Here we all are in another year. For most of us, 2021 has barely begun and there’s not really much of an impression to take away. All that I can do personally is predict where I want things to go and hope that things go well enough that I achieve them. This is the most enjoyable part of New Year’s Resolutions. The promise of starting anew, living a life that will hopefully be more productive than the year prior. As someone who looks at his life as an ongoing story, it’s the end of a chapter, waiting to start the next one and building the structure around it.
But what exactly will be happening at The Memory Tourist in the year ahead? To be completely honest, if I wrote this at the start of December, I might’ve been closer to saying “More of the same.” However, I have had what amounts to a two-week hiatus and my general attitude has changed. While I did an impressive 400+ article run between March and December, I realized that it wasn’t sustainable for the year ahead. It gave me focus when I needed it, but I’m also realizing that 2021 is a much different beast.
To be transparent, I don’t know that my structure was fulfilling at a certain point. I think it was helpful to constantly push myself to be curious and give new things a try, but I also realize how much commitment it was. The average article, written between 1500 and 2000 words, would take two hours to go from writing to the final edit. That wasn’t always chronological, so they sometimes went into three hours – especially if it involved consuming and researching outside media. I love the habit of it, but I noticed that everything else in my writing life was suffering from this. At the height of The Memory Tourist, I was writing 10 pieces weekly. Some days were difficult because I forced it out of my fingertips and during my depression back in November, it wasn’t always my most satisfactory work. Also, most obviously, that’s 20-30 hours of commitment that might not be fully recognized in the way that I want.
Don’t get me wrong. The Memory Tourist is something that I’m grateful for. Jumping over from Optigrab’s limited format has been a godsend. It’s just that I need to reassess what matters. Is this website reflecting the work that I want to be known for? In some respects it is, showing a more eccentric side of me. However, I gave music criticism a nine-month run and I don’t know that I get it. Frankly, I look at end of year lists and realize how much I’ve missed or differed from. I still feel inadequate because I missed what was so great about the Chloe x Halle album (mostly because R&B as a genre is not a familiar one).
What I plan to do is a minor rebranding that will take up a significantly less amount of my energy though I hope will better reflect my interests. As you can guess, this isn’t going to be 10 entries a week schedule anymore. While I do open myself to possibly doing even more than this skeletal structure, I think that cutting it in half will produce something more fulfilling. It will alleviate stress and allow for possibly even more creative options going forward.
My most noteworthy change is that I will try to balance more of a divide between personal and legitimate criticism. While I like to think that I’m good at analyzing, I don’t know that The Memory Tourist has ever directly reviewed a movie. It’s truer about music, but even that feels rooted in anecdotes that I’ve used to pad out articles. In the year ahead I have plans that will require more of my time. The most noteworthy is my start at Cal State Long Beach, but also my desire to continue working towards a Fall release of my second novel. There are other minor things, but I need to not feel like I’m needlessly meeting deadlines that don’t matter. I need to recognize something greater about the world.
So, what exactly is going to happen in the year/s ahead? As mentioned, I am going to cut down to four regular columns per week. It was difficult to come to this decision, but I wanted to get most for less, and that means producing columns every other day. It, unfortunately, means that certain things that I have loved doing (musicals on Sunday, Single Awareness, Top 5) are going to be ceasing operation.
I am hoping by emphasizing my different interests in only one column that I will be able to write more enthusiastically about everything. The three returning columns will include: Monday Melodies (Monday), Writer’s Corner (Wednesday), and Best Movie I Saw This Week (Saturday). The new columns that I will be introducing sounds like a variation of my Saturday one, but I feel will allow for a little mix-up as well as something more personal. Coming next Friday is the first column exploring things that make me happy. This is intentionally open-ended in the hopes that I allow myself to be more open and break from regimented commentary. Similarly, I am currently working on releasing an interchangeable column every month where I provide personal updates on where I am in my life.
This was a tough decision to make, especially since I am grateful for everything that The Memory Tourist achieved over the course of 2020. It’s something that kept me sane. However, I also realized that it was wearing on me somedays and I needed to find a way to better utilize it in my life. It also didn’t help that my friend contracting Coronavirus (he’s better now!) emotionally crippled my productivity and lead to my unplanned break. I’m hoping that there’s nothing else too traumatic to enforce another break so soon.
Finally, I realize that while a 1500 to 2000 word count has helped me to stay productive, I am planning to be more liberal this year in matching those numbers. While I don’t want to reduce my writing to something that’s barely there, I feel like trying to reach 2000 on occasion has caused some exhaustion. As a result, I am going to probably aim to write closer to 1500 words, maybe even the occasional 1000 word essay. I hope that the shorter length doesn’t impact quality and instead is used as a chance to strengthen what I have.
I understand that this is maybe not the greatest thing to open 2021 with. The idea of cutting back on the content so greatly seems like a cop-out, eventually making it closer to something that I complained about with Optigrab. To be honest, I think it would’ve happened if I reached overkill. With this, I think it allows me to explore my interests without feeling the need to stretch myself too thin. I think reducing every interest to one day allows for something richer, more exciting. It’s true that I will be finishing out The Madonna Project over the next two Wednesdays, but otherwise, I will be using this new schedule in a way that I think is useful. Monday Melodies will likely include newer music as well as old hits. Best Movie I Saw This Week will feature titles I might’ve saved for Two By Two. Small things like that will be in effect.
I hope that this year will be great for you and I hope that you understand why I’m needing to do this. I’m looking ahead and wanting to make a balance. Writing means a lot to me and The Memory Tourist was a major step forward for me. However, I realized that I need to not step too far, especially with other projects consuming my time. I hope that you’ll be along for the journey and that we have a great time. I know it isn’t exactly what you’ve come to expect from me, but I think this will be the best way to get the most effective version of the site. Thank you and let’s make the most of this year!
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