One way of looking at the world is that we spend a lot of our time building stuff. I sit in meetings with computer engineers and developers who are spending their days building one part of the Internet. It’s really a new version of an old task. Some people are building families, some are researching, some are creating.
We work and live in many buildings that were built by people long ago, and we’re all living atop a giant construction project of knowledge, learning, truths, art, and literature that was built for us by the people who came before.
I have special fondness for people who spend their entire day building, who not only work during the day, but also spend their free time trying to build something lasting for the world.
What are you building?
Photo by Robert Thompson via Creative Commons
I want to range further than life can ever let me go. The only way I know how to build that world beyond this one is within a novel. And as a writer, I want to share that world with others.
You call it building, I call it creating. Whatever… I create art. I create music. And I create stories in novels that at the same time are entertaining, exciting and will contribute to the betterment of society and the global community.
But during my day job, I develop the minds of young people to prepare them for a world that might not be so gentle when they're old enough to brave it alone.
I'm building my sanity with Jenga blocks…
I'm really trying to build solid relationships with people on a foundation of trust and love. It's even more challenging than my sanity project.
Then there's the novels, which with all the reediting is forming slower than the Sagrada Familia Cathedral.
I love building!
1) Family.
2) Memories.
3) A career.
4) Some stories.
5) My own knowledge.
6) Happiness.
7) A castle out of lego with my daughter.
8) Faith.
9) The world's best steak sandwich.
10) Contradictions.
11) A life.
12) Neural pathways.
13) Muscle mass.
14) A genetic heritage.
15) Relationships.
16) And, of course, a Super-Destructo ray, because sometimes building stuff gets dull.
I am creating a vision of a technology that empowers people to advance their themselves in a positive and powerful new moral direction. Which would be vastly unpopular among the vested interests. Working title: FREEMAKER.
What am I building? It feels like nothing much, after all this time. It feels as if I were propping things up more than building: the church, the city of Lambertville, the family. When I'm not here anymore people may notice that stuff has fallen down, and they may say, "Well, she kept it propped up." But I don't think anyone will claim that I built it.
Kate,
I disagree. Maintaining something, stabilizing it, keeping it vital and healthy is powerful and essential work. Strengthening a foundation is just as important as building something new, although it is work that is often done quietly.
Self esteem .
What Kate and Mira said. My life has almost always been one of repairing and adapting whatever others have built, after those others have decided to go build something else.
Ongoing, I hope I am building a foundation for my girls' lives, characters and their future, in which they see that we are capable of almost anything we put our minds to. And that they will contribute positively to future society.
Short-term, I am currently building awareness of the UK children's charity Whizz-Kidz, through running the London Marathon for them on Sunday (https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/jenrunsforwhizzkidz), arranging a schools' creative competition (part judged by author Ali Sparkes), with the sponsorship and backing of lots of friends, local businesses, schools and supporters.
Long-term plan, building greater understanding of an ethnic minority and various European nations and a small piece of history, through my novel.
Hmm, interesting conception. I seem to like building.
Oh, and I forgot, Easter bonnets. We're piecing those together in layers tomorrow. 🙂
I'm trying to build a novel, but it frequently collapses and then I have to check the blueprint again and rewrite it. It's hard. I'm also trying to a build a community at the environmental blog I write with a friend…having more success with that than with novel-building.
Servers that fill backend farms that power such things as…blogger.com and nearly every nook and cranny of the internet. Including bits delivered to everything from the PC under your desk to the ones on you iPad. It's an invisible building block that 95% of end users know nothing about but impacts every aspect of their life.
I researched my target market carefully before I began to write, so I’m building something that I already know a certain portion of female romance readers crave but cannot find. So they turn away from my genre (romance) and read horror, suspense and thrillers instead. I’m building a story for them – a love story – that entertains and moves them. I’m building characters they can relate to and grow to love. I’m building hope (and I hope it’s not false hope) that there is a Mr. Almost Perfect out there for them. ☺
I'd say I'm trying to build a better world but that makes me sound like I'm running for Miss America. But I do try to make the world better by building relationships–whether it's with clients, family, friends, or readers. I'm an introverted people-person. 🙂
I'm trying to build a future amidst a never changing array of challenges.
One small step at a time, even when at times it feels like I'm going backwards.
I miss the nonprofit stuff I used to be healthy enough for. It fed the soul as nothing else I've ever done.
~bru
sheesh- 'never changing?" talk about a slip. It should have been ever changing but I realize that the constant battle is my health so it feels like it's never changing.
Yikes. *face/palm*
A kitchen counter! Your post reminded me of my own recent one, Building a Counter to Better Writing: https://www.livewirepress.com/wordpress/index.php/2011/02/27/building-a-counter-to-better-writing/
I used my hands to build a new part of our house onto the old. . . I used my imagination and heart to build great memories in my children. . . I paint history onto canvas . . . I build fictional lives with only words, and I love it.
