https://www.danerickson.net/page/4/
I just got back from walking my dog. I said, “Okay, Shep it’s time for me to write because that’s what I do.” Yes, I talk to my dog. So what? It’s not the fact that I talk to my dog that worries me. It’s what I said. Often, what I once called productivity, just feels like spinning my wheels.
Back when I was writing five to ten times as much as I write today, I was proud to be productive. It’s what the blogging experts and the world were expecting of me, and dammit, I was delivering. But even back then I had this feeling that I was just doing the same shit over and over.
As writers, and especially as bloggers, we choose genres and topics to write about. Over at my five-year minimalist experimental blog, Hip Diggs, the topic was simple living. But the blog also had occasional posts about meditation, productivity, writing, and a bunch of other crap. Why? Because I needed some variety as a writer to keep me sane, to keep me from just spinning my wheels.
And that’s one of my big problems with blogging. It quickly begins to feel like you’re just spinning your wheels, especially if you’re blog isn’t making money. Fact: 91% of blogs don’t make money. And the ones that do, don’t have a secret formula. They work their asses off. It’s a full-time job.
When I was keeping both Hip Diggs and this blog updated three to five times a week, I was writing 3000-5000 words every few days. I even had some 10,000 word days. But even then, as now, it often felt like a practice in futility. How many ways can you say the same thing? Much of blogging is just regurgitation.
I think we’ve all felt like we’re just spinning our wheels at one point or another in life. I once wrote a Christian song called, “Going Through the Motions,” about how we tend to just rinse and repeat, even when it comes to our faith.
But let’s get back to the question at hand: Is it still productivity if you’re just spinning your wheels? In a strict sense of the word productivity, I’d have to say yes. If you’re creating shit and publishing work on a regular basis, then yes, you’re being productive. I don’t even think what you’re creating has to be of any quality. It’s still productivity.
I’d like to think my writing isn’t too shabby. I might not be Bill Shakespeare or Steven King, but I can write. I’d like to think I’m improving, too. After all, I quit writing about the same shit over and over so that I could attempt to get a little more personal and go a little deeper. So yes, I’m being productive as a writer. But it still often feels like I’m just spinning my wheels.
It’s like I told Shep, “Okay Shep, it’s time for me to write because that’s what I do.” Still, I push on. You see, sometimes the spinning wheels are the practice we need to win the race in the end.
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