What comes first: The art or the message?

I’ve been publishing articles here 28/31 days on my quest to publish daily.

In that time I’ve written the articles and shortly after published, rarely taking too much time in between.

The thoughts flow, some quick edits and then I hit publish.

The message, idea, thoughts usually come from journaling, books I’m reading, conversation I’m having or other random life experiences happening that hour, that day.

As of yesterday I committed to 15 days of also shooting and sharing drone shots.

My thinking is that I will use the daily drone footage to post to Instagram captioned by what I write. That way I can share my thoughts more fluidly and consistently through Instagram where I don’t get as much engagement.

This adds in a new variable to the creative process, because now I’m asking myself…

“Do I write or fly first? Which comes first, the art aka the flying or the message aka the writing?”

This morning I flew my drone, knowing I still had to write and publish.

Going through the shots, am I picking shots that tell a story on their own, or do they complement what I’m writing?

I’m picking this sweet directly-looking-down clip of a boat slicing through the glass water with a beautiful pan up to the Texas Hill Country.

I knew that’s the one I wanted but I soon found myself thinking of what I was going to write based off that clip…

Which adds a dependent variable to my writing…

Which changes the flow, the inspiration, the ideation of the coming article…

Do I write about being alone in solitude and just going full throttle (because that’s what the boat did?)

Or do I write about something else foundationally, weaving in the boat as a metaphor in hindsight?

Or do I just write about an analysis and reflection and just post the boat?