Staying Ahead

I've never been involved in the production of a TV series or a movie or any other type of content that won't be consumed until some time has passed after it was created.  This blog however now has many scheduled posts that go quite far into the future.  There is a perplexing mindset that is emerging for me as a result of this delay between writing and publishing and it's something I am not entirely sure how to address.  The reason I write posts and schedule them for future release is because my creativity comes in bursts, I have written in the past about how I find it difficult to sustain creativity at an optimum level for a prolonged period of time.  I write posts and schedule them creating a "buffer" of time where there will always be content being released on this blog even when I have not written anything in days or in some cases weeks.  This makes it easier for me to achieve some level of consistency.

The desire to stay ahead of my schedule is what motivated me to write posts and schedule them but as I have done so, the time between writing and publishing has started to extend and increase.  The buffer has become longer with time to the point where I can write a post and it can be several weeks before you actually get to read it.  That's led me to contemplate the nature of delayed consumption.  We live in a world of instant gratification and that mentality can push people like me to want to release the content sooner rather than waiting weeks to release it and see how people react.  As I said, I have never been involved in the production of media with such a delay before and I don't know how to approach that mentality.  I do wonder what actors and directors and everyone else involved in media productions think and feel about creating content that won't be released for months, and in some cases not for years.

There is no consequence for me to talk about posts I have written before they are published, if anything those conversations often add new ideas and new information that can lead me to take a post that was scheduled and extend it adding much more to it.  There comes a point where I have to split posts into more than one part dealing with distinct issues that have emerged as talking points.  I try not to let posts go beyond 1,000 words on here, a few have, but I don't like doing it.  The purpose of these posts is to give you and me something to think about and when they are really long, some of the points raised are easily forgotten or buried in the text.

There too has to be a limit to how much I will allow myself to write.  I love to write and on some topics I could write a dissertation of 10,000 words or more on the subject and still not run out of points I want to include.  There is a temptation at times to do this but I have to pull myself back and regain focus.  Posts often end up having parts gutted out because they diverged too far from the original topic and they wouldn't serve well as a post of their own.  This act of editing myself is something that I find interesting and challenging at the same time.  I like to think that I have a pretty good handle on what is and is not relevant but as I have said in previous posts, we often don't see our own mistakes as we have become so used to seeing them we gloss over them.

With regards to the buffer there are a number of options that I could consider, but perhaps the most obvious would be to increase the frequency of publishing.  Right now this blog is scheduled to post every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday according to UK time.  I could increase publishing from 3 posts a week to 4, or even 5 and still have a buffer of content.  The trouble is this would require me to write more often to sustain that buffer and I'm not confident that I would be able to do that.  Sure right now my creativity is going through a rare peak where there's a lot of content I am producing but I've had lows where I can't think of a thing to write for weeks.  There is also the fact that this blog was originally 1 post a week and if you go back and look at the dates the posts were quite sporadic until I managed to get that content buffer in place.  The number of posts per week stepped up to 2 and then 3.  This is something I have already done and I don't think it will be a solution to the problem.

The problem in itself is essentially a content glut, and my own impatience.  The latter I can address with some modicum of self discipline, and it is perhaps the most likely outcome that I will pursue.  As for the former I don't think I would actually want to try and limit my creativity especially when it can so often be hard to come by.  If you are a writer and you have ever wanted to create something with consistency, I would advise you start small and make small commitments and then gradually increase those commitments over time.  I committed to 1 post a week and in time I exceeded that commitment and scheduled the rest until I reached a point where I was comfortable taking on a new commitment.  I would give the same advice if you want to write a novel or some other kind of written work that is quite long.  Start off by setting yourself a target as low as say 100 words per day, and start writing to meet that target.  In time you'll surpass it and it will become easier to reach that target.  Increase it when you feel confident enough to be able to meet the new target consistently.  With any luck you'll end up with a production much longer than you ever thought it would be and your biggest problem will be editing it down as opposed to writing more - and in the process you might actually end up adding in more detail.