Are You A Creator or A Consumer?
In Stephen King's Misery, the protagonist Paul Sheldon is an author who is held as hostage by his fan Annie Wilkes - till he concludes a plot from her favorite Misery book series(written by Paul)- in a way she likes. That's George Martin's nightmare I guess. But the reason I am talking about this book is because of few lines - which made me put my book down and think hard for quite a while about myself.
When Paul tries to explain Annie the importance of concordance - which basically has indices and cross references of characters of a plot, Annie shows no interest. Paul thinks -
"This was the second time she'd shown not the slightest interest in a trick of the trade that would have held a class of would-be writers spellbound. The reason, he thought, was simplicity itself. Annie Wilkes was the perfect audience, a woman who loved stories without having the slightest interest in the mechanics of making them. She was the embodiment of that Victorian archetype, Constant Reader. She did not want to hear about his concordance and indices because to her Misery and the characters surrounding her were perfectly real. Indices meant nothing to her. If he had spoken of a village census in Little Dunthorpe, she might have shown some interest."
Annie is your perfect serial consumer.
We are all consumers. Any point of time, we are consuming something - some intentionally and some unintentionally. The world is subtly trying to get you interested in their products/services by using smart ads. You are consuming music, movies, TV series, sports, books, news etc.
Consuming is important when we can act on it or use it somehow or even if it provides a break to you after a long day of work. But the problem occurs when we end up consuming way too much and just consume for the sake of consuming. A kind of passivity ensues and it becomes part of our lives. We keep looking for new ways to numb our lives - a new TV series or a new book - to kill time, to get our mind distracted from the reality of our own lives.
We must consume to get new ideas - but the consumer to creator ratio could be less or at least equal parts.
If you love -
Start small. Don't bother about perfection. Keep churning out work and keep learning how you can improve.
Take Action.
Happy Creating :)
When Paul tries to explain Annie the importance of concordance - which basically has indices and cross references of characters of a plot, Annie shows no interest. Paul thinks -
"This was the second time she'd shown not the slightest interest in a trick of the trade that would have held a class of would-be writers spellbound. The reason, he thought, was simplicity itself. Annie Wilkes was the perfect audience, a woman who loved stories without having the slightest interest in the mechanics of making them. She was the embodiment of that Victorian archetype, Constant Reader. She did not want to hear about his concordance and indices because to her Misery and the characters surrounding her were perfectly real. Indices meant nothing to her. If he had spoken of a village census in Little Dunthorpe, she might have shown some interest."
Annie is your perfect serial consumer.
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| Create |
We are all consumers. Any point of time, we are consuming something - some intentionally and some unintentionally. The world is subtly trying to get you interested in their products/services by using smart ads. You are consuming music, movies, TV series, sports, books, news etc.
Consuming is important when we can act on it or use it somehow or even if it provides a break to you after a long day of work. But the problem occurs when we end up consuming way too much and just consume for the sake of consuming. A kind of passivity ensues and it becomes part of our lives. We keep looking for new ways to numb our lives - a new TV series or a new book - to kill time, to get our mind distracted from the reality of our own lives.
We must consume to get new ideas - but the consumer to creator ratio could be less or at least equal parts.
If you love -
- reading, write a few lines today.
- movies, try your hand at short films.
- technology, code an app - even a silly one.
- fashion, start revamping your own old clothes.
- photography, grab your camera and shoot something.
- sketching, then grab your pencils!
Start small. Don't bother about perfection. Keep churning out work and keep learning how you can improve.
Take Action.
Happy Creating :)
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