small

the problem

A couple of years ago I reflected on my myriad creative projects throughout my life. Almost entirely failures. For all the things I'd poured my time and energy into, very few of them ever saw the light of day, and even fewer through to completion.

It was grim, but the few survivors shone the light of wisdom upon my body of attempted work. Minicomic (as zines) had been my most succesful projects, by all metrics. The most important metric, in this case, is that of completion.

If I don't finish something I can't reveiw it, I can't show anyone, and it continues either sapping my energy or retiring to the graveyard of enthusiasm and encouragement.

I lose energy, I lose focus and I lose excitement.

the solution

In January 2022 I treated myself to a personal creative residency in Hobart: The Louis Graham Heart of Bart residency.

In my review of the residency I set a goal for the year ahead:

I want to do more small projects, quantity over quality. Critical mass. yada yada yada.
Also, small projects can be polished easier and quicker. AND I learn so much more, and quicker with small projects! What good is a big project? Who does it help?? Small projects are the goal.

Maybe I name the year? Give it a theme.
2022: Make it smaller.
2022: Small

I'm not the first person to think this:

For the great doesn’t happen through impulse alone, and is a succession of little things that are brought together. - Vincent Van Gogh

I always suggest this when people say "I want to do this, I want to do that. I want to write this, I want to write songs, write movies and dadada ... It was too many moving parts." You have to start with insanely short things. And you learn about the process because you get to everything. Learning, instant learning. And then you gradually increase the length from there. - paraphrased from Bill Wurtz

thinking is not enough

Thinking it is not enough though. I have had middling success with keeping things small, and have still had a few projects that have spiraled out of control. Timothy Morton writes about Hyper-Objects, "objects so massively distributed in time and space as to transcend localization". My own limit for projects becoming personal-hyper-objects is extremely low.

(Translated with google translate) The constraint is the statement of a riddle; the text is an answer, or rather one of the answers, because in general there are several possible ones. An Oulipian constraint must be able to serve others, which implies requirements for clarity of the statement (formalization). Constraint is altruistic. - Jacques Jouet

I want to introduce formalised constraints to my projects, and as I pick up any idea or set about initiating any task I want to run it first through the small project wringer:

the small project wringer

• Halve the size
• Remove superfluous complexity. Could be:
  • Characters
  • Plot points
  • Details
  • Scenes
  • Features
• Can only contain one new skill to learn
• Figure out what shortcuts I can take
• Remove things that don't feel essential

Do this three times.

Is that too much?

Things are always bigger than you think, and always have hidden complexities. You'll never regret reducing the scope earlier on. The smaller it is, the quicker it's finished.

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