I used to blog. It became a journal. I also used to keep a diary. I have diaries going back to the early 80s. The blog replaced those but looking back much of it was screaming into the void. Even so I had hundreds of people who used to leave comments. Many I would count as friends.
But then one person went and spoiled it. I've always operated online anonymously and will continue to do so. There are genuinely dangerous people around.
I write mainly for myself but it's nice to engage socially. I will not turn on paywalls as I'm not consistent enough to provide any product. Some of it is rap poetry, some structured, some Sufi, some logic or law or biology. Some of it is jokes. It's whatever comes.
I'm kinda with Andrew. Mine is for me. My musical career died a whimpering death three years ago and so I have nothing to sell or promote. Substack has increased my want to write though...songs and otherwise. And, except for a few recurring dicks, people have been pretty friendly. Does this relate to what you're saying? Maybe not.
My Substack is for me. It’s a way for me to explore my own process and document my journey. If other people dig it, that’s great. If it opens doors in meaningful ways in the future, also great. But for me it’s not a waste of time.
Thanks Andrew for communing! Yes, it's for me (us) --- just a way right now to feel less invisible. Hopefully in the future we'll have time to collaborate more with others! That'd be great! So great to meet you! JOEY is GOING to ADD some more here in a minute!!
I write because I have thoughts on music and on how important knowing about music is – I also just genuinely like writing in my own way without set deadlines or style constraints.
Subtack keeps eating my reply! But Joey is replying to you --- he's the music guy though it's rubbed off on me. He's gonna make a substack trivial pursuit game platform one of these days.... Thanks for communing!
I am going to disagree with the people who say that my Substack is for me. It is for the community. That is what keeps bringing me back. The people there have encouraged me to experiment, to take risks, to write things I might not have written alone, to follow strange instincts and see where they lead. Some of the most interesting things I have done this past year happened because I was not writing into a void.
To be honest, I do not really know what I am these days.
I am primarily a writer. More precisely, I am a storyteller. That is the thing I know I can do. Maybe I am also a poet sometimes, though I am careful with that word.
But the internet has pulled me into other forms as well. I started exploring digital art. I started making music. I found myself connecting with things that once felt separate from writing, only to realize they were not separate at all. They were other ways of telling stories, other ways of shaping atmosphere, rhythm, image, and feeling.
For a long time, writing was the thing I wanted to turn into a career because I hated the career I had officially chosen, which was law. Writing was supposed to be the escape route. The clean break. The road out.
After a year of writing seriously on Substack, I do not want to turn my art into another machine that I have to feed until I hate it. I want to build a community. I want to make my own art. I want to be serious about it, but also a little more detached from it. Not detached in the sense that I do not care, but detached in the sense that I do not want to strangle the work by demanding that it pay rent immediately.
I still want to make money. I am not pretending otherwise. But I am not in a rush to milk the thing as hard as possible, to optimize every gesture, to become highly paid as quickly as possible by turning myself into a product. This time, I am trying to go the other way around.
Build something first. Monetize later. Create value first. Let the value return in its own time.
That feels closer to the way art and community should work.
Thanks for replying! We appreciate all the thoughtfulness and richness of it! Joey and I do a bit of everything too: writing, digital art, sound design, film, electronic music. Right now, we're also swamped with unpleasant practical challenges!! Hopefully gonna get some group projects going soon to involve other Substackers! Please keep in touch ! Joey is gonna add some more comment in a sec
I used to blog. It became a journal. I also used to keep a diary. I have diaries going back to the early 80s. The blog replaced those but looking back much of it was screaming into the void. Even so I had hundreds of people who used to leave comments. Many I would count as friends.
But then one person went and spoiled it. I've always operated online anonymously and will continue to do so. There are genuinely dangerous people around.
I write mainly for myself but it's nice to engage socially. I will not turn on paywalls as I'm not consistent enough to provide any product. Some of it is rap poetry, some structured, some Sufi, some logic or law or biology. Some of it is jokes. It's whatever comes.
