Playing Catch Up

And searching for inspiration

Photo of young exhausted me from Bob’s albums.

As I’ve said more than once already, going into 18 Uncles, I knew it was going to be a difficult journey. Driving the gentle hills of North Dakota on a sunny November Sunday, I had a great chat with Uncle Wally, and he remarked on what a bold endeavor this truly is and what long winding path I have ahead of me. 

Of course, anything worth doing is going to be difficult. And that’s part of the excitement, rising to that challenge, working like crazy, seeing where it all goes, and hopefully reaching a higher ceiling than ever imagined.

But I must admit, I’ve fallen behind a bit. 

I take this project and the fact that people are paying their hard-earned dollars to read the work very very very seriously. And I want to create the best pieces possible, so they do take time. 

But between traveling for most of December, the holidays, a job, and an impromptu Milwaukee trip last weekend, I haven’t had enough quality time at the keyboard. I have no excuse, and with proper foresight and planning, I can and should be able to put out one high-quality story every week. But each piece takes dozens of dedicated hours spending time with uncles to get those nuggets of information that show who they truly are, speaking to those who love them, putting together an outline, the first, second, and third draft edits, and communicating with aunts and uncles to ensure all details are correct and approved before I hit “publish.” 

Also, I’m extremely proud of the work I’ve done up to this point, and out of respect for the next-next-and-next uncles, I want the future pieces to be of the same quality or better. I do not want to rush out a half-a** profile just to say I’ve met my weekend deadline. I’d much rather take a step back and give the work the time it deserves.

So that’s what I’m doing, taking a beat to get organized. Everyone knows how quickly time passes, and without proper management, a week can blow by in a flash. For that reason, I’ve bought a huge wall calendar to better map out the coming months. I’ve got five uncle blogs in the books and thirteen to go.

Of course, there’s going to be a lot more than just thirteen uncle profiles—and maybe some Uncle Round 2s. I’m currently working on a few other pieces, but mostly searching for inspiration.

Creatively, I feel like I’ve gotten a bit too formulaic and am looking to break the cycle and do something completely different. I’ve been listening to Rick Rubin’s book, The Creative Act, and it’s full of wisdom. 

“All art is a work in progress. It’s helpful to see the piece we’re working on as an experiment. One in which we can’t predict the outcome. Whatever the result, we will receive useful information that will benefit the next experiment. If you start from the position that there is no right or wrong, no good or bad, and creativity is just free play with no rules, it’s easier to submerge yourself joyfully in the process of making things. We’re not playing to win, we’re playing to play. And ultimately, playing is fun. Perfectionism gets in the way of fun. A more skillful goal might be to find comfort in the process. To make and put out successive works with ease.”—Rick Rubin

From a writing perspective, to get the inspirational energy flowing, I’m trying to re-read more great work from poets like the legendary Mary Oliver or Ocean Vuong, whose book, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous completely changed my perspective on storytelling.

Check out the way he describes these eyes, “grey irises smattered with bits of brown and ember so that, looking at them, you could almost see, right behind you, something burning under an overcast sky.”

That passage hasn’t left me since the moment I read it. I love it so much. The ability to describe grey eyes with gold in them in that way, staring into the reflection and imagining something burning in an overcast sky behind you… is insane artistry. That whole book is next-level. It’s almost narrative poetry, and it’s amazing. 

I could only dream of writing something that insanely unique and perfectly descriptive. I am trying—in my own way, of course. I am putting one foot in front of the other and pushing this ship forward. 

A few have asked when the book will be ready, and I wish I had an answer to that. I do know that I’ll be in Michigan hanging out with family until September. At that point, I’ll hopefully have a clear book structure/outline. Then I’ll get on a plane, hide out alone somewhere along the sea, get a manuscript finished in 2024, and go from there. That’s the general plan/outline anyways—it’s very subject to change.

Forgive me for not having an uncle profile or a more polished piece ready this week. I’m trying to get organized and deliberate with my time, so hopefully, there won’t be too many of these weekends in the coming months. 

In the meantime, enjoy some of these winter photos from Uncle Bob’s albums—I’m attempting to get all fifteen albums onto the internet for everyone to see; they need a proper public showing. 

Thank you so much for following the journey. 

And definitely let me know if there are any topics/themes you’d like to see further explored.

One Love,

Mitch

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