My friend G. pointed me toward this post at Merlin Mann‘s 43 Folders, on the makings of a good blog. I don’t know if I qualify as “trying” so much lately, but earlier this summer I did work hard on meeting the “good blogs are in paragraphs” criteria. And I’m definitely obsessed (and probably weird), to the benefit of my four loyal readers, who I hope are learning a lot about the folkways of northern Wisconsin.

In case you haven’t noticed I’ve been posting a lot of photos, as I’m having a little trouble with words. This is true both online and off. So it’s not surprising that, after getting schooled on successful blogging, I drifted to the post above it. G. informs me that Mann is a “geek hero,” which explains why I’ve never heard of him. But his advice is universal, useful to geeks and idiots alike.

[snip]

“Most all makers with longevity talk about a process that involves regular, scheduled work periods that allow generous time for warmups and getting into what Csikszentmihalyi himself has called, “Flow.” For as long as he or she can stay in that Flow state, a good artist is capable of synthesizing unbelievably disparate material and ideas in a way that’s often satisfying and productive. For those who cannot, it means another morning of video games, Facebook, and binge eating.

Artists who are in the early draft stage of a given project tend to adopt a generative attitude about capturing and accepting whatever shows up without judgment or self-editing — having a gentle attitude about imperfection that gives “bad” or “incomplete” ideas the same wide berth as the the apparently-great ones.

This is not stressful for the gifted artist who knows the dirty little secret that nobody shits a masterpiece; it’s all about editing, re-writing, and shaping the raw materials into something that will eventually become whole, polished, and cohesive. Eventually. But, first, you have to get something down. And that’s where that supposed “paradox” sure comes in handy.”

[/snip]

I don’t have Nintendo, but that Facebook-and-binge-eating part of the “creative process” sure sounds familiar.