Mar 18, 2018. Initial thoughts on some of the things needing to be researched regarding kidney transplants - Arthurian research has its own brainstorming page.
“One must still have chaos in oneself in order to give birth to the dancing star.”
I decided to share our Worthy Quest because my heart needed to raise awareness for kidney disease and organ donation, and because the modern world could probably use a resurgence of knightly ideals. Obviously I think these are all interesting topics which will result in interesting research, and if I find it interesting, probably someone else will too so I am sharing it for them. However, there are some challenging logistics that go with that decision: Creativity is pretty chaotic - I self-describe my style as "popcorn thinking" because once the heat turns on a bit, ideas pop out fast and furious in every direction. However, as a storyteller, my instinct is to try to make it a linear experience on the website to make it easier for a reader to follow along. But this process and project isn’t about simple and linear things: it’s digging into a lot of really big ideas and concepts and intense life experiences. How do I blog that effectively? Because I promised you a front row seat to my process, here are some of the decisions I made this week to embrace the chaos:
Decision 1: Do I edit interviews into shorter clips that suit social media preferences (time consuming editing process, more marketable = more viewers?) vs. leave them as is (immediately shareable, fuller picture of the interviewee’s experience)?
I think I am going to leave them mostly unedited - first and foremost, these interviews are to help me with playwriting and the little details that don’t make the “soundbite” edit can be some of the most intriguing. When I was adapting A Christmas Carol, I used an annotated version of the book and there were all sorts of little explanations that didn’t make it into the published story that I found really enchanting and quite illuminating to my understanding of the story. Short footnotes became major sources of inspiration in my approach so it’s useful to our process to leave room for all the little bits, even if most people won’t watch longer than 2-3 minutes. However, there will be content later on that will be more of a structured segment and those will hopefully have the benefit of professional videography and editings. Huzzah! First decision made.
“One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.”
Decision 2: Posting order?
They say you should write what you know, and in this case, I know my Dad and our family history (or at least part of it) so that’s my starting point. This trip down memory lane is not a straight road and is already taking me on several detours to Camp Dorset and the Canadian Transplant Games (FYI the Transplant Games are in Vancouver in July this year) vs. a logical starting point of “What is Kidney Disease” or even “The Legend of King Arthur”. Similarly, the way my brain processes information and forms ideas does not necessarily have a natural flow for other brains. I am already second-guessing “What will other people find interesting and read-worthy?”
Interesting, right?! While researching worthiness, I am questioning the worth and validity of my own process based on what I assume other people might like or expect. (I must tell you that I feel a little smug that I accidently just stumbled on that one - I know the theme of worthiness and how we qualify it is common in daily life, but so convenient that it just popped into my post before I had even really caught it or had to force it). That kind of thinking, though inevitable, will only slow us down so better nip that in the bud! I hope you enjoy reading and watching as we go and I encourage you to interact with the content and with us, but I am not going to worry about its worth to others quite yet.
Side note: I just realized there is only one letter difference between Worthy and Worry - do you think that means something? Inquiring minds want to know.
Back on track: In Summation, read what you want, watch as much as you want and hopefully by the end I will have pulled it all together into a logical, sequential script that makes sense to all brains, but until that point, logic and sequence is not the point.
Decision 3: Indecision
Illustration by Hugh MacLeod
Forget about posting order, now that we are officially started what should we DO first?! Get a meeting with the Kidney Foundation? Contact Trillium Gift of Life or start with the Canadian Transplant Association? Write to Medieval Times? Research experts on Arthurian myth? Learn guitar? Learn how to use my new camera mount? Do they call it a camera mount? What is my social media sharing strategy as I really hate when people post the exact same content to facebook, twitter and instagram but what goes where? Call Michael and Wendy to ask about an interview? No, I should email Chiamaka’s friend first - but I really should know more about kidney disease before I speak to most of these people, right? Hmmm...