Look, let’s be honest here (because why the hell not, right?)
When your client work dries up like a slug on hot concrete. Poof, gone, kaput… Adios income stream.
You have choices. Terrible, wonderful, absolutely batshit choices.
And don’t get me wrong. This was my choice. Clients were amazing, but hey. I gotta stand on my own two feet.
There’s a few things you could do:
You could panic (which is boring)
Update your portfolio (responsible but It’s also hard when a lot of the work is wrapped in stupid NDA’s – The life of an ex-ghostwriter)
Finally clean that thing growing in your fridge (it has gained sentience and is now demanding voting rights)
OR… do something spectacularly ill-advised yet creatively nourishing. Which is something I’m very good at…
Guess which one I chose?
Obviously…
So what’s a creative to do when they haven’t got any client work to do for the rest of the year? Well. I’ll tell you what. They take on a project that a buddy has mentioned would be a good idea, especially cause “You’re pretty damn good at the words” thing.
So I’ve bought some video editing software, started researching ideas and concepts and are going to start a faceless YouTube channel because that’s obviously what sane people do when they need to keep busy.
No baking Sourdough bread or writing the next great novel. They make videos, duh.
Let me be crystal-fucking-clear though.
I know NOTHING about video editing. Okay maybe a little but my expertise with video begins and ends with “I occasionally watch it” and “I once filmed my cat doing something weird but the lighting was so bad you couldn’t tell if it was a cat or a sentient dust bunny having an existential crisis.”
Does this stop me? Nope.
Cause creative work is not about what you know, it’s about what you’re willing to learn while publicly embarrassing yourself.
It’s about diving face-first into the festering compost heap of possibility and coming up with either (a) worms in your teeth or (b) the seeds of something magnificent. Sometimes both.
Why was it suggested? Well because it’s great practice for all the psychology and direct response principles AND it’s great to see people going back to the older days of Youtube videos, with simple production and just great content.
Like the early years of blogging, except now it’s just visual…
Remember those days? When content wasn’t algorithmically optimised within an inch of its life? When people just… made things?
Things that were weird and genuine and maybe technically flawed but alive with unprocessed humanity?
That’s the sweet spot I’m aiming for. That raw, unfiltered creative juice that tastes like someone’s actual thoughts instead of corporate approved flavour crystals.
The plan. If you can call this janky collection of half-baked impulses a “plan” is threefold:
Learn enough video editing to be dangerous (but not enough to be good. Good comes later, after the mandatory period of creating absolute horseshit)
Create content that scratches my particular brain-itch while maybe, maybe, helping other creatives who are similarly adrift in the chum filled waters of unemployment.
Stay anonymous because I don’t need the pressure and I also don’t want the fame.
I mean who really wants this? Not this meat sack of anxiety and caffeine, that’s for damn sure.
I bought the software yesterday. It stared back at me from my screen like a predator sizing up prey. I stared back. We’re at an impasse.
Tomorrow, one of us will break. (Spoiler: it will be me, sobbing into my keyboard at 3 AM, watching tutorial videos made by 12-year-olds who somehow already know more than I ever will.)
Is this a terrible idea? Yes.
Is it better than the slow death of creative stagnation? Absolutely.
Will I regret telling you about it when I inevitably produce nothing but the digital equivalent of a dumpster fire? Check back in two weeks or whatever.
If you’ve made it this far into my descent into madness. Thank you.
Either way, You’re in this now and you’re coming along for the ride.
Your friend who clearly needs supervision and possibly therapy…
Stephen Walker
P.S. Send coffee. Or whiskey. Or both, mixed together in proportions that would alarm medical professionals.
P.P.S. If you have any video editing tips that don’t involve “natural talent” or “years of practice,” I’m all ears. Preferably tips that can be implemented while panicking and questioning all life choices simultaneously.
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Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom