infinite creative possibilities for a digital world
this is a part of a series on digital world-building.
in my last post, I explored how digital world-building is a powerful, creative internet practice — ideally suited for artists and creatives, entrepreneurs, and anyone with a vision/mission/voice that wants to be expressed and shared — but more specifically, for anyone who feels centered and nourished by the act of creation. in other words, only do it if and only if it like a pleasure and joy — not a content marketing “should.” otherwise, you kill the soul of the world.
in this post, I’ll explore a (non-exhaustive tree map) of exactly what you can create for your digital world — its possible ingredients and elements — which, when put together in one digital vessel, create a sense of “worldness” that makes your guests want to get cozy, linger, and return to it, again and again.
Here are the 6 types of possibilities I’ll explore:
(1) Inspiration
(2) Creations
(3) Process
(4) Personal
(5) Ideas
(6) Resources
The key is to express & explore your truth
But first, the biggest takeaway I’d like to share with you is this — no matter who you are, no matter what your digital world is about, no matter what forms you share in — the purpose of a digital world is that it’s an infinity space where you give yourself permission to be yourself. all of it. here, you have free rein to express, explore, experiment — as much as you want. about whatever you want.
it’s a multi-dimensional thing, not a flimsy 3 page brochure. it’s a wild and luscious digital garden, not a portfolio or a resume — even if there might be pages that serve that purpose (to whatever extent you want).
your world is not there to perform a version of yourself that you think you have to be — in order to get the clients/attention you seek. it’s there to allow you to BE, to unfold in the being through your creative expressions.
-
A digital world gives you permission to be:
Multi-topic: you can create in depth about a few topic, or about 849 topics — without needing a master top-down structure to organize them (not until you’re ready).
Multi-form: here’s where you can share your expressions in as many forms as you want — written, visual, audio, video, interactive, analogue-digital. the more you play with form, the more possibilities emerge.
Multi-dimensional: you can be “all over the place,” organized chaos, multi-whatever it is that people say these days. that means: you can write analytic film critic esssays, sell chapbooks of love poetry, give practical fengshui advice, post your travel photos, make a log of pottery in process — all in one space. who says you can’t? what is your world about? what are the boundaries of your world? you won’t know, until you explore and experiment. then — you get make the rules. you don’t need to reduce yourself to a 1 sentence marketing niche.
[do you have a business? great. you get to create the boundaries of your private/public life — and your digital world is that liminal, in-between space. don’t you think your clients and customers would ENJOY getting to know a real human being, instead of a marketing bio? I would.]
now, I’ll map out 6 possibilities for your digital world.
Here’s the diagram of this map:
#1 - Inspiration
ie, links, lists, collections, interviews, quotes, conversations, curations, records
if you’re not quite ready to dive full into the act of creation, the simplest way to start world-building is to build a personal/public archive of inspiration. it’ll be an inspiration log — one node in that interconnected web of ideas — as a reflection and ongoing mirror of your taste; an active relationship to the culture and ideas you consume, and how it affects you. consider it your own collector’s library, or your digital cabinet of curiosities. you can simply post links, or also include your digested reflections on them. when I first started my world in my early twenties, I did two things: I took other people’s creative advice and made it into art, called Advice for Creatives, and I had a practice of keeping an inspiration log.
-
#2 - Creations
ie, writings, photographs, drawings, paintings, film, poetry, play, experiments, zines, videos, audio, podcast, music, designs, sketches, letters, etc.
share what you create, in all forms. period. I’d say, practice sharing it - on the safe space which is your digital world — without worrying about how “polished” it is, or how it fits into a particular theme, topic, or collection.
this is why I say that digital world-building is ideal for artist/creatives — because it takes sharing your work beyond the constraints of a “Portfolio” (designed to impress) and instead, gives space to the deluge of creativity that wants to flow forth from you. instead of putting yourself into buckets or filing cabinet folders (here’s my WRITING, ART, PHOTOS, etc etc) — consider sharing everything in one universal-stream-flow. organize it into forms — later.
for the entrepreneur — sharing creations around your particular topic-map builds an ecosystem around your offering. it invites people to gather around the fireplace and listen to you tell stories, give insight and inspiration. that’s where you build a sense of intimacy, trust, and connection — essential to making a sale. people want to buy from people they know, trust, and like.
