Yet another way the internet has messed with my head has been how it shows me lots of people (some of whom I even know in person) who are doing exciting things. Going to Italy, surfing, painting alone for a week in the desert, drinking something ombre with a straw, getting on a plane, getting on a boat, walking a red carpet.1 What the internet doesn’t usually show me are the small tidy routines that had to happen hundreds or thousands of times before those exciting things occurred. Those small routines are the parts I’m most interested in, really. I’ve always been obsessed with process. I want to know how: how did you make this painting? How did you write this book? How did you learn to do a headstand? What were your steps, your routines, your daily and weekly habits? The process of it all is fascinating to me.
My current boring process is blocking out deep work sessions and typing up my handwritten notes and chapters for at least an hour a day.
The book I talk about in this video is The Crossroads of Should and Must: Find and Follow Your Passion by Elle Luna.
Reminder that if you’re interested in my online class about how to revise a picture book, if you sign up by May 15, 2023, you’ll be entered for a chance to win one of two picture book critiques from me. So don’t delay etc. etc.2
I wrote this feeling up in picture book form in Rick the Rock of Room 214. It’s about a rock in a classroom who learns about outdoorsy, adventurous rocks, and feels like he’s boring and he should instead be exploding out of volcanos.
Or whatever! I’m just letting you know that I’m choosing two people to give a picture book critique to on May 15. I don’t want anyone to say, “I wish I knew!” Now you know.
On Being Boring