Writing words on the internet.
It’s very easy to get caught up in the thinking and the planning. In the topic you feel you’re supposed to be writing about. In the niche you’re “known for” and think others are expecting you to write about.
In what you’re writing, or what your blog looks like in comparison to that other person’s you’ve recently found. In what the response (or lack of) to your writing will be.
After more than a couple of years of trying to turn my creative work into a full-time business, I’m still trying to unwind myself from the shoulds, and get back to simply... writing, again. Even that phrase “creative work” feels sort of limiting.
And so, after make a return to the big wide world of blogging, I’ve been pondering how I want to show up and, dare I say, what my next launch will look like. I think when you’ve been in that mode for so long, it takes a good while to shake it off and return to the freedom of simply being.
Over time, the discovery of long-form blogs in an organic way has become quite tricky. Finding somewhere where it feels natural (i.e. not like everyone is competing for readers or growth), and organic (with a nifty feed/algorithm), without feeling overwhelming (noise and clutter), and allowing you to connect with fellow writers who have blogs they’re writing to.
With social media becoming increasingly messy and focused on shorter-form and vitality, it’s been surprisingly difficult to connect with other writers in a way that I’ve missed since my earliest days on Wordpress and Twitter.
Slightly nervously, I’ve allowed myself to look around on Substack, noticing how much it had changed. I took a look at the ‘Notes’ section, curious about what I’d find there but aware that comparisonitis1 could take over, and that I’d find myself even more burdened by the expectation of ‘growth’ and launches.
Hesitant though I was, I was pleasantly surprised with what I found there.
It’s easy to get distracted by all the activity, but a couple of things served up by the algorithm were exactly what I needed to read:
“I knew I was moving away from the business era of my creative life, and towards an era of simply being a writer.”
- Elin Loow // My 2023: The Year I Transitioned Away From Self-Employed Life
“It’s a weird feeling, to no longer have a business to shout about, after so many years. Social media drilled that publicity mindset into me. It’s hard to lose that habit. Strange how self-employment is touted as the ‘route to freedom’, when it has made me feel anything but free.”
- Luisa Skinner // This Writerly Life | seasonal voice notes #1
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These messages were timely. And helped me feel much better about this reversal of my creative life back to their origins of simply showing up and writing.
I feel reassured by the fact that there are others who have gone through similar journeys with their creativity. Especially when many of your writer “peers” are those who are online.
I don’t know many in my age group, and fewer men my age, who’ve chosen the path I have, and experience the world in the ways I do.
Those I do know are the creative souls I’ve met online, others whose newsletters you read, navigating their own creative businesses and creative journeys. When you’re experiencing a blip, everyone else seems to be doing better than you.
The people sitting around you at coffee shops (looking around my environment as I write this) are typically students, couples or friendship pairs catching up, or folks at laptops who are working employed jobs remotely. It can feel pretty isolating.
Which is why I’m grateful for the pangs of resonance I feel when I come across others whose writing I meet at the right time.
As I continue to unwind from the last season of my life, I’m trying to just show up and let myself write like I used to. Reminding myself that life is cyclical, and that I’m exactly where I need to be right now.
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📝 Thoughtful prompts
Q: What is your creative life looking like right now?
Q: In which places have you been writing recently?
Q: How do you feel in these online spaces shared with fellow writers (& readers)?
by,
Jasraj