Wednesday Workshop: Short and sour

So, yeah, I have promised to reciprocate sharing my writing projects where I need help.

In fact, one of my key problems is that I promise too much (mostly to myself, that’s another probably related problem I have). Consequently I generate vast amounts of text (just check this site or check the thousands of words produced on this site) which I never bother to review because I’m always more interested in clearing the next promise. One of the reasons is, I guess, that typically there are no reviewers. It’s like knowing you stay at home and knowing nobody come to ring your doorbell; you don’t bother.

So I’m sorry I don’t have more than this at this point in time (I promise to be more content rich another time) but the ask is this: how can I force myself to do the polite thing and dress up when I am going out with some writing?

Wednesday Workshop: Preferences

I’ve made cursory references in this space to an essay I’d like to write about Louis CK and something I see as a theme in his comedy. I don’t want to get into it too much, but there is an aspect of the piece I’d like to write I’m struggling with.

Such an essay would need to make multiple references to examples of Louis CK’s humor as evidence that it’s actually a theme and not just a one-time deal. My question to the reader is what do you think is the best way to reference his humor? My first thought is video clips from his standup and his show. My hesitation, though, is I almost never watch video clips embedded within articles. I assume I’m not alone in this.

But really, what are the other options? I suppose since the purpose of my article will not be to make the reader laugh I could use transcriptions of the bits or episodes I’m referencing. I suspect, however, that could slow the article down to a clunky (at best) pace.

The only other option I can imagine is assuming the reader is familiar with Louis CK and give only brief descriptions of bits I’m drawing from. That would avoid the annoying problem of a half dozen video clips (each with “skip to 0:54” instructions) and would also keep the essay trim. The problem, of course, is it would exclude anybody who’s not very familiar with Louis CK’s standup and/or show.

I hope whatever ideas and preferences we dig out of each other are helpful for everyone. I assume it’s a dilemma anybody who’s wanted to write about television or cinema has faced from time to time. Of course, I could be wrong. Maybe my aversion to watching clips as companions to written pieces is a sign of my impending curmudgeonliness.

Wednesday Workshop: Leap of Faith

Guido (Nuis), Josh (K-sky) and I are, as far as I know, the remaining regular contributors at this space. A couple weeks ago, as part of one of my “Friday Afternoon Confessions”, I mentioned how I had largely dismantled what had been a pretty solid writing habit. Josh and Guido lamented their parallel issues with a lack of writing output (outside this space) and Guido came up with the suggestion of helping each other through whatever issues may be lodged in our respective brains. I agreed to contribute to such an exercise, and the consensus was whatever this exercise would become, it would happen on Wednesdays.

If I remember my “The Weblog” history correctly, this means we’ve had “Sunday Stories”, “Monday Movies”, “Tuesday Hatred”, “Wednesday Food”, now this, “Thursday Spoiler Alerts” (the most well-read series, I believe) and “Friday Afternoon Confessions”. I’m not certain whether I’m just forgetting a Saturday series or if we’ve decided to leave that day to its rightful owners: the Bay City Rollers.

Anyway, here we are. A new series of posts in which Guido and I (at least) have agreed to help each other “work out” our writing issues. The trick, of course, is I don’t believe anybody is quite sure how exactly we’re going to do that. I’ve struggled with my answer to that question. Do I keep my ideas and dilemmas vague to guard against thievery, or do I just lay it out there, thievery be damned?

In the end, I decided this exercise requires trust in the participants. To make it work as well as possible, I’m going to extend a tremendous amount of trust and go with the lay it out there approach.