I'm building replicas of forgotten moments in time, scrawling names in the margins of history books.
I can relate to Lindsay's comment about building a teen who is also building me. I am also building books—actual made-of-paper books. I build other people's books at work and my own at home. And now that I read that each e-reader has a comparable carbon footprint to 70 or more actual books, I build books without apology.
I have no idea, not even a guess, whether or not what I am building will last, and to be honest, I don't care much. I just like it, the building. But, it seems to me, Mr. Nathan, your new job is interesting for you. Life is good, ah? Thank you as always, even if I forget to say it sometimes.
I am building a family, and an identity separate from it. I am slowly transforming dependent children into independent adults.I am nourishing my creativity by writing a novel. I am growing new friendships through my blog.
I am building a family, friendship, and a writing career along with the other one.
Nathan, because of you blogs, forums, and general teachings I have found a path in the writing niche.
I am glad to have been able to read anything you write and am proud to have "internet met you." Today my wife and I thanked you and others and if you are interested, check it out.
maleslie1.blogspot.com
Good question! And I love the pix, what is it? That wild, unfinished church in Barcelona?
Judging from the comments we are all BUSY, BUSY building (and that's FUN!)…But what about results?
Nathan you are such an inspiration to me and strengthen my faith that good people can and do still influence the world around them.
I hope our paths cross someday (even though you're no longer an agent).
Gabrielle
I'm trying to build faith in the positive and reject the negative. For too long I've had too much belief in the things I don't want but manifested because of the mental energy I've put into this side of life. It's very hard but I'll never give up. I'm also building a relationship with the unseen, the Holy Trinity, which gives the greatest satisfaction this life has ever given. I'd like to spend more time building fantasy worlds for readers to explore and have great adventures in, but I have created a few new worlds with words. Whether they're worthy of visitors, yet, I'm not sure.
Thanks for building this world, Nathan, and everyone. 🙂
Whether we're building relationships,a career,or, something we just really feel passionate about,we should take care not to destroy it,by our own reckless actions.
I think everyone should take the advice of anon and build a stone BBQ. You never know when you might need a cooking method that doesn't require electricity. (If you like your coffee hot, pay attention.)
The city I live in was hit by a nasty earthquake recently, so there isn't a lot of building going on. More like unbuilding, or perhaps deconstruction might be a more articulate word. Finishing off what the earthquake started. Many of us have had to build outhouses in our gardens though…does that count?
Whatever we build, I think it's kind of important to give some thought to what will happen if it all falls down. Our "buildings" can, and do collapse, on an individual level, and on a societal one. Sometimes that means they weren't built properly in the first place, and that we need to take them apart and put them back together again. Just use a better design. With stronger foundations.
Then again, sometimes things can't be rebuilt. Or shouldn't be. Like some of my novels.
(Oops…sorry…I think that along with copious amounts of silt–or liquefaction as the geo-scientists call it–the earthquake may have also forced my philosophical leanings to the surface…I beg your forgiveness.)
I also urge you all to follow Matthew's lead and build a scarf too–you might need one to tend the BBQ if you're forced to use it outside of BBQ season…
And anon, re reckless actions, I'll second that.
Matthew-
Cable knit rocks. Is there a matching hat in the pipeline? Mittens, perhaps?
I'm building my knowledge of how to write good query letters so I can get my book published. lol. Shallow pursuit of fulfilment? Probably, but it makes me feel whole. : )
World after world after world.
Claude Nougat, it's the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. See my explanation above. The Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona has no dome, but lots of spires. Wild is indeed the word!
building a road from the moon to the sun:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmldYlWvujY
I am building a novel of speculation.A "what if" book about an evolved race of alternative humans.
Not vampires,werewolves or ghosts, but a completely new race of highly evolved humans that co-exist undetected, by ordinary humans.
With my writing,I am building a stepping stone to a new future for myself and hopefully a novel told with a new voice and a story fresh enough and interesting enough to catch and agent and/or publishers eye.
I am slowing building a following on my blog,Dream the Dream,7 followers now. Hey,I said I said it was slow.
But most important to me,I am building knowledge,ability,and confidence in myself as a writer.
Maybe someday I will even be a great writer with published books!
I am building my own dream!
A community for me and my family in our new town, a writing career, and yesterday, baking soda volcanos with the kids.
For my day job, I'm building a more successful client loyalty program by focusing on engagement with internal and external clients.
At night, I'm building a world my 17 year old protagonist struggles to escape. Lately, I've been building a social media strategy as I learn more about the publishing business and what's expected of new authors.