived from the first #oneaday post by Andy Johnson - whose musings on the whole insane affair brought a little clarity to a train of thought my mind's been fixated with for the past few days. I'm only on day 4, but already being able to write about anything, and yet having to write something once every day has been interesting in ways I'd not foreseen.
Initially, my fear was simple: How the hell am I going to find the time to write something every day for a year? I won't lie, it's still on my mind. But above this there's a more prominent concern that keeps rushing through my head: How long before I run out of things to say?
No matter how exciting and varied a life you like to think you lead, routine still remains a fairly staple chunk of our lives; relying on the events of each day to provide content might work for a little while, but to rely on every day providing you with something interesting to say would be risky. Andy J reckons we're likely to all start saying 'yes' more; maintaining interesting content by maintaining an interesting life. I can see myself embracing this attitude already, so he's bang on the money. In addition to this, I've found that #oneaday has sparked off another new habit - one that's sent my brain into a dizzying overdrive.
Everything I see - and every thought I have - is being examined. Tested. Pushed to an absolute limit. What can I do with this fleeting thought? Could I write a whole paragraph on that? Do I have the skill to create a whole page?
Scanning through some of the other excellent #oneaday blogs, I get the impression this may be a common theme. Perhaps it's just my imagination, but as I skim between the other blogs I get the sensation of subtle tones bleeding between writers day by day. It gives the entire project a wonderfully evolving nature that I hadn't foreseen - we're all undoubtedly slightly worried of running out of ideas, and as such are open to embracing the ideas that float into our minds more readily than we would otherwise. Few of the pieces are directly connected at first glance, but spend a bit of time soaking up the work of some of the various writers each day and you definitely get a sense of there being a subtle stream of consciousness going on. I'm aware that last sentence may sound genuinely insane, but after twenty minutes of trying to work out how to explain it in better way, I've given up. Please don't have me sectioned. x
When signing up, I assumed I'd just write about games I've been playing, or films I'd seen recently. It's what I've always done - it's safe. But as it's safe, I can bank these ideas indefinitely - I'll save them for a day when I've run out of ideas. I might as well use whatever pops into my mind in the here and now, as there's no guarantee that I'll be able to think of anything tomorrow. Fuck.
Without such strict deadlines, I can guarantee that most of the pieces you'll read on #oneday would have been scrapped. And sure, some of it will sound like self-indulgent shit - but because of the very nature of #oneaday, it kind of can't be - as there's very little intention involved in any of it. I didn't wake up this morning planning to write this, I woke up this morning knowing I had to write something - it just turns out, this is what it is.
Click the link on the right hand side of the blog, and check out what other people have written today. And if you're interested in getting involved, it's not too late - drop @ultrabrilliant a line and join in.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Man, between this and Andy J's post, the #oneaday project is evolving into something a lot more important and worthy than my initial idea. It's kinda exciting.
ReplyDeleteEvery post I've done so far is the kind of thing, pre-One a Day, I'd start, then eventually abandon. So that in itself is a positive by-product of the whole thing.
Sublime words, sir.
I think you've really expanded on what I said earlier... I remember when Twitter first became widely popular, someone coined the term "meta-conversation" to describe it. Unexpectedly, I think One a Day is already going a similar way, except its potential is greater in a sense because we're not restricted by a 140 character limit - although of course, we're all using Twitter a lot to help make it a big meta-conversation.
ReplyDeleteWhat's really interesting is how One a Day is already linking disparate people together - there's no way many of us would ever encounter one another's blogs, or comment on them, let alone play off each others' work. Exciting stuff.
Another benefit is that if you write something and you're not particularly happy with it, or think you could have done more with it, it doesn't matter - you've still got hundreds more days to make up for it.
ReplyDeleteThere I was planning to finish my Game of the Decade countdown tomorrow! I can definitely see how what you described is going to affect a lot of people, it's what makes this whole thing just as much of a social experiment as a way to get creative juices flowing
ReplyDelete