I found all three Morgans, but I won't spoil it for anyone else.
I think I now know what's holding me back from actually transferring all the ideas I have saved for stories I want to tell - my life isn't comfortable enough for the cortisol levels to come down. It's hard to wax poetic when the future is jittery and uncertain. But this makes me think.
Morgan, ‘Content Brain’ resonated with me/the Writer AND me/the old person - liked every thought & explanation! But I have to ask, is part of your enlightenment coming from mushrooms you’re growing on your farm😉
I'm not a published writer, but used to write obsessively, always carrying a notebook with me, always scribbling in it whenever I had a moment. Fiction, not autobiography but there is the same internal sense of separating into different parts/selves, because even fiction requires the same kind of instant analysis: will this idea bear a whole story, or does it need to be subsumed into a bigger idea? Is this idea only interesting to me and if so, why? Am I all that different from everyone else that the stories which compel me won't compel anyone else? Why do I find this idea or scene or character compelling enough to wrap a whole story around? Are all my characters me? Is that good or bad? ...and so on.
This essay also reminds me of a line by Nora Ephron from so long ago I can't remember if it was a line in a movie, a book, or one of her essays. (Possibly it was in her book "Heartburn.") She - or one of her characters - is talking about having to write a daily newspaper column, and how after a while *everything* that happens - every event, every thought, every emotion, every idle imagining - is instantly isolated to see if there is a column in it. She - or the character - looks at a set of salt and pepper shakers and wonders if there is a column in those salt shakers. I think I first read that insight 40+ years ago, and you can tell how much impact it had on me since I remember it to this day.
How you keep yourself real is quite the challenge when you - "you" - are also content. I love your work, and appreciate your insight. Please don't let Content Morgan subsume Real Morgan.
I appreciated your dive into the minutiae, the mind is endless. Guess it comes down to analysis of the content or the experience of the content and finding a skillful balance between the two. Thanks for the interesting read!
Really glad this one made it out of the notebook, Morgan. This is the thing we're sitting in right now. My wife and I went rock climbing recently just to have fun... and we still brought the cameras. And I genuinely don't know if that made the day richer or just... documented.
The footage exists. The memory exists... Funny moments and smiles too. But there's a version of that afternoon we'll never fully know, because we were never fully just there. We're a few years into making content online (we still have our jobs outside the web), and we're still figuring out where the person ends and the content starts.
P.S. We really appreciate how you tell stories. Keep finding the "whats" worth talking about. We'll always be here for the "how".
I liked the departure from your usual style and going into more simplified realism. And as someone who draws (not as often now because burnout be real, yo), I'm here for whatever ride you choose to take us in. Great job as always, Morgan :D.
I found all three Morgans, but I won't spoil it for anyone else.
I think I now know what's holding me back from actually transferring all the ideas I have saved for stories I want to tell - my life isn't comfortable enough for the cortisol levels to come down. It's hard to wax poetic when the future is jittery and uncertain. But this makes me think.
Your pieces usually make me work. Let me get to work on this one now.
Yep, this one is work.
You have a way of vocalizing thoughts that most have but cannot get out.
Morgan, ‘Content Brain’ resonated with me/the Writer AND me/the old person - liked every thought & explanation! But I have to ask, is part of your enlightenment coming from mushrooms you’re growing on your farm😉
Oh, this echoes. This echoes big time.
I'm not a published writer, but used to write obsessively, always carrying a notebook with me, always scribbling in it whenever I had a moment. Fiction, not autobiography but there is the same internal sense of separating into different parts/selves, because even fiction requires the same kind of instant analysis: will this idea bear a whole story, or does it need to be subsumed into a bigger idea? Is this idea only interesting to me and if so, why? Am I all that different from everyone else that the stories which compel me won't compel anyone else? Why do I find this idea or scene or character compelling enough to wrap a whole story around? Are all my characters me? Is that good or bad? ...and so on.
This essay also reminds me of a line by Nora Ephron from so long ago I can't remember if it was a line in a movie, a book, or one of her essays. (Possibly it was in her book "Heartburn.") She - or one of her characters - is talking about having to write a daily newspaper column, and how after a while *everything* that happens - every event, every thought, every emotion, every idle imagining - is instantly isolated to see if there is a column in it. She - or the character - looks at a set of salt and pepper shakers and wonders if there is a column in those salt shakers. I think I first read that insight 40+ years ago, and you can tell how much impact it had on me since I remember it to this day.
How you keep yourself real is quite the challenge when you - "you" - are also content. I love your work, and appreciate your insight. Please don't let Content Morgan subsume Real Morgan.
I appreciated your dive into the minutiae, the mind is endless. Guess it comes down to analysis of the content or the experience of the content and finding a skillful balance between the two. Thanks for the interesting read!
Really glad this one made it out of the notebook, Morgan. This is the thing we're sitting in right now. My wife and I went rock climbing recently just to have fun... and we still brought the cameras. And I genuinely don't know if that made the day richer or just... documented.
The footage exists. The memory exists... Funny moments and smiles too. But there's a version of that afternoon we'll never fully know, because we were never fully just there. We're a few years into making content online (we still have our jobs outside the web), and we're still figuring out where the person ends and the content starts.
P.S. We really appreciate how you tell stories. Keep finding the "whats" worth talking about. We'll always be here for the "how".
- Dakota & Angela
I liked the departure from your usual style and going into more simplified realism. And as someone who draws (not as often now because burnout be real, yo), I'm here for whatever ride you choose to take us in. Great job as always, Morgan :D.