A Creative Debate I Always Have With Myself

First, in order to make your Tuesday better, here’s my latest short that I spent a ridiculous amount of time on. It’s based on my longer sleep products video, and it’s reaches absurd proportions.

The debate I’m referring to in the ole subject line is the Style vs Substance debate. Allow me to elaborate. (Actually you don’t have to allow or disallow anything. I’m typing this before you read it so you have no say in the matter.)

When I first started this Wheezy Waiter adventure it was definitely ALL style. My motto was dare to be pointless after all.

What I mean by “all style” is that the actual topic I was discussing in each video was often an afterthought. It was just an excuse to do my silly style. I would think up funny moments/situations and just toss a topic on top to make it work. Pure fun dumb comedy.

Perhaps because YouTube changed, the world changed, I got older, YOU got older, or the comedy grew stale, I got it in my head that the way forward was to actually have a purpose for every video.

I made this video about my new rules—rule number 1 being “have a purpose”.

Of course, elements of my style remained. In fact, I assumed style would just come naturally because I’m me.

But now I chased purpose. I thought up topics that might be worthy of making a long video about and then gave it my all. My decisions weren’t based on jokes or situations but how they impacted the overall themes, arguments, and goals of each video.

I actually sort of shunned the idea of “style”.

This led to the channel actually being more successful than ever. It certainly feels different though. Half the audience are just randos that find me through the algorithm because they’re drawn to the purpose of the video and don’t know my style.

Also, that success has dwindled lately. Also also, constantly searching for topics I actually care about is exhausting and really hard. Sometimes I realize part way through that I only sort of care. That’s a motivation killer.

A couple newsletters ago I mentioned how I came across the instagram account itslittlemich. Its raunchy, zany, and hilarious.

I was completely drawn to it and it was probably 95% due to style. Her editing was unique, fast paced, hilarious, complicated, and just awesome.

This unlocked the dormant style driven beast within me. I forgot how entertaining style alone can be. And how it can help convey the story rather than obfuscate it.

And if the style is consistent and really special you can be drawn to it regardless of the subject matter. Why had I devalued style so much?!

WELL NO MORE!

Since finding itslittlemich I’ve made a couple shorts and leaned hard into style. I took main channel videos and made intensely effected and edited shorts out of them. It was very very fun.

While working on my next video due this Friday I found myself getting in there and really tightening it up hard style! It feels like “short” energy in a long video. It does take quite a bit of time and I’m worried about being late, but lets go for it! It’s so much fun to make!

I’m not entirely sure why I abandoned this those years ago. Well, I have ideas. I think I felt like people just got tired of my silliness and wanted some substance, me included. I lost faith in my style. I used “purpose” as a security blanket. This is interesting because I used to say I used jokes as my security blanket.

Well, now I hope to marry the two. Style AND Substance. The problem is it might just take longer. We’ll see.

Wink (ding),
Craig