Not to turn this outlet into a meta-blogging stream of self-encouraging aphorisms, but I was reading a back issue of The New Yorker and came across this quote from Louis Menand, writing about writer’s workshops:
I don’t think the workshops taught me too much about craft, but they did teach me about the importance of making things, not just reading things. You care about things that you make, and that makes it easier to care about things that other people make.
That was followed by this old chestnut from Justin Hall:
put time into whatever it is you like to do, and put that up on the web.
write about yourself, your hobbies, your passions, your politics, your community
whatever turns you on because if you can be excited about them offline, and somehow transmit that enthusiasm online, or that depth of emotion over the wires people will find it and stay for it and check back in on it, especially if they think it’s going to change
via Michael Sippey.
Folks who dismiss various forms of social media as trivial and narcissistic often forgot this aspect. These media provide venues for pent-up creative enthusiasm. Yeah a lot of the results will be poor or even hateful. The act of making makes it easier for many more to care about others. In the aggregate, that’s a great thing.
This is all in building up to my 100 hour project.