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Slowcore Nerd Notes: On Sustaining Writing As An Art Form

Danica Swanson

Danica Swanson

This outline was originally shared on the Slowcore HQ channel on Farcaster as a discussion prompt and work in progress. Upon further reflection I decided it belongs in the Slowcore Nerd Notes series as-is, so I'm importing it into Paragraph and Zora.

I. What's important for long-term sustenance of writing as an art form?

  1. sustainable income and cash flow

  2. integration into positive-sum reciprocity networks (e.g., Farcaster scenius)

  3. care and support infrastructure

  4. incubation time (creativity is cyclical)

  5. time spaciousness

  6. attention and focus

  7. readers discovering and receiving value from the work

II. What's not so important for long-term sustenance of writing as an art form?

  1. pageviews

  2. follower counts/audience growth metrics

  3. going viral

  4. becoming a social media influencer, teacher, etc.

  5. joining several DAOs, group chats, membership communities, etc. (more stuff to track = less attention available for deep work)

  6. speculation on the future value of the creative work

  7. reader "engagement"

III. Observations

  1. The points on the second list are the expected "creator economy" norms in web3 for anyone who hopes to monetize, i.e. turn a creative endeavor into a livelihood.

  2. Sustainable income and cash flow can be more challenging for writers who take a slowcore approach, i.e., optimize for items 4-7 on the first list.

Danica SwansonFarcaster
Danica Swanson
Commented 10 months ago

I've been nudging myself to publish more of my work on @paragraph and /zora, rather than allow 50+ "incomplete" drafts to sit in my files for months and get stale. This 200-word outline was first shared as a WIP on the /slowcore-hq channel in April. It's now part of the Slowcore Nerd Notes series. For some things, done really is better than perfect. https://paragraph.xyz/@danicaswanson/slowcore-nerd-notes-on-sustaining-writing-as-an-art-form?referrer=danicaswanson.eth

Danica SwansonFarcaster
Danica Swanson
Commented 10 months ago

Hi @notabot - are you on duty? It seems I'm back to having to like my own casts (and those of others whose casts should have been auto-approved) to get them to show up in the main feed today. This one is an example.

iSpeakNerd 🧙‍♂️Farcaster
iSpeakNerd 🧙‍♂️
Commented 10 months ago

shippers get strippers 🚢🚢 762 $DEGEN

Danica SwansonFarcaster
Danica Swanson
Commented 10 months ago

This 'shipper' prefers degen. Thanks. 🎩

iSpeakNerd 🧙‍♂️Farcaster
iSpeakNerd 🧙‍♂️
Commented 10 months ago

yeah but that doesn't rhyme 🤣

TrishDFarcaster
TrishD
Commented 10 months ago

Here's to encouraging more nerd notes. 😀 198 $DEGEN

Danica SwansonFarcaster
Danica Swanson
Commented 10 months ago

Much appreciated. More on the way as I continue to clean out my backlog.

Slowcore Nerd Notes: On Sustaining Writing As An Art Form