Despite my own employment journey having the stability of Michael J. Fox’s neurological system, I’m not accepting payment in return for my endeavors on this blog. I’ve been irregularly posting to this blog for several months now, not a substack with any paid plans, and I’m not advertising on this site. So what am I getting out of this?
The answer I keep coming back to is: to get my creative material out the door to share with people.
I started this website as a repository for my work, and this blog is an extension of that. This is a place for me to share my experiments. Austin Kleon says that there’s freedom in anonymity. As a creative person starts out they have a lot more room for experimentation because not many people are paying attention. With increased recognition and work being shared to more people, the margins for error diminish.
It wasn’t my intention to begin a preamble of a humble brag about my Austin Monthly article– I’m not expecting to be swept off my feet by Conde Nast anytime soon, or anything. But considering that I’ve been an 'experimenting creative' for quite some time, I think it's natural to want to further explore the peaks and valleys of creativity beyond experimentation and into production for increased consumption. At the same time, perhaps I’ll have to consider how much exposure I can give these experiments (especially leading with jokes like that).
This blog is giving myself a creative outlet where I can play, and to give myself some sort of obligation to continue to return to the sandbox. The words of encouragement I’ve received from readers has kept me motivated, but I’ve not received much criticism and can’t help but wonder if that would be a better motivator for me.
Don’t get me wrong, I get plenty of criticism throughout the rest of my life, and sometimes it provides the fuel necessary to break through an obstacle. So instead of me asking y’all to send this to some friends who you think will like this– send it to someone you think will hate it enough to say something about it.
But really, all I want is to expose my work to as many people as possible. At this point, I don’t even care if they like it. So, please– send this (or another) post to someone else for them to read.
If you feel weird about the Michael J. Fox joke (or if you REALLY liked it) consider a donation to his charity: https://www.michaeljfox.org/
Comments