I’ve realised that many of you who’ve been here since the beginning signed up to follow ConnectCurateCreate’s progress, and not necessarily my creative journey and the good habits I’m picking up along the way. Thanks for sticking with me.
While I do discuss bits and pieces of the ConnectCurateCreate journey here from time to time, this blog is now focused on what I’m learning and how that’ll inform my next book — basically, I’m writing my next book right here, and you get to read insights into it long before anyone else (paid subscribers get the juicy stuff; free subs get what Substack calls ‘teasers’).
Anyway, over at ConnectCurateCreate, we’ve lots of exciting things happening, including artist meetups, more podcasts, new video projects, and a new newsletter (a proper one) to keep the CCC community up to date on what’s happening and how they/you can get involved.
So, if you’re not already part of the CCC conversation but want to be, and if you don’t want to miss out on our creative explorations over there, click this button to head on over to our website and sign up to stay up to date and get involved:
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In this week’s post:
One lesson from 2024 (available to all subscribers)
This week’s adventures (available to paid subs)
A creative habit I’ll be taking into 2025 (for you readers who keep on reading to the end of the post)
One lesson from 2024
When I wrote this post back in August, I was considering all the creative things I wasn’t doing and how I might rediscover them by getting better set up to create and I was formulating an action plan. Well…
None of that worked! At least, not for my photography. It’s just shy of 3 months since I wrote that, and I’ve done nothing with my photos and videos from my Japan trip, no zine making, nor any work on my studio set up. I can’t even remember the last time I shot a roll of film on one of my cameras.
However, in those 11 weeks or so since I pondered this dilemma, I’ve recorded, filmed, edited and published 10 more podcast episodes (mostly video episodes), started a YouTube channel and uploaded the full podcast back catalogue, made Shorts and Reels to ease you into all that content, and I’ve gotten my head around DaVinci Resolve, Canva and so much more.
Back in August, I didn’t have a clue how to do basic videography tasks like light a scene, work with sound, or colour grade video. Now, I’m far from mastering any of these, but I reckon I can call myself a novice videographer.
So, while my other creative pursuits have suffered, I’ve expanded my repertoire, I’m following it down new and exciting avenues, and I’m opening myself up to fresh possibilities.
Doing so is time demanding, but it’s fun too. For the first few episodes of season three, I was bumbling my way through video recording, lighting and trying new (to me) ways to record audio. Each interview set up would take me longer, every edit would throw up new challenges. Some episodes have taken me twice as long to produce than previous audio-only ones! But I made time, and now I’m reaping the rewards.
I actually feel more creative than ever, and more capable. The more I stick at this the more I learn. I’m certain my workflows will improve and I’ll claim back time for other creative pursuits, building that set up, and other fun things in life.
My first reflection is simple: back in August, at the end of winter, I was looking at a glass half empty. Today, as summer arrives and ConnectCurateCreate is taking off thanks to all of that work I’ve been putting in, I’m looking at a glass half full.
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