-
#3 - Personal
ie, personal stories, dreams, experiences, soul, anecdotes, emotions, memories
Because a digital world is, first and foremost, for YOU — a vessel to hold your creative impulse — you can decide how much of your self to put in it. (and more specifically, WHICH of your selves?) how public or private it is you want to keep your life — how much of your personal experiences, emotions, memories you want to share — is an entirely individual decision. you won’t know where the boundaries are until you practice it. for me, much of the art I created was my personal life digested into drawings or animations or mood diaries, some of them too embarrassing to look at. And many, (if not ALL) of my writings on wellbeing, creative process, digital ecosystems, or entrepreneurship — emerged from my own grappling and struggles and thinking-out-loud. For me, everything else WOULD NOT EXIST without the personal. But yours can be different.
-
#4 - Process
ie, systems, rituals, journals, archives, notes, logs, art-diaries, reflections
My entire world is built around process. The very act of world-building IS process — rather than outcome - oriented. (My manifesto is this: when you focus on PROCESS, all PRODUCTS emerge effortlessly, easily, naturally.)
How did it start? When I first started my world, after I got tired of logging inspirations, and on days where I felt bleh about my creations, all I did was write about process.
I fully believe that process is all there is. Process never ends; one process leads into another, and all products are simply symptoms of process. Process is where life is — the creative energy, the act of being and relating to the world.
For me, I started writing about the process of cultivating wellbeing rituals, then, I obsessed on nurturing a daily creative practice. finally, it was about building digital ecosystems and growing soulful businesses. I wrote about process to better understand myself, to wayfind on the pathless path, to give myself guidance on doing the The Daily Work. I shared my process — and in doing so, connected with so many others immersed in the sea of process. (we are all swimming in the sea of process).
And while we live in a culture that values product over process — what if, in our worlds, we were to value process over product? What rules would change, then? How would we relate differently to the world?
What processes are you immersed in the act of discovering, practicing, being in?
-
#5 - Ideas
ie, values, mission, ethos, way of being, philosophy
From process — emerges ideas, frameworks, ways of seeing the world, and existing in it. Ideas are things that can change our entire perspective, reorganize the mind-map that orients the GPS inside our heads. Ideas are always in an ongoing conversation with inspiration, process, and creation.
Ideas have magnetizing power, mythic power, organizing power. you create groups, communities, a sense of belonging — through your relationship around shared ideas, beliefs, and values.
It took me a very long time to start articulating my ideas — my philosophies around how to be and exist in the world, and on the internet. It came from grappling deeply with the messy ocean that is process, swimming in the lonely work.
-
#6 - Resources
ie, offerings, guides, advice, methods, teachings
All of my resources started as notes-to-self.
Any inspiration, process, idea, or creation — once it’s distilled, clarified, and shared with others — becomes a resource. This resource is your way of teaching and explaining what you learned with others, but that doesn’t mean it’s at all the end point or final destination.
Teaching and sharing resources is just one step in the ongoing loop of growth and evolution. It IS part of process. Whenever I share things with my community — the conversations, questions, and feedback that emerges feeds back into my process, and goes through the [life-art-idea] digestive loop again. In that sense, a “resource” is the end digestion of process — something that people can use, in service of a greater mission, vision, or purpose.
For me, that vision is about empowering artists and entrepreneurs to cultivate psychic and material wealth — through digital world-building. But — it took me a LONG time to get to this point of clarity. I did so much work around integrating and deconstructing myths around being an artist, and making money.
What resources do you want to share?
Paid offerings: As your world evolves and becomes a flow of resources (and by that I don’t just mean resource for money, but also attention, investment, time), you’ll have some resources that require a little more energy from you — your paid offerings.
But if you’re world-building in a way that’s aligned, cultivating your ecosystem and relationships with care and patience, then by the time you do “ask for the sale,” you will have already cultivated so much trust, that, to the most attentive and connected visitors of your world, it will feel like a no-brainer.
(This is marketing without “marketing.”)
-
Expect it to be very messy. Messy is good.
Messiness is not the problem. If you’re messy, you’re doing it right. it means it’s well-inhabited, well-lived, well-loved. Over time, organizing it, giving it structure, rhythm, and systems — is easy. Creating a more distilled visual look and feel, an easier navigation, a clarified way of engagement — is totally doable.
The real problem is sanitized-ness, soullessness, fakeness, flatness, genericness, blandness. In this sense, digital world building is an act of resistance to a world and culture that wants to wash us of our individuality, fire, and intangible thing we call a soul.
I’m wishing you full speed in world-building, tending, growing — onwards.