Worth a Thousand Words?
As a writer, I’ve always believed that words are worth a thousands words, not pictures. Sure, a picture can convey a lot, but it’s the words around it that really tell the story. I would never have called myself a visual person, unless looking at words counts.
I’m collaborating with Botgirl Questi on an SL parody song and video. We’ve been batting around lyrics for a week. But neither of us seems really inspired by the lyrics. Botgirl, however, has been inspired by the video. She’s already produced three trailers for a song we’ve not even written! (you can see them at her blog.)
And in that week, I’ve taken hundreds of pictures in Second Life. (you can see some of them at my flickr.) I’ve barely written a thing. In fact, my last significantly wordy post here was titled Words Words Words, and topic was all about how words matter.
But right now, words aren’t coming. Maybe someday I’ll learn to balance a strong visual idea, like the ones I’ve been creating with pictures, with the right words. There are plenty of bloggers who do both. For now, I seem to be stuck in the images in my head, instead of the prose.
And that’s new.
I’m certain the words will come back. I just hope the visuals stay, as well.
I feel your pain. One reason I keep bouncing off of the songwriting task and falling into quickie video mode is that I’ve had a very full offline plate over the last couple of weeks. So by the time I get to working on something SL related, my creative juices and mental energy are about depleted for the day. It takes a lot more brain damage for me to write a funny song or a 500 word blog post than it does to whip together a short template-driven video.
It’s interesting that despite your writer’s block, you still seem to be cranking out a steady stream of great tweets. All praise to The Goddess Twitter!
Botgirl, you’re one of those people who incorporates great visuals with great words. I admire that about your work. And YES- putting together a photo, even if I intend it to tell a story, is far less taxing than writing a Deep Thoughts blog post.
Which brings me to Twitter. Thank you, Twitter, for saving me. My tweets are just BAM! written. They are, quite literally, documenting what I hear around me or what flits through my head. Those are easy, because I don’t have to analyze them and wrap them up all nice and neat like a blog post. Twitter lives in my pocket, while my blog is a sit down kinda thing.
Anyhow- I still want to do this goddamn song. No, really!
But how come I didn’t get to be the jiggly girl in the video? Did you SEE my tits in those last pics? I mean, COME ON. Those girls can bring it!
Yeah, Majic Questi (the avatar in the video) had the easy part. If we end up shooting a “real” video of the song, your bodacious boobs will need to be supported (pun intended) by a lot more hands-on (groan) effort. Like actors hitting the mark at the right time while the videographer nails the camera move. Actually, it might be fun to just go for a sitcom style video short instead of the song. I’m about three years overdue for part two of Avatars in Love.
http://vimeo.com/1071612 You could play the lead female role and fourworlds can reprise as the nube.
Remind me exactly where the rule book is on blogging? If images are what you have for now then go with it.