Change Is in the Air
I launched Limning the Ordinary on the spring equinox of 2023, and we’re fast approaching the fall equinox, marking 18 months here on Substack.
The past week of the journey has been interesting. Last Saturday, I was frustrated at continually seeing “suggestions” on the Substack homepage by Substackers who already have thousands of followers and hundreds of likes.
So, I wrote this:
You'll see by the number of likes, comments, and restacks that this struck a chord with a lot of you here, which I found both heartening and revealing.
It also got me thinking. Over the summer, I’ve been considering my focus or direction for the next season of Limning, with the 18-month mark approaching and a new season coming.
So I thought, why not offer curated content? Why not highlight many of you who are also writing, pouring your heart into your posts, and not seeing the results or the connection that you wish you would?
I know the feeling.
The Journey So Far
I started my first blog in 2008, another one in 2010, then 2011. Overall, I've started 10 to 12 blogs or websites (not all under my name because I don't want everybody to know just how scattered my interests are).
I've mostly written for the joy of writing and to connect with others, so I never paid attention to things like search engine optimization (SEO) and keyword-heavy posts.
Over time, I noticed other writers would post about making thousands of dollars a month on affiliate marketing through their website; others would have tens of thousands of followers.
Slowly, I began to consider my lack of numbers as a lack of success.
I began to see it as something I was doing wrong rather than something that I was doing differently.
Is this a struggle for you, too?
It can be debilitating, living in a culture that associates numbers and attention with success.
Recently, I was chatting online with my older brother about this. He is a terrific artist of sketches and paintings and is a tattoo artist in Portland. My “art” medium is words, but we were talking about the struggle of putting our work out there and being seen.
I said it was frustrating sometimes to play the slow and steady game and feel like it’s going nowhere, then seeing people who’ve started much later be 10 steps ahead.
I asked, jokingly, “Where’s that shortcut lane?”
This was his response:
“I think the grand prize is more ‘I lived my values and did something I cared about’ versus ‘I found material success.’ A certain level of success comes with an unwavering commitment to whatever one is unwaveringly committed to.
Might not be the kind of success we want, but it'll be success. Mastery is a form of success. Recognition from the few people who ‘see you’ is a form of success. Hard to watch people coming in and swooping up massive successes with lower levels of commitment/mastery but you know what they say: comparison is the thief of joy.”
His comment stopped me in my tracks. When did I begin to focus so much on numbers or likes? When did I start comparing so much?
I told my husband about the note, and remarked that it’s kind of ironic; usually, I write poems or personal essays and some of them take a lot of effort.
Is this how it is for you, sometimes?
You feel like you’re tapping into the veins of your very soul to write some of the things you share, and you get a couple “likes” and a single comment.
(BTW, I am truly grateful for those few likes and comments. I’m thankful for those of you who’ve been around for a while and shown grace as I’ve been finding my footing and focus here. Your support of this baby Substack has been phenomenal.)
But it felt a little ironic that I posted this little “rant” of sorts, which took me a minute to write, and it has gotten so much feedback.
The other result is that my subscribers have jumped by more than 50 in the past week. I'm excited about (and thankful to) you who have subscribed. Many of you who read the above note are pouring your heart and soul into your work, then feeling like you’re posting into a vast void.
It's as if we were musicians on a stage but playing to an auditorium of one or two people.
Or a pastor preaching to a congregation of three and getting a single “amen” at the end.
We keep writing because we love it—it’s what we feel called to or are passionate about—but it makes a difference when we're not just weaving our soul into words that fall into the void … but we're actually connecting with others.
I feel that is a big reason that many of us write—connection. Right?
Otherwise, as one or two of you commented when you restacked the note, you could just write in your journal or diary.
The Journey Ahead
All that to say, I plan on doing some of what I plan to dub “creative curating.” Every week, I will post content I’ve gathered—I’ll share some things from other Substacks and highlight your work as well as other things—maybe books or quotes—that connect the threads thematically.
One writer I subscribe to here on Substack is Austin Kleon and I appreciate his weekly, “10 things worth sharing” but I admit I can find them overwhelming. This is why:
Under each of the 10 things, there are several hyperlinks. In the most recent post, there were 53 links. I don't have the time to click all of those links. (Granted, some of them might be affiliate links and not all videos or posts, but that many links are still overwhelming.)
All I can do is skim the email, but I don't have the time to give it the careful attention I would like. But I do like the idea of curated content, so my plan is along the lines of thematic content.
I don’t want you to be overwhelmed by too many suggestions or links, so I’ll try to keep these posts concise and focused thematically.
(If you ever visited my house, you’ll know thematic organization is important to me. I organize my books not by color or size or paperback versus hardcover but by topics—themes.)
So, the new focus—this seasonal change—is coming at the start of autumn. I also plan to alter the weekdays when I post. This is what it will hopefully look like:
Mondays – Creative curations with links to other Substacks and writers, focused thematically
Thursdays – A poem, sometimes with commentary or back story
Saturday (or sometimes Sunday) – a post for paid subscribers, usually in the style of a personal or creative essay
I’m excited about these changes and so happy you’re along for the journey—thrilled at the idea of gathering ideas and content from your writings, as well as from other places.
It makes me feel like a kid gathering those little flowers that grow profusely in the Central Valley, and making them into daisy chains, necklaces, crowns.
I hope you’ll enjoy them, too!
Ps: While I mentioned sometimes feeling overwhelmed by Austin Kleon’s weekly Substack, I do appreciate his work and curation, and I love his book Steal Like an Artist. It's a terrific book on accessing and harnessing creativity.
I'm currently reading Chapter 4, “Use Your Hands.” He makes the point that, in this digital age, everything we do is hands on keyboard, eyes on screen. We're not using our hands to create as people did for millennia past, and this is affecting our creativity.
When our work is primarily with words, it's hard to work with our hands, but there are still ways we can do that. Earlier this year, I began an erasure poetry project with Francis Bacon's essays. I hope to return to it this fall.
I'd encourage you to read his book and think about how you might play with creativity in non-digital ways—ways that use your hands, and paper and markers and paints to access creativity in new ways for a new season.
“Posting into the vast void” —I totally feel this. And I love your brother’s response.
Looking forward to it!