Variety in Consumption
Technology has exploded in my life time. I went from playing an NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) as a child to being able to know about obscure issues in foreign lands. My family in Italy can now participate in my life with three button clicks. We are growing more connected every day and that is a good thing. However, with this renaissance of communication in our era, there are some troubling issues.
The main one is the lack of diversity in our consumption. When it comes to information, we have entered into a positive feedback loop. Each click, each like, and every time we click next on a slideshow, we move further into a stagnant worldview. Even if you read ten articles from ten different websites, you are probably consuming the same information structured slightly different. The reason is simple, in order to make money with free content, you must generate analytics to show the advertisers that their website is providing their ads with sufficient viewership.
Which means, if you are on a social media website like Facebook, and it is your portal into the internet, they know what you like and are likely to click on. They have your demographic information, what posts you linger on the most (may not click but where you stopped scrolling), which ones you click, and because you can block content from your newsfeed, what you don’t enjoy reading. With that information, they are able to generate a personalized advertisement string with articles, products, and pictures that would allow you to become more dependent on them. Like a drug, you type “f-a-c [enter]” into the address the second the browser loads.
Even if your portal into the world isn’t through social media, the odds are you have certain websites you enjoy visiting. Perhaps these are institutions that exist in print and/or are trustworthy, each time you go to that website and read through an entire article, you provide them valuable data. Each time you click a link, if the website is well designed, they will know what article you read, where you stopped reading or if you read the whole article, and how much time you spent on that page. If the website isn’t very well designed, they will provide you with a [Read More] button, and the second you press that, they know you continued to read (a more cost effective solution). Same thing happens with the slide shows you keep clicking in order to read the next blurb or see the next picture. But I digressed, the important thing is that each webpage has some structure to provide analytics to the business in order to make decisions.
This decision making structure is what concerns me the most (not the data collection) and is the nugget of this philosophical diatribe. When an analytics report is placed in front of a committee, manager, or editor, they look at it and have a difficult decision to make. In order to generate income for their business, they need to sell advertisements (very few are willing to pay for a subscription in this day and age). At this point, the person sees that articles focusing on topic 1 are viewed more by their readership, while articles on topic 2 are less viewed. When it comes time to allocate resources (money, people, travel, all of the things needed to generate a story) they have to decide how to split up what they have available to them. Depending on pressure, ethics, and desires, the decision will be tough, but often it will be to allocate more to items like topic 1. Which means, we end up with a consolidated set of information on that website. Now, I know the decision is not as easy as I am portraying it but this is a philosophical diatribe and not a thesis.
Now, I know I am being all doom and gloom, but someone once told me to offer a solution to the problems I see, and I try to do just that. However, by showing you the beginnings of this issue, I assume you can come to your own constructive conclusion. As for how I solved my consolidation of information, I moved to print and subscription based content and buy books with cash without a membership card.
By having magazines, newspapers, and other formats delivered to my door, I have cut off the analytics that come from a website. Each day, week, or month, content arrives at my doorstep and the editors/managers/advertisers only know I am willing to keep paying for the information they produce. They don’t know which articles I skip, what fiction I chose to read, or what advertising structure works best to grab my eye. All they know is that I keep subscribing so they must be doing something right, and too keep me, they shouldn’t change their scope of work. So get back into physical paper, let your eyes rest from the warm glow of the LCD panel, pay for the hard work of others, and enjoy an article without having to worry that you are being spied on.
Read MoreLet it Breath – Manuscript Seven
Manuscript seven, the one I had discussed in a previous post, will now become manuscript eight. This change happened because of my process. When I finish a manuscript, I tend to focus my energy on short fiction while I’m outlining the newest novel. While researching, I hit a few snags in my timeline because interviews with experts were being pushed further and further back. At the time, I was slightly perturbed about having to postpone the project because of other people’s schedules, but I am happy I did because the insight I gleamed will lead to a much better novel.
While I was waiting, I began work on a short story. This was supposed to be a 2,300 word short story so it could be submitted to a specific magazine, but I chose an idea with such a large scope that I ended up blowing past the threshold. By the time I noticed, I was at eight thousand words. Now the piece is at sixteen thousand and I know it will end up somewhere between 24,000 and 30,000 words – which makes it a novella.
