59 Comments
Nov 1, 2022Liked by Holly Whitaker

“Finding Your Voice” can take decades. And that’s OK. Revel in the journey.

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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".

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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/

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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.

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Nov 1, 2022Liked by Holly Whitaker

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.

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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.

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“Write like it matters”, thank you from one aspiring writer to another.

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"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.

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Thanks for sharing this Holly, I loved reading it. So glad I get to work with you. <3

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Nov 1, 2022Liked by Holly Whitaker

I love this newsletter, I am very grateful it found its way to my inbox. Thank you for writing this.

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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.

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Nov 1, 2022Liked by Holly Whitaker

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.

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Thankou so much for writing this piece. Your words are exactly what I needed to hear to encourage me to keep going.

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Nov 1, 2022Liked by Holly Whitaker

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

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Nov 1, 2022·edited Nov 1, 2022Liked by Holly Whitaker

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.

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keep writing

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