Monday, August 26, 2013

Milemarker Quandary

Conall McCabe, Second Quandary

This blog's three-year anniversary is coming up. Cool. That's a fine time to admit to a crisis of purpose.

I originally started Beyond Easy because I'd been writing about virtually nothing about video games for however many years and I wanted to write about something -- ANYTHING -- else. (This change of attitude was most likely spurred by the accumulated fallout of the Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIII experiences.) At the time, writing miniature essays about whatever I happened to be interested in during a given week was positively liberating. But the price of freedom is the danger of aimlessness, and I fear this blog is becoming less interesting because of its lack of focus. I'll admit that it often feels like an obligation -- a prompt like WRITE ABOUT SOMETHING, ANYTHING doesn't exactly put the lead in my pencil.

So where can I go from here?

Specialization? Question: on what subjects can I claim myself an authority, or claim to offer a unique and relevant perspective?

Oh, god. That's a line of self-examination that will lead me to the fabled quarter-life crisis. I'm not sure "blogger as columnist" is an act I can pull off.

Current events? I am increasingly fatigued by the Twitter/Tumblr engine of outraged punditry. Besides: other people already have it covered, and they do it better and enjoy it more than me.

Vanity pieces? In other words, move toward treating Beyond Easy more like a journal (of the "Live" variety) than a topical blog. Sadly, this is what I think I've been closest to lately. I'm still not at the point where I'm posting elaborated Facebook updates about what I did over the weekend and what products I'm consuming, but I fear we're still on the arbitrary chatter side of "freeform." This probably isn't a direction to go any further in.

Mothballs? All things being equal, the kind of writing I enjoy most lately is fiction. Lately I'm wondering if it mightn't make me happier to focus exclusively on that, regardless of where it appears or who might end up reading it. I'd certainly perform more efficiently on this front if I didn't have to pull myself away once a week or so to jury rig a blog post. Putting Beyond Easy on hiatus is always an option.

But I'd also prefer not to work in a complete vacuum (which is more or less the experience of writing fiction unless you're dealt an excellent hand) if it can be avoided. At the very least, maintaining a blog keeps a communication channel open. 

Comics? There's a thought. Stick to writing fiction. Instead of blogging, take breaks from prose by drawing comic strips. There's more Sisyphus strips I'd like to do. I have ideas for another 8EB mini-arc, and cubeblockhead comics are always fun to draw. Unlike blogging, drawing comics tends not to tap into the same well as writing fiction, and it would give me something I can easily share with friends and my adoring public. (Pause for prolonged drag on cigarette followed by barely audible sigh.)

So I'm open to suggestion. And I hope you'll help me out.

If you're reading this, I'm curious to know: what am I doing (or what have I done in the past) that works? If you read this thing from time to time, what kinds of posts do you enjoy reading? Which ones do you skim and skip over? Would it be better if I updated more often with shorter pieces, or irregularly posted longer pieces? Should I just chuck it all and do more comics? Should I just say nuts to all this and go off-radar altogether for a while?

14 comments:

  1. Throw 'em all at the wall and see what sticks.

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    1. Sensible. Empirical. But much less efficient than just having somebody tell me what I should be doing.

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  2. Ah, your Final Fantasy XI experiences are one of those articles I can read again and again...it fills up my schadenfreude commitment nicely...

    Out of those ideas listed, I would likely enjoy reading more comics. You did a comic on the legitimization of fanfiction a good long while ago that I STILL bring out now and again when the plebs are setting my teeth on edge. Though Specialization could be interesting as well, depending on the topics chosen though at least for me, specializing can become a cruel, demanding mistress. I can attest to this the last few days whenever I'm reading in bed and see From Hell staring at me like a great big monolith, wondering just when the hell I'm going to put down the pleasure reading and get to work.

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    1. Still not sure if I'm enough of a specialist in anything for a theme blog, so it's sort of moot. But if folks would prefer more comics and fewer wordpiles, I can see myself being happy to oblige.

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  3. Just write whatever you feel is worth writing, whenever you do. I closed my blog because I found Tumblr easier to manage, and now I just post reviews of whatever book or movie I've finished or random thoughts when something is on my mind so much I feel compelled to get it out of my head. I don't feel I have to post every so often to make it worthwhile.

    Writing about personal experiences or where your life is at the moment may be worthwhile in an 'unexamined life is not worth living' kind of way, but it's possible to wallow in too much self-reflection so that it becomes navel-gazing.

    As for comics, doing smaller projects with a clearer endpoint can help break up the monotony of working on a longer project. It's something I've been trying to do the past couple months, get a couple really short and to the point stories out just for the feeling of accomplishment and to reinforce that it's possible to finish something.

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    1. Still sorta considering getting a Tumblr. I just wish its layout were friendlier to my comics' usual dimensions.

      Another compelling reason to do more comic strips. Noted!

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  4. I've always been a fan of the comics, and you've consistently managed to work in a message without sacrificing entertainment, so I'd be partial to seeing those again.

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  5. Hmmm... My favourite part of your blog is the NPM stuff you do every year. Other than that, if you enjoy writing fiction more, write more fiction. If you ever get the urge to share something about astronomy or even talk a little about your personal life, go ahead.

    (And I read the thing you sent me. I'm waiting till I get enough time to actually write something meaningful about it. Sorry for being a little slow!)

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    1. A vote for updating less out of a sense of compulsion than desire. Sounds good to me right now. Check.

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  6. Comics. I've said it before and I'll say it again: In the Author you find an outlet for voicing your thoughts in a way that is incredible entertaining and that somehow blends perfectly with the the 8-bit pixel art. I never buy comics prints but I'd buy the one on dumpster-diving or the one about Leo Tolstoi vs new media in a heartbeat. They are some of my favourite pieces of the entire medium of comics.

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    1. Another vote for comics. Do we have a winner...?

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