Are we artists or "content providers?

Weeky letter #31, on Monday stress, digital productivity, and being a "content provider".

Hi there. 🖤 How’s your week been?

Mine has been comfortably productive. Well, mostly. I accidentally dropped into my old habits on Monday and essentially did everything wrong: skipped morning meditation and went straight to my screen, had coffee but no breakfast, worked at a frenetic pace for no reason at all, ate potato chips and cookies for lunch, didn’t take breaks and felt like a miserable wreck. It was almost comedic. 🙈 At least I bettered myself throughout the rest of the week.

I have absolutely no reason to stress out over my work, and yet I manufacture that stress for myself, out of habit, without realizing it. Isn’t that weird?

A snapshot from the studio.

Apart from recording the narration for my latest writing, I’ve mostly been working on my next course this week. Right now, that means outlining the lessons and exercises, planning the shots I need to film, and writing the scripts for everything. I moved my planning document from my writing program (iAWriter), where it was getting too long and unmanageable, to Notion instead. I’ve had an on/off relationship with Notion for a few years. I’ve been loving the planning capabilities of the app, but I haven’t really enjoyed writing in it.

However, planning something as complex as a course, a simple text document just isn’t enough. Notion to the rescue. And I gotta say, it’s growing on me…

My workspace for the course in Notion. Spoiler alert!

Notion is a free software that lets you create documents of different kinds, and organize them in databases, create custom dashboards and overviews, et.c. It feels a lot like building your own custom to-do list/calendar/project management/note-taking app. A lot of people use Notion as their “second brain”. I already have a second brain: the app Things, for Mac and iOS, without which I would have gone mad a long time ago. But Things isn’t optimal for handling large quantities of text.

The great thing about Notion is how flexible and customizeable it is. It can be as simple or as elaborate as you want. Here I’ve just made a page for the course and created sections for brainstorming the title, the content, and the shot list for filming. Each item on the Content-list links to a document, where I’ve written out the full script for that lesson. And I’ve created a spreadsheet for keeping track of everything I need to script and film.

This is the kind of planning that keeps me sane and productive. Without breaking down a project into manageable chunks and organizing it visually like this, I simply wouldn’t know where to start. Plus, I’m one of those people who take perverse pleasure in creating lists and databases and dashboards and detailed plans…

I’m curious: how do you organize your life, and your work? Do you use some analog system, like a paper calendar or a Bullet Journal? Or do you use apps?

By the way, I’m happy to see so many of you in the chat. One always has that fear of “what if no one shows up?” 😂 Thank you for introducing yourself! I want you to know that I read everything you write, but I’m notoriously bad at group chats, private messages, email, and the like. I will try, but I simply don’t have the time to reply to everyone, or join in the discussion too much. My primary reason for starting the chat is for you to have a space to connect with each other.

At the time, I’m the only one who can start new chat threads. Maybe that will change in the future. That’s for Substack to decide. But I will do my best to start threads regularly. And within those threads, feel free to take the discussion in any direction you want. 😊

On a more personal note: We have a new board game! “Spirit Island” is a game we’ve heard so many people rave about.

You play as nature spirits on an island that’s being colonized (and polluted) by humans, and you collaborate to drive them away by causing floods and earthquakes and those kinds of things. What a great way to act out your climate anxiety in a safe and enjoyable way. I’m so excited! We bought it for our birthdays, and tonight we’re finally sitting down with it.

Now I’m off to wind down on my yoga mat for a while. I hope you’ll have a relaxing Friday, and will enjoy your weekend. We’ll talk again next week.

With love,

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New:

Advice column: How do I market my art without social media?

Advice column: How do I market my art without social media?

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Arleesha Yetzer is one of the reasons I dared to take the leap and focus on art full-time, start my YouTube channel, and create courses on Skillshare. With her soft-spoken voice and camera-shy face, she inspired me to be myself in my videos as well. And her videos about how she makes money as an artist and “content creator” made me feel like this career was possible for me too. I’m so immensly grateful for her.

She hasn’t been very active on YouTube for a while now, so I was thrilled when she published this video yesterday, talking honestly about how it’s all going, and feeling. I relate so much. And I agree with her sentiment. We’re all trying to carve out a livable existence as artists and creators in an increasingly precarious economy. We are not rivals competing for the same eyeballs and ad-money. We are colleagues, and we need to have each other’s backs.

“Slaves of the Internet, Unite!”, by Tim Kreider:

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/27/opinion/sunday/slaves-of-the-internet-unite.html

I want to marry this essay and have its babies. Here are my favorite, mic drop moments:

“The first time I ever heard the word ‘content’ used in its current context, I understood that all my artist friends and I — henceforth, “content providers” — were essentially extinct. This contemptuous coinage is predicated on the assumption that it’s the delivery system that matters, relegating what used to be called “art” — writing, music, film, photography, illustration — to the status of filler, stuff to stick between banner ads.”

“I spent 20 years and wrote thousands of pages learning the trivial craft of putting sentences together. My parents blew tens of thousands of 1980s dollars on tuition at a prestigious institution to train me for this job. They also put my sister the pulmonologist through medical school, and as far as I know nobody ever asks her to perform a quick lobectomy — doesn’t have to be anything fancy, maybe just in her spare time, whatever she can do would be great — because it’ll help get her name out there.”

“As an older, more accomplished, equally unsuccessful artist, I beseech you, don’t give it away. As a matter of principle. Do it for your colleagues, your fellow artists, because if we all consistently say no they might, eventually, take the hint. It shouldn’t be professionally or socially acceptable — it isn’t right — for people to tell us, over and over, that our vocation is worthless.”

Don’t we all feel a little bit like slaves of the internet sometimes? Even if we work for ourselves. Even if we get to do what we love. Even if we could stop at anytime and do something else.

We’re not artists anymore, we’re “content providers”. And we are being held hostage by way-too-powerful corporations that just want to suck all of the value out of us and give as little back as possible. Phew. I need to go paint for a while, to regain my sanity. 😂

My evening reading is The Clan of the Cave Bear, a book I read in highschool and was very inspired by. I remember wearing pre-historic inspired jewellery, meditating on my spirit animal, and buying a tent thinking I would teach myself to live in the woods. And I named my electric guitar Ayla, after the main character of the story.

Reading this book now, in its original language, and with more knowledge and experience as a writer, its flaws are obvious. It reads almost like a first draft, with lots of clichés, repetitions, and “telling” instead of “showing”. But I’m still loving it. Some stories just have that forward motion and intrigue that keeps you hooked, even though it’s not very well-written. I would argue those qualities are way more important to me than beautiful language, however much I enjoy that as well.

And there’s something therapeutic about reading a book about pre-historic humans by their campfires, drinking herbal tea, telling hunting stories, and weaving baskets. The opposite of my coffee-fueled, screen-centric lifestyle.

I’m listening a lot to a particular playlist of mine right now. I first named it “Spelgos”, in Swedish, because it’s cosy, calm versions of video game music. Now, I changed the name and made it public for you. Lullibies to paint, draw, write, meditate, or fall asleep to.

Gentle Love is the name of the band, and I recommend checking their whole discography out.