Everyone is doing videos. Studio videos, tutorials, teaching videos. That’s a good thing. Showing how something works in actual motion is a great help to creativity.
So why don’t I love videos? I’ve been trying to figure it out for years. I have learned the basics, although David Lynch doesn’t have much to fear. Using photographs, using movement, I’ve worked on a few videos. I even admit to liking this one.
So what’s not to like? Unlike a book, I can’t stick a bookmark on a page. I can’t use a sticky note and write “use this glue on photograph collage” and stick in in place on the video. Yes, of course I can open a spread sheet, and keep track of the times in instructional videos that I want to re-watch. That, however, is exhausting me just thinking about it.
I also can’t prop a video open on my desk and follow along, getting my hands messy and then stop it till I catch up.
Yes, of course, a book is not a video. They have different advantages and disadvantages. And yes, I have to make some videos or I’ll be relegated to the dustbin of creativity.
Sometimes when I watch videos or art demos, and the artist spends many minutes at the beginning speaking about her background, her life, her inspiration before she gets around to the doing, I get impatient. In a book, I could flip ahead. Trickier in a video, in which you can skip ahead but not really see what you missed. There is no skimming in a video.
I couldn’t wait to get a Kindle, and it didn’t stop my love of real books. I appreciated the different purposes. But I’m still waiting to warm up to videos, and I know I must.
—Quinn McDonald is a creativity coach who wishes she could love videos more.
QuinnCreative 