8 Clicks from Nowhere Productions

Category: Learnings

  • Morning Vibes

    The ritual of the commute may not spark other folks like it sparked me, but having become a guy who largely works from home—be that on my own projects or on contract work—I have started to understand not just the value, but the need to have a morning groove.

    (As an aside, it hasn’t helped my routine that I also gave up coffee a couple months ago—for health reasons.)

    Without ritual, without pattern, without routine I often find that my day struggles to really start. I’ll sit in a cozy chair in my pyjamas (really) and at some point look up and it will be nine-thirty, and though I’ve poked around on some files or done some pre-work, my day feels decidedly unstarted.

    On the other hand, if I plan to be out the door and sitting in a cafe by 8am with a hot drink in front of me and my laptop open to a word processor, then by nine-thirty I’ve often already written something, posted something, or at least made progress on a project of some sort.

    The difference is stark, and all that accounts for it is the routine of a morning plan.

  • Keyboard Reps

    Creativity is kind of a muscle. 

    I drove the kid to the community recreation centre this evening and, if only because I pulled a muscle in my back and need to rest it, I brought my computer instead of my own gym gear.

    Usually I come to this building to literally work out my body. I run on the track or do some cycling training on the bike, or do a few sets on the weight machines. I’m not claiming to be a gym nut of any kind, but I do a lot of thinking (and even writing) about the work it takes to keep your body—lungs, heart, muscles, and all of it—in shape.

    Tonight, I’m sitting here with my computer doing some writing.

    I just dropped another five hundred words into my work-in-progress novel.

    Now I’m writing this little ditty. 

    I’m working out my creativity tonight, doing reps on the keyboard, which is arguably an important part of keeping that kind-of but-not-really a muscle in shape.

    I won’t claim to be breaking much of a sweat, but it’s hard work and dedication just the same.

  • Slow Down Cowboy

    I spent nearly three hours this morning working on recording audio for my project and the end result of all that work is what probably amounts to only about three minutes of usable audio.

    Let me back up.

    I am working on a new novel, and a side-project part of that effort has me attempting to translate it from the written word stuck inside a word processor on my computer into an audiobook-style production with some bespoke tunes and sound effects.

    I have a solid microphone setup with a pre-amp, hardware digital recorder, digital synths, effects pedals and wires going in twelve different directions.

    But it turns out after all the work I did to write a story and set up a technology jungle to set my voice into sound waves in file on my hard drive, what I needed most was practice reading at a practiced pace suitable for storytelling.

    Who would have thought, huh?

    When I figured out how to read slowly, enunciating each word, the results were oh so much better.

  • Dabbling

    The risk when taking on any new project is that it might all too quickly become another notch on one’s chalkboard of failed projects. The risk of dabbling is that often, ultimately, boredom sets in and you find yourself moving on to something else new.

    If being a dabbler bothers you, how does one stop dabbling and start honing and refining—especially if one is inclined to be more of a dabbler than a deep diver?

    I admit, I am a bit of a shiny object guy when it comes to my hobbies. I see something new and interesting and yeah, admittedly I often do dive deeply into it for a while—that is, usually, until I’ve learned enough about said shiny object that learning about it becomes less interesting than it was at the beginning. And then often, said shiny object goes on the shelf, forgotten.

    Dabbling done… next.

    To fight through and beyond the honeymoon period for any new project my personal tactic has generally been to use goals or public accountability or external commitments. It’s neither complex nor especially obscure. Signing up for a language class for group accountability… or telling everyone you meet your running goal race… or planning a trip to sketch in another country. All are examples of great counter-dabbling tools.

    These sorts of external motivators create a kind of reward system to overcome the raw dopamine drop when the innate rewards of dabbling fade. 

    Or… just don’t do any of that. Dabbling in countless interesting hobbies to sample what life has to offer, well, that’s fine, too.

  • Wet Sounds

    Recent forays into musical experimentation with various electronic devices has taught me a new concept: wet and dry sounds.

    As I understand it, and simply, dry sounds are raw, clean and unprocessed audio coming directly from an instrument while wet sounds are sounds that have been enhanced with reverbs, echos, delays and other effects. The latter is usually achieved by the use of pedals or pass-through devices that are controlled by a musician for deliberately altering, distorting and otherwise enhancing the source audio.

    I bought a little low-budget synthesizer about a year ago and have had some enormous creative fun learning to first play it and more recently how to make music with the device.  But dipping into a world of music that I had little previous experience—at least as a creator—meant that I often found I was edging up against creative barriers that I didn’t know how to understand or articulate.

    Case in point: wet versus dry sounds.

    My synth is dry. And I have since ordered a pass-through device, a pedal, that allows me to add some of those wet features that I have been missing.

    My point: sometimes creating with what we know and what we have until such time as we reach a point when we notice the gaps is the best way to discover new concepts.