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Cheyenne, Wyoming

2017-06-13 · letter vlog · John · 3:22 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing · mode: Personal essay

John explains 'Cheyenne, Wyoming', his shorthand from Rushmore for being absent while deeply immersed in a project, mostly writing: it frees him from body and loneliness but takes him from his family and may yield nothing; replying to Hank's productivity video, he argues creative work needs unrecognized time, space from others and a return home.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The Rushmore line behind 'Cheyenne, Wyoming'; months there when Vlogbrothers began

  • ★★ John says, as Dear Hank and John listeners know, he is a huge fan of the movie Rushmore. — 00:00:02 · Dear Hank and John

  • ★★★ From a Rushmore play set in the Vietnam War, where a soldier says he isn't even here but in Cheyenne, Wyoming, John took 'Cheyenne, Wyoming' as his shorthand for the place he goes when deeply immersed in a project. — 00:00:06 · Cheyenne, Wyoming

    “Cheyenne, Wyoming has since become my personal shorthand”

  • ★★ When they started Vlogbrothers in 2007 John spent several months in Cheyenne, always thinking about his next video, growing their audience, and how cool YouTube was. — 00:00:22 · Vlogbrothers, YouTube

00:00:36 — Being in Cheyenne while writing: freedom and escape, absence from family, and no guarantee of a book

  • ★★ John says he mostly visits Cheyenne, Wyoming when he is writing. — 00:00:36 · Cheyenne, Wyoming

  • ★★★ John finds Cheyenne fun: his main complaint about human life is being stuck in one slowly decaying body, and living in a made-up world frees him from the twin prisons of consciousness and body. (hedged) — 00:00:38

    “free from the twin prisons of my consciousness and my body”

  • ★★★ John says Cheyenne was long an escape: in years without many real friends, when he was intensely lonely, he could go where people liked him because he had made them up. (hedged) — 00:00:55

  • ★★★ In Cheyenne John is not really here: he sometimes fails to answer his kids' questions at dinner, neglects daily responsibilities and forgets haircuts. — 00:01:06
  • ★★★ John has been in Cheyenne for quite a while and expects to stay longer; it is frustrating because he likes his real life and his Tuesday videos, isn't all the way here, and worries he should be. — 00:01:18
  • ★★ John says the other thing about going to Cheyenne is that you aren't necessarily going to come home with anything. — 00:01:31
  • ★★★ John spent about a year in Cheyenne finishing The Fault in Our Stars, but also several months a few years ago only to realize the book he'd worked hard on wasn't good and wouldn't be published. — 00:01:36 · The Fault in Our Stars
  • ★★ John says he can't know until after immersing himself in the work, which is frustrating and scary, with no 'but' at the moment. — 00:01:47

00:01:57 — Reply to Hank: creative productivity needs unrecognized time, space from others, and coming home; John misses Hank

  • ★★★ John found Hank's productivity advice last week (week of 5 June 2017) helpful and astute but thinks creative productivity is somewhat different. (hedged) — 00:01:57 · Hank Green
  • ★★★ John says creative work requires spending time in ways markets and culture don't recognize as productive, like reading, pacing or staring out the window. — 00:02:04
  • ★★★ Deep in the work, John says, you must make space in your life and ask the people around you to make space in theirs for you to go to Cheyenne. — 00:02:12
  • ★★ John says this doesn't mean working all day: he wrote his first two books at night after work, quicker than any book since. — 00:02:20
  • ★★★ John says part of your intellectual and emotional self is absent for a while; you make what you can of it and then, most importantly, come home to your body, the sensate world and the people you love. (hedged) — 00:02:27
  • ★★★ John tells Hank he is sorry if he hasn't been around enough lately, that he will come home at some point, and that he misses him. — 00:02:50 · Hank Green

00:02:59 — End screen: Google-sponsored internet-kindness video; VidCon Nerdfighter gathering with Complexly announcements

  • ★★ In the end screen John says he made a Google-sponsored video on his Facebook page about being internet kind, recalling his early online life in the 1990s. — 00:02:59 · Facebook, Google
  • ★★ John says a Nerdfighter gathering at VidCon in Anaheim in a couple of weeks, Thursday at 9:30 am, is where he and Hank will announce exciting new Complexly projects. — 00:03:11 · VidCon, Nerdfighteria, Complexly

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Cheyenne, Wyoming

Also: Projects: Complexly · Dear Hank and John · VidCon

Works: John's abandoned identity-thieves novel · Rushmore (film) · The Fault in Our Stars

Organizations: Facebook · YouTube

Concepts: loneliness

Places: Anaheim, California

Events: Vietnam War

Only in the description or credits: Google

Also centred on Cheyenne, Wyoming: I Ain't Even Here, Sergeant. I'm in Cheyenne, Wyoming. · why we make art

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