🥱 TREE 640: Don’t be boring / Have fun

Welcome to the penultimate post of TREE year 3. Here are two mantras that guide the creation of TREE. The first is about how I write for you. The second is about how I work for me.

1. Don’t be boring

I think most writing is boring and twice as long as it needs to be. This makes me super conscious of the fact that, unless I’m paying attention, most of my writing will be too long and boring. The idea that I might be boring you upsets my stomach.

For the first two-and-a-half years of TREE, I mostly knew what I was going to say. It was stuff that had been tumbling around my brain for a long time. My posts, in my mind at least, were refined and sparkly and brief.

I’ve spent more time in new territory recently. Finding the right words has gotten harder. I struggle to say what I want to say in 250 words. Yet you are still here. I take that as evidence I’m still doing an ok job of being not boring.

2. Have fun

I write TREE in my free time, so it has to be about 90% fun. If it’s not, I’ll burn out and quit.

Exploring ideas that are new to me means that writing TREE takes longer than it used to – double or maybe triple the amount of time. The side effect was that drawing and curating music stopped being fun. I had to do them because that was The Format. Finishing the posts was eating into time I wanted to use for other things. Then I remembered I’m the boss. I changed the format. Now I’m having fun again.

I love the writing, no matter how hard it is, so don’t worry about that. And now when you see music or illustrations in TREE, you’ll know I was having fun, not filling an obligation.

If you’ve ever thought, I wouldn’t be offended if Young Fathers threw in a little more hip hop, you’ll probably like grouptherapy.

Tomorrow I’ll send you my end-of-year gratitude post.

Grow slowly
Jeff