FreeDUMB, Resolute Shuns and more
December 27, 2007
Cruising around in my noggin this morning are multiple podcast idea for Bowl of Cheese. I’m not sure if they’re there because I didn’t get much sleep or if my creative juices have recharged for the week or month and now I’m teeming with ideas.
Similar to my friend Peter’s cell phone, I think we each have a set amount of creativity in us. It can be nurtured and regrown, but once we tap into 100% of our ideas over a static period, we’re done. The regeneration process must then begin.
Oh, what Peter does is pays for his cell phone on a monthly basis (yes, we all do that…let me get to the point). So each month he purchases XX minutes with the stipulation that when those minutes are gone, the cell phone carrier changes his phone from a unit that can send AND receive calls to one that only sends calls. So sometime around the 24th day each month, Peter becomes inaccessible to the outside world unless he calls you.
The point is, when his minutes are used up, they’re gone. And the theory in thinking is that when good thinking energy is used up, there’s none left and you should go do something else. I disagree.
An example of this would be product naming or themes for a book. The brainstorm can go on for days, but the real productive work only comes in spurts. You get the platinum ideas at odd moments too, so it doesn’t work to only brainstorm when you’re on top of your game.
That’s probably the main issue behind writers’ block. There really isn’t anything identified as writers’ block. It’s just distractions and self editing taking over. When a person gets locked into a pattern of perfectionism, the creative process suffers because nothing the person puts on paper is viewed as good enough.
To battle this (and maybe this should have been put up on Jeff Cutler dot com as a writing instruction or insight) the best writers just continue writing. As long as ink and electrons are going onto the page, the writer is getting closer to a completed project. And we all know it’s far easier to make comments about, and edit something that already exists than it is to correct something that’s still in the ether.
Speaking of which, before I forget the ideas for the BOC podcast, here is the gist behind two of them. They’ll be recorded for airing in the next month (and maybe the next two weeks).
FreeDUMB will be heavily based on censorship, our personal liberties and the mindset that is followed too often when setting up these guidelines in various environments.
Resolute Shuns will be a podcast about the resolutions we all want to make but are too chicken to attempt for fear of sneers and disapproval from others. Hmmm. I guess there’s some overlap but the podcast is only four minutes long so it’ll have to be two shows.
More to come…
