I asked, in the preceding post, for your thoughts on my next project and I'm grateful for your comments. I wasn't expecting a consensus of course, but some ideas clearly have more potential than others.
I'm quite keen on doing part two of Creative Year. It irks me a little that I never finished it, although I know that I had to stop when I did. If I were to resume, therefore, it would have to be under less pressure. Perhaps there would only be five posts per week instead of seven, and I'd definitely want to build up a buffer to avoid pulling late nighters. The only sticking point is coming up with a sufficient stock of new ideas to ensure I don't end up rehashing old ones.
The letter writing idea interests me as well, because it really could lead anywhere. There's a series called The Timewaster Letters in which a guy assumes a false name and sends out all manner of daft correspondence, but I wasn't necessarily thinking along those lines. There could be a serious point to it, at least some of the time. I quite like the idea of writing to people who wouldn't normally expect to receive letters, just to bring some light into their lives.
Volunteer work is something I'd never considered until very recently. I've always been obsessed with making some kind of artistic impression to the exclusion of everything else, but it's becoming clearer every day that fulfilment doesn't reside there. Even if one achieves success, there's very likely to follow an undignified effort to maintain it. And for what? I can't imagine myself ever sitting back and feeling sated, so it's a very odd thing to pursue. I'm coming round to the fact that creative ambition should be a passenger to, and not a replacement for, personal relationships. I need to meet more people, make more friends, expand my experience. Volunteering for something, on the face of it, appears to be a good way of doing that.
As some of you pointed out, there were other things on my list that can be dropped in here or there without necessarily turning them into a project. Or they could just be combined as part of something else. In any case, I feel rather more positive about things now which is a decent starting point.
5 comments:
A friend did a scheme similar to this and found it very fulfilling:
http://www.writeaprisoner.com/
But if you'd like to meet lots of new people, how about trying this site as a starting point?
http://www.voluteeringsuffolk.org/
Thank you - I'll certainly check those out.
Also worth checking out:
http://gigbook.blogspot.com/
My friend is uploading all his handwritten gig reviews over the past 30 years and does not expect to be done until of next year. True, he does have a lot of material, but he has just completed a creative writing course to help expand his previous scribblings.
Perhaps you could use any diary entries or penpal letters (fairly anonymous) you have stashed away and embellish each one with a twist and see if some kind of theme comes out??
Man, your friend has seen some gigs in his time.
I recently retrieved my old diaries from my mum's house but there's not much point in sharing them as very little has changed since the early '90s. I'm serious - they read like they were written yesterday. I've been moaning about the same things and stuck in the same patterns all this time. Which is why I need do something different next year.
My old penpal letters are really good (yes, I kept copies of every letter I sent) but I'm not sure it's fair to put them online. I was a lot wittier back then, I know that much. Mmm. I'll think about it.
I've still got all the letters you sent me when you were at university - maybe I'll put those up instead? Mwah ha ha...
Err...maybe not.
My uni descent into madness was due to lack of food and too much booze.
Your letters were always very witty and often made me laugh out loud. I am sure there is some mileage in publishing elements of them and making up responses or you could just be writing to your multiple personalities and never get a response...
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