The Ever-Rising Tide

In reading about the writing process for Away We Go, I learned that the married screenwriters of the film {Dave Eggers & Vendela Vida) don't have internet at home.


Dave Eggers was quoted in this interview as saying, "For us, to be able to concentrate, we don't have internet at home, for example, because we had to put a levee up against that ever-rising tide. That's the way for us to control our intake. There's a lot of media really affected by all these changes, but what's funny is that the book world has kind of stayed constant. Sales are about what they always were, we've found."

Wow. I admire their discipline and it must be working based on their success and quality of their work. And it's not like he's a ludite or something. He hosts a website himself.

While we are not good candidates to give up the internet, there is a larger message I can take from his point about how important it is to limit media consumption when you are trying to create. Everything I produce creatively as a photographer or writer or attorney is certainly affected by all of the media changes. For the most part, it has been a good thing. I am accustomed to creating with the short hand convenience of hyperlinking so that the reader can easily hear the song, see the film clip, read the case I am referencing, etc. But this sensory supplement does make it more difficult for me to make things quiet. Sometimes I wonder as a writer if it is lazy to just show the thing, whatever it is, rather than find a creative way to describe it.

Over the past couple of years, I have tried to quiet the house and streamline. I canceled the home phone, redirected email addresses to one in-box, cut off cable, canceled TiVo, unsubscribed to most newsletters and junk mailers, and yet, it still feels like a constant barrage of information: texts, emails, mail, voice mails, updates.

I will work on how to do more, just after I check my email.