What Videos Should I Make?

I’ve mentioned before that the videos I most enjoy creating are those heavily scripted ones, those laden paragraphs of parles and puns which I pour out before you, and in some way or other exhibit writings which I have wrought. I’ve twisted language to its creaking breaking-points and in a warped cross between essay and poetry, I argue myself into spoken word.

And there’s a lot of things I want to write. The quickest of peeks at but a handful of recent writs will acquaint you with an essay on evil and it’s mythification, as illustrated by the last Star Wars movie, a rousing treatise aimed at bolstering those discouraged by the book industry and its big-ness, and a very off-the-wall attempt to consider grief through stories on flowers.

All of these scripts, are things that will take time though.

The way I view my videos is that the topics aren’t really the important parts. I’m very happy to, on the surface, be talking about Star Wars villains or bunched bouquets of begonias bequeathed unto me in a sainsbury’s car park, as long as those diaphanous subjects are springboards for artfully constructing card-houses of glorious words. I have always said I am happy to make videos about any old rubbish, as long as I’d talking about such rubbish in interesting ways.

And there’s no way to avoid this taking time. If I was to be a daily uploader these simply couldn’t be the kind of videos I made. Or at least not exclusively. They take more than 8 hours to make, it’s as simple as that. And some days ideas just don’t come. I can sit at my laptop, desperately scratching out letter after painful letter, and it just doesn’t work, it doesn’t flow, it doesn’t beat the right rhythm. I push wrists against table, uncurl the hunch of my back and blink at my screen from a relative distance and realise all I have created today is disaster.

But a part of me has always wondered at whether this should be the only stuff I create.

What if I made some more popular videos, or more videos in general? Would I not have the time to work on the important videos? Would I be burying the content I actually like? Would I annoy subscribers who have come to expect one things of me and suddenly get another?

Or would I double my audience, for lyrical videos as well as those more run of the mill? Would I find renewed vigour to create videos across the spectrum in splitting time across different projects? Would I learn to be less of a ridiculous perfectionist (literally delaying uploads for months because I can’t decide if this frame should be included or not, or if I the absolute right word to finish a many ‘s’-ed sentence is ‘sickly’ or ‘saccharine’?) I have looked over at vlog every day months and I wonder whether I could do them, and what would be the product of them.

Maybe now is a good excuse to?

There are less intensive videos I have toyed with the ideas of. More traditional bookish content. Quick response videos to what others are producing. I’ve always felt guilty that many years ago I promised bookshelf tours that never came to fruition. I’ve also always been tempted to play at being an audiobook narrator, and simply take an out of copyright book and read it to you.

So hello audience, how are you doing out there? What are you interested in seeing? Would you prefer less content and staying in my lane? Or would you be interested in at least a short period of vlog every day-ish fare?

As I scroll through the never ending list of half-started scripts, I feel like something that put pressure on me to upload more, even not 100% perfect things, might not be a terrible idea. Because a few mistakes, a few sentences that could be that bit more musical, are nothing if the alternative is never getting it out them out there at all.

While you’re here, I’m still vaguely trying to push my channel over the arbitrary watch-time mark before that dreaded date in February where YouTube pounces upon it’s small-time partners. If you fancy sharing my channel with friends I’ve made a playlist of my favourite videos, they might be different to those which you like but just in case I’ll link it below. It involves lots of stress and Oxford and bemoaning of literary canons, enjoy! I’ve also now created a Patreon. If you want to give anything towards channel upkeep I would be amazingly grateful. I’m going to have a think about something special I can create specifically for viewers there.

Anyway, let me know what you’d like to see from me here in the comments and we’ll have a chat. Otherwise I will see you in my next video. Bye guys.