Early & Alone #84: Structural Integrity
On revamping
I kept meaning to write an issue of this newsletter last week but I allowed discouragement to get the best of me, as I’m prone to do. I’d set goals for myself for March, to hit a certain number of subscribers, to send out a certain number of newsletters. But when I didn’t hit my subscriber goal, I got frustrated, so didn’t send out the four newsletters I’d set out to send.
I find myself in this cycle of failure a lot. I hit a wall with projects and usually give up, at least for a little while, before coming back to it, either with renewed energy or a kind of resolute stubbornness. I’m trying to take my own advice and not worry so much about the numbers or the shares or the likes. At the end of the day, it’s about the writing, the doing, the creating, the building.
I’ve thought about why I write this newsletter, what the point is. So many other newsletters have a theme, a compass, a succinct “about” page. They are only about writing or only about pop culture or only about shopping or only about politics, while mine is all over the map. Because I’d argue that nothing is only ever about one thing. I’ve settled on a sort of loose guiding star, which is that I am writing about navigating the messy middles of things—life, writing, relationships. To that end, I’m going to try a new experiment in which I focus these newsletters a bit more week by week. This will give me that little bit more structure I need to focus, to reign in my wandering attention span a tiny bit.
My plan is to break up each month into four themes.
Week 1: The Creative Process—This will encompass writing, making art, thinking about making art, inspiration, tarot, and whatever else is tangled up in the creative process.
Week 2: Culture—This is where I’ll focus in on movies, TV, technology, books, and whatever else is making me think.
Week 3: Relationship with Self—This is a broad category that will include work, body image, identity, style, etc.
Week 4: Relationships with Others—Here I’ll write about dating, marriage, divorce, friendship, family, and community.
You can still expect weekly Bright Spots as well as the occasional Gizmo pic or funny meme. If you have any other ideas about what you’d like to see more of, please drop me a line or leave a comment! I’m excited about this new structure—this newsletter has good bones but she needs a little structural reinforcement every now and then.
Thanks as always for reading, sharing, commenting, and liking.
Bright Spots
I have been enjoying the NY Times podcast Hard Fork, which focuses on AI, a subject I’m fascinated by. This episode from a couple of weeks ago was really interesting, especially the feature they did where listeners called in with the specific ways they’ve been using AI to help improve their daily lives.
They also talk about the new Spotify DJ feature on the episode, a feature I thought I was going to hate but which I actually really enjoy? Have any of you tried it? What do you think of it?
I’m obsessed with the new season of Love Is Blind. The drama, the messiness, the one couple you’re actually rooting for…this season’s got it all! If you haven’t watched yet, you still have time to catch up before the very first LIVE reunion show on 4/16 at 8 pm EST. Not that I have it on my calendar or anything.
Did you guys follow the Gwyneth Paltrow ski trial? I know there are a few other high stakes news stories happening right now, but that trial, whew. It was a nice break from things that actually matter.
I just finished Kiese Laymon’s memoir Heavy and that’s a book that’s going to stick with me for a long time.
Finally, this meme just about sums everything up.
*Also I just realized that I skipped #82. Maybe it’s time to stop numbering these…