SUBSTACK KEEPS EATING MY REPLY!!!! FEEL FREE TO COME PROMOTE ANY TIME. DIG YOUR ESSENCE--- it seems also NICHELESS!
I like your approach — although I do get that “screaming into the void” feeling when I Substack.
I'm kinda with Andrew. Mine is for me. My musical career died a whimpering death three years ago and so I have nothing to sell or promote. Substack has increased my want to write though...songs and otherwise. And, except for a few recurring dicks, people have been pretty friendly. Does this relate to what you're saying? Maybe not.
I’m Braindead
No you're not!
Damn I didn’t mean to delete your REPLY! it was totally great but I’m half asleep
Theopolis I accidentally deleted your other replies ! Sorry…. Long day!
“Music dies when you put a dollar sign in front of it” (don’t know who said that . . maybe Zappa?)
Joey is also gonna comment
My Substack is for me. It’s a way for me to explore my own process and document my journey. If other people dig it, that’s great. If it opens doors in meaningful ways in the future, also great. But for me it’s not a waste of time.
Substack is a journey,not a destination, sort of thing. Yes?
Yes, totally. Substack is like the journal I take with me on the journey.
Thanks Andrew for communing! Yes, it's for me (us) --- just a way right now to feel less invisible. Hopefully in the future we'll have time to collaborate more with others! That'd be great! So great to meet you! JOEY is GOING to ADD some more here in a minute!!
I write because I have thoughts on music and on how important knowing about music is – I also just genuinely like writing in my own way without set deadlines or style constraints.
Subtack keeps eating my reply! But Joey is replying to you --- he's the music guy though it's rubbed off on me. He's gonna make a substack trivial pursuit game platform one of these days.... Thanks for communing!
Yeah, I’m not a fan of deadlines, but I actually think “constraints” are what make “style”
True true - that said I do have a lot more license to be funny in my articles than I ever did at university
IK,R? Humor there, you gotta be careful!
I am going to disagree with the people who say that my Substack is for me. It is for the community. That is what keeps bringing me back. The people there have encouraged me to experiment, to take risks, to write things I might not have written alone, to follow strange instincts and see where they lead. Some of the most interesting things I have done this past year happened because I was not writing into a void.
To be honest, I do not really know what I am these days.
I am primarily a writer. More precisely, I am a storyteller. That is the thing I know I can do. Maybe I am also a poet sometimes, though I am careful with that word.
But the internet has pulled me into other forms as well. I started exploring digital art. I started making music. I found myself connecting with things that once felt separate from writing, only to realize they were not separate at all. They were other ways of telling stories, other ways of shaping atmosphere, rhythm, image, and feeling.
For a long time, writing was the thing I wanted to turn into a career because I hated the career I had officially chosen, which was law. Writing was supposed to be the escape route. The clean break. The road out.
After a year of writing seriously on Substack, I do not want to turn my art into another machine that I have to feed until I hate it. I want to build a community. I want to make my own art. I want to be serious about it, but also a little more detached from it. Not detached in the sense that I do not care, but detached in the sense that I do not want to strangle the work by demanding that it pay rent immediately.
I still want to make money. I am not pretending otherwise. But I am not in a rush to milk the thing as hard as possible, to optimize every gesture, to become highly paid as quickly as possible by turning myself into a product. This time, I am trying to go the other way around.
Build something first. Monetize later. Create value first. Let the value return in its own time.
That feels closer to the way art and community should work.
Thanks for replying! We appreciate all the thoughtfulness and richness of it! Joey and I do a bit of everything too: writing, digital art, sound design, film, electronic music. Right now, we're also swamped with unpleasant practical challenges!! Hopefully gonna get some group projects going soon to involve other Substackers! Please keep in touch ! Joey is gonna add some more comment in a sec
Agree. You make the art, then you make the bag (apologies to A$AP Rocky)
(sorry, it’s DJ Khaled)