Consumption and Creativity

I’ve had Hank Green’s Tumblr song stuck in my head for a week. And if you don’t know what Tumblr is, or if you’ve encountered it but haven’t succumbed to slavish obsession, then here’s what the song explains: Tumblr provides amazing, hilarious, addictive content in such massive quantities that once you’re in, you will never escape. 

This can be said about much of the internet (or about the internet as a whole). But the beginning of the video really caught my ear:

(Spoken) Good morning, John. I wanted to make a really complicated video today, something that was just awesome and epic, but I just, I just don’t have time. And it’s not even because I’m busy, it’s just like,

(Sung) I’ve been way too busy to create / And I find it really hard to concentrate

That explains waaayyy too much about my life right now. Like my inability to update my blog consistently or to…leave the house. Ever. (Though it is August in Arizona and this week has been record-breakingly hot, so my lack of house-leaving is an act of self-preservation.)

Yes, I found this on Tumblr. Sigh.

I spend an inordinate amount of time trawling the internet for things that make me laugh. My friends like this. My novels do not. ’Cause if I spend six hours reading Epbot how-to posts or following the Avengers tag on Tumblr, then those become six hours when I can’t work on my novel or this blog or anything else productive. 

Consumption is lovely—and easy—but constantly consuming other people’s content makes it reeeaaally difficult for me to come up with my own awesome things to put out into the world. Maybe what my novel needs from me right now is a big dose of boredom. If I don’t allow myself to access entertainment made by others, I will necessarily have to entertain myself. Cut me off from narrative and I’ll have to create my own. 

Tomorrow, I’m going to give it a try. No television, no internet (except my e-mail, since my job sort of hinges on my ability to receive e-mail), no books even. Possibly an extreme reaction to my own consumptive behavior, sure, but I’m intrigued by extremes, and it’s just one day. Hopefully my boredom will lead to some type of creative productivity.

I might even leave the house.