Good advice, thanks - doing things because we must is great. Our motivation for doing things like being a musician or a writer is the most important thing. I write like my hair is on fire because I have no other choice. I work hard to follow Hemingway's advice about "killing your darlings". It works well for any creative endeavor. We have a running joke around our house about the accomplishment of daily mundane tasks which "even a musician or writer could do".
Excellent, succinct little piece. Write like it matters: Yes! Agree. As a sober writer on Substack myself I do agree with everything you said here. Most of us write because we have to, not financially but spiritually. I think recovery aids this endeavor. I subscribed to your SS. Good stuff.
Btw my Substack is relevant, particularly my most recent post, titled, “Sobriety and Wokeism are Diametrically Opposed to Each Other:
Anyway: Thanks Holly. I started my own Wordpress writing blog in 2013 as well, with three years sober and after interning for a literary agent for nine months. A year before I’d gotten my first story published in a magazine. Fun times 🔥
As someone who has only started writing, or at least posting, in the last year, this is eye opening. One of my biggest fears is that I’ll start to view writing as work, not enjoyment and expression. I’ve never had the dual honor and burden of having to write for someone else or have a schedule or anything like that, and that’s what makes substack great. No matter how big I get or small I stay, substack is folks who go out of their way to see what I do, the way I do it. Thanks for the article, love that you read it too! I gotta start doing that with my stuff.
Great to read how you started. Do you think that it is a common thread with writers, just getting stuff off your chest? I'm not a writer but I did a few pieces simply as a form of therapy, it's amazing how writting things down can lift a weight from your shoulders. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I’m not sure! I think from the small sample of writers I know that’s at least part of it. I find it to be a huge release but that’s also just part of it.
"I started to test out what it might feel like to write instead of catch eyes." - Brilliant. Thank you. For the permission and the inspiration. My gut said that this was where I could do that and you have validated it for me.
This was very moving. I started my WordPress blog back in 2008 simply because I had to write. I had to get all my thoughts on this one topic out of my head and down on "paper." That's the same reason why my Substack now exists. It doesnt matter that I only have a couple of hundred subscribers. This isn't a strategy play. It's an opportunity to write about my favorite topic and engage with people who love the same subject so my head doesn't explode. Nothing more, nothing less.
So thankful I ran into this post today. I've been writing for 3 years with little to no "progress", I forget that I write because I need to declutter my mind. But ever since I left college because I was utterly miserable I sought out a digital career through social media platforms, but it really gets to your head when you're trying so hard to build an audience and no money or sales to show for it.
nice piece Holy! Your writing immediately strikes as honest and sincere. I doesn't sound like you have an agenda in mind. But you are just writing what you really have to say. You have a gift for writing as you speak and sounding natural. Those are the characteristics that made me sign up to your newsletter
I very much appreciate this essay. It draws out a theme that even I illuminate in many of my own essays: It's possible to connect dots ex post and rationalize results, but it can make sense to contemplate the prospect that we are dealing with complex, dynamic processes; we really can't control them. The conceit that there is a formula may be no more that: a conceit. It may be an illusion.
"The Butterfly Effect" comes to mind. As popularly understood, it reflects the idea that arbitrarily small perturbations in a complex system can induce spectacularly large effects. But, the /real/ "Butterfly Effect" is that we may never be able to know enough about a complex system to enable ourselves to do more than make short-term forecasts of any worth. Stuff just happens. Connecting dots ex post is all well and good, but it may amount to nothing more than empty ex post rationalization.
The wisdom that comes of all that?: Just as the author suggested: Do good work and let the universe take care of the rest. Be Zen about it. The likelihood of any one person becoming influential is virtually zero. Enjoy the success you do have. Enjoy the satisfaction of doing good work. Be thankful for the fact that other people have assembled these awesome platforms for us to share our ideas. And let it go at that.
Understanding the Butterfly Effect is something we need to understand way beyond writing. But understanding and sharing it with our writing is fundamental. There are no coincidences at all. Everything affects everything else in our dynamic universe.
