What Am I Thinking?

A few weeks ago, someone asked, "What's the goal of your blog?" 

This isn't part of some super-clever master plan I have to dominate the Internet with more content.  

This is about forcing myself to write each day (or close to it). With a pace like that, it won't be the prettiest writing. It is about trying to create something that is interesting to read with a teeny-tiny window in which to get it done. 

Why do I want to force myself to write each day? 

A little over three years ago, I spent a year writing a draft of a mystery novel. It is 300 hand-written pages, roughly 120,000 words. 

Kind of impressive. I pushed myself to write around 500 words a day.  

It was also incredibly lonely.  

Time and again people would say, "What's your book about? Can I read it when you are done?" 

Here we are, three years later, and no one has read the novel other than me. It needs to go through a rewrite and be keyed into the computer. 

At some point it will. 

The problem is that I convinced myself -- as others have done -- that the only way to express yourself in a meaningful way is to write some serious tome and have it published in a "traditional" manner.  

Instead, I should have reminded myself that this democratized internet world we live in allows you to publish stories, create movies, make music, show photos and display artwork directly to the entire world, without any gatekeepers telling you what to do. 

I've recently been following various daily vloggers on YouTube. Not only is the content compelling, these folks are making a movie each day, using equipment any of us can purchase with a nominal amount of money.  

This video shows filmmaker Casey Neistat talking about getting 1 million followers for his YouTube channel, and why he gave up traditional filmmaking to make daily videos: 

This video doesn't fully illustrate some of the cool work he does, but his feelings sum up the sentiment about this blog.

This is a guy who had a series on HBO, has made videos for corporate giants like Nike, and has won numerous awards for his work.

(Be sure to check out his channel and watch his daily vlog -- it really is compelling stuff).

Anyhow, those of you who have been reading along, I want to say, "thank you."

There is no endgame here. There is no master plan to all of this.

With this process, I hope to add more video clips (and become savvy at editing them), learn some new things, and become a better online content creator.

This is about writing at a brisk pace, talking about the experiences we share, and trying to look at life in a more deliberate manner.

Like this? Check out my previous blog post: Should Not Have Had the Coffee