This poor old blog has been seeing some neglect, I know. But maintaining different projects and observing the changing courses of those projects does yield some interesting insights, some of which I had not anticipated.
A lot of the writing energy has shifted to my Substack project for several reasons. Part of it is the public nature of it. When you have a number of people you know regularly anticipating some results, it does spur you to get it done. It jogs the superego, to put it another way. Kind of like doing something strenuous with another person: if both of you commit to something together, you really want to stick to it even more, because you're not only letting yourself down but also the other person if you don't follow through.
Synergizing with that, as you get more done and what attention starts coming your way tends to seed those little spurts of inspiration, and then it starts to pull you in a certain direction. This was something Dolly Parton noticed and attributed to her sudden vigorous output of songwriting material, which happened earlier on when her career was taking off, as explored in the wonderful and moving Dolly Parton's America podcast. Not that my projects could be meaningfully compared to the scale and power of Dolly's career, but I did instantly recognize that basic impulse and motivation, and it made for a good example to point to anyway.
Nevertheless, I do find that I have to spend some more willpower to keep working here, but I think it is energy well worth spending. Much of the creative and intellectual resources I have at my disposal on the Substack project were forged here, through years and years of experimentation and contemplation, thinking and writing in silence, getting thoughts down on the metaphorical "page," and then having them represented back at me here. It was not just ideas and concepts that developed either, but a process and a craft.
That continuous development is still very important to me, and I have a whole lot of ground to still cover here, so I keep coming back to do the work. It is kind of like sharpening an axe, or any kind of blade really. The sharpening part is a pain in the ass: it is repetitive and kind of boring. The sound of it is grating and harsh on the ears and it feels gritty and unpleasant to the touch.
But then you have this beautiful, shiny sharp edge at the end of it. It is much more fun to chop wood than to sharpen, but chopping with a dull blade is garbage and dangerous even. The added joy and effectiveness of a sharpening job well done makes the subsequent chopping all the more satisfying and enjoyable, and it is safer besides. Those observed results can really give you the "oomph" you need to muster up the willpower and do the damn sharpening.
