Chaff

"The stars are threshed, and the souls are threshed from their husks."

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Habits

I am incapable of forming habits. While in the main this has preserved me from sloth, addiction, and golf, I am now realizing that it has also held me back. All I want to do now, to add bodies daily to the bonfire of my prose, to acquire Russian beyond the proficiency of an angry drunk, to send arrows of my work out into the world and see where they stick, to maintain my body and my home so that I am ashamed of neither, more or less require ritual and routine.

Shit- I need to throw in some laundry.

But instead I am thrown into a punji pit of energy, lethargy, inspiration, forgetfulness, distraction and self destruction.

So I'm attempting to acquire some bad habits. If I can succeed in making a bad habit, then perhaps I will be able to make some good habits as well. At this point, I'll take the exchange. Gotta go have a cigaratte. Any ideas for other bad habits I can try out?

**

Quotes:

(Of the voice of Tom Waits) "It sounds like a squeaky mattress but three octaves lower." --Olga Kuchment (my wife!)

and

"It looks like someone's garden shat in your fridge!" --Anna Neher

**

It has been a sweet day of pure solitude- the first I have had in some time, and I have used it well. I cooked some, read some, wrote a lot, and received a beautiful email from a dear friend. If this continues, I'll have Edges of Bounty polished off by the weekend, and will then start submitting chapters to magazines and will also start the edibilist food blog.

Now the food blog could be used in a few ways. I'd like to see how popular it could be- some of these food blogs have over 10,000 hits a day-and a few probably have many, many more. It would be a great way to promote the book, and the idea of the book.

Option 1: z'all about me!
If I write the blog all on my own, it has promotes my writing, which might (who knows?) lead to a regular column at some magazine or newspaper, and establishes some kind of brand ownership if there is any interest or use to the world for edibilism. I.e. If the idea does well, I do well. On the other hand, my posting ethic and the unevenness of the give-a-shit of my writing could be a bullet in the head of the whole she-bang.

Option 2: with our powers combined, we are...
If I form a small cadre of writers and set a fairly loose set of standards for the blog, then I create an instant community that might prove to be a model for other places, or at least create the illusion that the idea has some legs. I also increase (in theory) the frequency of posts. Probably it would also be possible to organize the posts by author, so if anyone liked a writers work especially, they could filter for that writer alone. If any of these other writers have opportunities to write for magazines or papers, all the better for everyone. Possible con? The intent and form of the blog becomes muddied and the edibilist idea is lost.

Option 3: edibilist, inc.
If I use the edibilist blog as a way to gather the broadest number of voices to the idea, then I'd be able to use it as a sort of food writing best of, which would win me a nice spot in the food blog world, and invite edibilist-ish stories from readers-I'd make the blog more like a magazine, essentially. Then I'd be able to maintain editorial authority and daily post duties, but also have the opportunity to sink the edibilist idea into as many minds as possible for when the book comes out. Cons are obvious: the hassle (see the fluxuation of my give-a-shit x10) and the quality over all of the writing is likely to go down. Also, it would take a great deal more energy to start, and a great deal more web design, etc knowledge than I currently posses.

So, what's an ambitious young man who wants to do right by his book to do?

3 Comments:

At 8:55 PM, Blogger Wordwrestler said...

I vote for option 2.

 
At 8:51 AM, Blogger Anna said...

Dry cake mix. Very bad. Very habit-forming. But then, you're indifferent to sugar. Ooo! You could nibble your nails.

No. No, actually, you couldn't. I just can't see it.

Smoke your pipe! Although you've been trying so hard to remember to do that, it really rather qualifies as a good habit. Well, all the better, then.

Do you have any idea how you would identify and recruit your fellow literary edibilistians? Because their number (and enthusiasm level) might determine the difference between option 2 and option 3 (or even option 1 and option 2).

It seems like if you started out with 2, it might naturally develop into 3 if the blog gained enough momentum. I think that to get things rolling, you'd need to start out pretty involved in actually writing posts.

It really has a lot to do with how interested you are in collaborative work. Getting other people involved would mean relinquishing some control over the idea of edibilism, which means it might turn into something unanticipated and exciting--or something unanticipated and (to you) displeasing--or, as you say, the concept could simply lose focus.

 
At 8:26 AM, Blogger Galen said...

Easy. Cable TV. "Don't just do something, sit there!" -Sunflower Broadband.

Addictive, and will kill all those creative impulses you feel.

Soon your blog will be about American Idol, I love the 70s, and Desperate Housewives.

... At which point I will shoot you.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home