In the thick of major-league procrastination right now to the point that I’m procrastinating on the thing I was using to procrastinate from the BIG thing … procrastination all the way down.
Many of my riffs these days deal with social media and how to earn and maintain traction as a creative person. Substack is a big one for me. I don’t trust Substack. I don’t trust platforms that control the means of distribution, are “free,” and make it too easy to connect and share. Before you know it, you’ve been locked in. Before you know it, you’re getting fed things you never asked for. Before you know it, even your own audience can’t find easily find you.
And what we end up doing is shoveling coal into the social media furnace creating what, exactly?
Ruby McConnell, preside of the Oregon Writers Colony, and I were hard at work for more than a year to bring something new and fresh to the Eugene literary community.1 We were equal parts disenfranchised with social media and AI and our inability to trust what’s real and to follow what we want, not be at the mercy tech oligarchs and their algorithms. We were confronted with the uselessness of social media. You put out a post and … nothing. The only thing, we agreed, that we can trust was being in person. Genuine face-to-face community. It’s slow platform building at its finest.
What would that look like? Leveraging my experience with the podcast, and with a long-term goal of making Eugene as attractive as Portland for literary events, we figured quarterly live, in-person, in-conversation events that I would also record would be a refreshing jolt.
This was Darrell’s first real ambitious project, having written nothing much longer than 3,000 words before. It’s a wonderful book that takes place in the early 20th century but feels incredibly of the moment. People worried about newspaper influence back then the way we worry about social media influence today.
Darrell also talks about when he’s ready to share a work in progress and simplifying the structure when it became evident that the structure was dictating the terms, not the story itself. Really rich stuff.
I understand how tiresome it is when someone talks, talks, talks about social media use, the struggle of it, the do-we-really-need-it questions.
Over the years, you know my tendency is to rage against the algorithm. It’s my passion. I’ve deleted apps from my phone. Put them back on. Deleted certain accounts. You know the cycle; it’s the cycle of an addict.
A few weeks ago, I experienced a revelation regarding social media: It drains me. It makes me sluggish. I saps my motivation. It was a physical reaction.
She’s practically running a school for writers with the incredible offerings she has over at janefriedman.com. If you want to be a better writer and, more importantly, have a greater understanding of what it means to marry your art with commerce, Jane’s work is required.
Though we didn’t delve into book proposals, a CNFin’ faux pas if there ever was one (my b), but I had taken a book proposal refresher with her as part of Creative Nonfiction Magazine’s offerings. She’s a pro. (@janefriedman)
So we dig into plenty of stuff that’s germane to your journey like author platform, building a newsletter audience, social media (and its trappings) and the tension you can glean from a show like Better Call Saul.
“Find the something else that is so absorbing to you. That is a place you can go to get away from this.” —Jenny Odell
“You can’t write for everyone. And if you did, it wouldn’t be good.” —Jenny Odell
“Sitting there is a reminder of how different a physical space is with how we consume information online.” —Jenny Odell
Welcome, friend, to CNF, the creative nonfiction podcast where I speak to badass writers, filmmakers, radio producers, and podcasters about the art and craft of telling true stories.
The book stemmed from this talk she gave, which makes me think: maybe the way to a book deal is come up with a great talk? Side note: It’s amazing how Jenny stood in the same spot for this entire talk. I’m definitely a walker.
Anyway…
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So Jenny was amazing. We talk about birds, Austin Kleon, and how best reclaim your attention from social media companies that are hell bend on ensuring you keep scrolling.