Looking back on my notes, I realize that this idea was already too large based on my original outlines. I was over confident and tried to smoosh (that’s the technical term) the piece into a box it would overfill. So I did what I do when I write, I let it breath… and boy did it take in a giant breath.
My philosophy towards writing has always been the same. A story has a mind of its own, to a certain degree, and it will tell you what is important as you work on it. As the writer, I have the difficult job of forcing the piece into a box or letting it grow under careful guidance like a master gardener; I shape it but let it grow at its own pace. If I had stopped the piece, I would have something that was half baked, and I don’t believe in limiting my work if it will impact the final product.
So, now I have a new manuscript. And to be honest, when I realized how long it was going to be, I groaned and let out: “Fuck… it’s going to be a novella”. Why the cursing? Simple, novellas don’t sell, no one wants to represent them as a first publication, and they tend to just sit on your computer and grow dusty (Ashley Pepin’s Mistake) is a great example of this phenomenon. But, I like this story and I will bring it into the world, because I write for me and the story. Who knows, I may end up posting it as a serialized piece on this website so you all can read some of my long form work. Until then, I need to finish it. I predict that will happen in the next two weeks if my middle finger heals, and the carpel tunnel and tendentious decides to calm down for a weekend or two.
Read MoreMy Middle Finger has an Unlucky Miasma
My middle finger has been the subject of a tendon injury, a razor blade which cut the same tendon, and now, a new injury has appeared. While with friends at an annual slip and slide party, a rouge inflatable obstacle course took mobility from my middle finger. There was a section where you climb over a hill with a rope. As I climbed with everything I had, the rope wrapped itself around my finger without my knowledge. Once I cleared the obstacle I dove, and while I glided to freedom, I was yanked back as the rope cinched and crushed my finger. As my finger slowly turns into a bratwurst, all I can hope for is that I can write tomorrow so I can put some distance on my projects. Each hour it turns more and more purple as blood pools into the area. Since I could type with a splint on my finger, I imagine I can write with an ever enlarging sausage.
Read MoreTime, Pain, and Family – I’m Still Alive
I know it has been sometime since I last posted, but I have had to rearrange my priorities and posting here is low on the list. I’ve mentioned this in the past, but the website is the last priority when it comes to writing. With work taking up 40-50 hours a week, I have to look at what will help me excel and achieve what is most important to me: becoming a full time writer. In order to do that, I need to read, write, and edit. My goal for each week is to read or write for forty hours. I have fallen short on that goal because summer hits like a giant unproductive hammer.
During summer, I focus heavily on spending time with my family and friends. This is healthy for me, but bad for my dream as I cannot write when I am with my family or friends because I am there to spend time with them. So I burn the candle on both ends. Which led me to burning out and entering a state of low productivity.
Then, add in the fact that I was typing upwards of sixty hours a week (between work and fiction writing), and I end up with a consistent pain in my forearm which is a flare up of tendentious and carpel tunnel from rock climbing. As I am typing this, I stopped work on a short story and novella (manuscript 7 is still being outlined and has been bumped to manuscript 8 because a different short story got too long and is now considered manuscript 7); I stopped writing because the pain was flaring up and keeping me from getting into my groove where the world ceases to exist and I live in what I’ve created. After a couple of sentences I have to take a break and stretch my left arm so I can type a little more. This leads to disjunctive writing, which is fine for a post, but horrible for a cohesive story.
The ramifications from not being able to write as much as I want has sent me into a positive feedback loop where I keep spiraling further and further from what makes me happy. But, I keep plugging away and swimming for the surface, and I think I can see the shimmering waves above me (it’s called Fall or Autumn (if you are pretentious)). I’ve begun to go back to the basics in order to leave this lack of writing behind: journal writing, reading non-fiction, and day dreaming in the worlds I’ve created.
So, I am alive, I am writing (albeit not as much as I want to), and I have a bunch of half-finished posts I will flesh out over the next couple of weeks so there is more activity here. I’ll also talk a little more about manuscript 8 (this was manuscript 7) and the new manuscript 7.
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