The other thing I and other artists I know employ to their advantage is the Art of Distraction. Often, seemingly paradoxically, we get our best ideas directly from our subconscious minds. Distraction serves to quiet and pacify the conscious mind and allows the good stuff to bubble up from the depths. Distraction of the conscious mind is an art all to itself.
The other big factor is timing - understanding when we are ready to tackle a subject or not. Often I write out fragments of disjointed thinking, relegate it to the files and come back to it once the time is right. Our minds work in strange ways (at least mine does) and honoring this strangeness is also an art.
When the time is right, the ideas have surfaced and writing seems to flow directly from a deeper source as if taking dictation we are ready. Many of the musicians I know do their best work in the first flash of inspiration they record. Not that it doesn’t need to be polished and worked at but the critical thing is that first direct-from-the-subconscious inspired flash. No matter what is done subsequently I prefer to here the roughest first take of a songwriter’s work to understand where it needs to,go during the difficult process of actual recording. On occasion it is literally impossible to out do that first rough, unpolished gem.
Yes agree.. And as it seems I am perpetually reminding our musicians is the best thing that can happen to a song is you get it to an audience. If they like it (admittedly a gamble - but what isn't?) you will have to play that song over ad infinitum. It will be different each and every time. Non attachment to our works also works as a positive force. My other frequent reminder is that artists need to polish a healthy form of " I don' t care-ism" Think that is what Hemingway meant when he said "kill your darlings" although it works on other levels also.
“Finding Your Voice” can take decades. And that’s OK. Revel in the journey.
Good advice, thanks - doing things because we must is great. Our motivation for doing things like being a musician or a writer is the most important thing. I write like my hair is on fire because I have no other choice. I work hard to follow Hemingway's advice about "killing your darlings". It works well for any creative endeavor. We have a running joke around our house about the accomplishment of daily mundane tasks which "even a musician or writer could do".
Excellent, succinct little piece. Write like it matters: Yes! Agree. As a sober writer on Substack myself I do agree with everything you said here. Most of us write because we have to, not financially but spiritually. I think recovery aids this endeavor. I subscribed to your SS. Good stuff.
Btw my Substack is relevant, particularly my most recent post, titled, “Sobriety and Wokeism are Diametrically Opposed to Each Other:
Why 12-step Recovery and Social Justice Warriors Collide”: https://michaelmohr.substack.com/p/sobriety-and-wokeism-are-diametrically
Anyway: Thanks Holly. I started my own Wordpress writing blog in 2013 as well, with three years sober and after interning for a literary agent for nine months. A year before I’d gotten my first story published in a magazine. Fun times 🔥
Michael Mohr
‘Sincere American Writing’
https://michaelmohr.substack.com/
Hi Michael! Excited to check out your pieces.
Ditto!
Such an insightful article.
Words that resonated the most because these are the exact reasons why I started writing:
- I had a lot to say and I didn’t know who to say it to.
- I started it out of desperation, as a lifeline.
- Here, I got honest in a way that I don’t think I’d been anywhere else.
- Write like it matters and like what you have to say matters.
As someone who has only started writing, or at least posting, in the last year, this is eye opening. One of my biggest fears is that I’ll start to view writing as work, not enjoyment and expression. I’ve never had the dual honor and burden of having to write for someone else or have a schedule or anything like that, and that’s what makes substack great. No matter how big I get or small I stay, substack is folks who go out of their way to see what I do, the way I do it. Thanks for the article, love that you read it too! I gotta start doing that with my stuff.
Great to read how you started. Do you think that it is a common thread with writers, just getting stuff off your chest? I'm not a writer but I did a few pieces simply as a form of therapy, it's amazing how writting things down can lift a weight from your shoulders. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I’m not sure! I think from the small sample of writers I know that’s at least part of it. I find it to be a huge release but that’s also just part of it.
I think writing also helps provide clarity on your thoughts.
“Write like it matters”, thank you from one aspiring writer to another.
"I started to test out what it might feel like to write instead of catch eyes." - Brilliant. Thank you. For the permission and the inspiration. My gut said that this was where I could do that and you have validated it for me.
♥️
Thanks for sharing this Holly, I loved reading it. So glad I get to work with you. <3
🥰
I love this newsletter, I am very grateful it found its way to my inbox. Thank you for writing this.
This was very moving. I started my WordPress blog back in 2008 simply because I had to write. I had to get all my thoughts on this one topic out of my head and down on "paper." That's the same reason why my Substack now exists. It doesnt matter that I only have a couple of hundred subscribers. This isn't a strategy play. It's an opportunity to write about my favorite topic and engage with people who love the same subject so my head doesn't explode. Nothing more, nothing less.
So thankful I ran into this post today. I've been writing for 3 years with little to no "progress", I forget that I write because I need to declutter my mind. But ever since I left college because I was utterly miserable I sought out a digital career through social media platforms, but it really gets to your head when you're trying so hard to build an audience and no money or sales to show for it.
Thankou so much for writing this piece. Your words are exactly what I needed to hear to encourage me to keep going.
nice piece Holy! Your writing immediately strikes as honest and sincere. I doesn't sound like you have an agenda in mind. But you are just writing what you really have to say. You have a gift for writing as you speak and sounding natural. Those are the characteristics that made me sign up to your newsletter
I very much appreciate this essay. It draws out a theme that even I illuminate in many of my own essays: It's possible to connect dots ex post and rationalize results, but it can make sense to contemplate the prospect that we are dealing with complex, dynamic processes; we really can't control them. The conceit that there is a formula may be no more that: a conceit. It may be an illusion.
"The Butterfly Effect" comes to mind. As popularly understood, it reflects the idea that arbitrarily small perturbations in a complex system can induce spectacularly large effects. But, the /real/ "Butterfly Effect" is that we may never be able to know enough about a complex system to enable ourselves to do more than make short-term forecasts of any worth. Stuff just happens. Connecting dots ex post is all well and good, but it may amount to nothing more than empty ex post rationalization.
The wisdom that comes of all that?: Just as the author suggested: Do good work and let the universe take care of the rest. Be Zen about it. The likelihood of any one person becoming influential is virtually zero. Enjoy the success you do have. Enjoy the satisfaction of doing good work. Be thankful for the fact that other people have assembled these awesome platforms for us to share our ideas. And let it go at that.
The conceit that there is a formula may be no more than a conceit!
Understanding the Butterfly Effect is something we need to understand way beyond writing. But understanding and sharing it with our writing is fundamental. There are no coincidences at all. Everything affects everything else in our dynamic universe.
The other thing I and other artists I know employ to their advantage is the Art of Distraction. Often, seemingly paradoxically, we get our best ideas directly from our subconscious minds. Distraction serves to quiet and pacify the conscious mind and allows the good stuff to bubble up from the depths. Distraction of the conscious mind is an art all to itself.
The other big factor is timing - understanding when we are ready to tackle a subject or not. Often I write out fragments of disjointed thinking, relegate it to the files and come back to it once the time is right. Our minds work in strange ways (at least mine does) and honoring this strangeness is also an art.
When the time is right, the ideas have surfaced and writing seems to flow directly from a deeper source as if taking dictation we are ready. Many of the musicians I know do their best work in the first flash of inspiration they record. Not that it doesn’t need to be polished and worked at but the critical thing is that first direct-from-the-subconscious inspired flash. No matter what is done subsequently I prefer to here the roughest first take of a songwriter’s work to understand where it needs to,go during the difficult process of actual recording. On occasion it is literally impossible to out do that first rough, unpolished gem.
When the time is right ... Right on, brother. Things stew, simmer, percolate, rest, bubble again.
Right now I have some deadlines to meet. (How unsporting uncivilized!) Some material could stand to brew a little longer ...
Yes agree.. And as it seems I am perpetually reminding our musicians is the best thing that can happen to a song is you get it to an audience. If they like it (admittedly a gamble - but what isn't?) you will have to play that song over ad infinitum. It will be different each and every time. Non attachment to our works also works as a positive force. My other frequent reminder is that artists need to polish a healthy form of " I don' t care-ism" Think that is what Hemingway meant when he said "kill your darlings" although it works on other levels also.
keep writing