I feel the same way about long form, but I'm back in here with you, waiting for my tiny likes. And I was very pleased to see that I was your third like for this post- I'm doing my part.
I’ve been watching escapist stuff on Netflix while I recover from my second round of Covid on top of Long Covid. Enola Holmes and Enola Holmes 2 to be specific. There’s a line from that goes like this: You find your allies and you work with them and you will become more of who you are. Here’s to the continuing the search. And this blog.
This blunt approach has saved my life. Not my actual life. But my creative life. It was almostdead and now it is at least on life support and showing signs of breathing on its own again. I writing brain has been at the bottom of a dank deep well expecting this to be the last of it all and now I smell Taco Ball and goddamn if there isn't something worth wording for again.
I got my popcorn ready and watched with glee when Elon took over Twitter. "Let it burn!" I said! "I'm tired of the discourse!" But, recently, it started feeling like he might actually break it. Like the damn thing might not open on my phone soon. It does make you take a step back and realize that you truly don't have unfettered access to your Twitter followers. A weird verification thing, an algorithm change, and it all gets lost in the shuffle.
Love you. Love this. My thoughts the last week or two have been like: share more actual writing, read less and do it slower, find one real reader for every few hundred social media followers.
Agreed "find one real reader for every few hundred social media followers" is really insightful. I've been thinking on it all day. Thank you for the kind words
Nov 16, 2022·edited Nov 16, 2022Liked by Taco Bell Quarterly
I discovered you and TBQ a couple of weeks ago and wish I had years ago. I love your attitude and tone and humour. I am writing a novel but desperate to write other stuff too because I want to talk to other writers and thinkers, but I've been reluctant to start, not sure if it's worth it, if anyone would even care. I conceived a 'journal of the sacred in global art and culture' (www.illuminejournal.org) just before the pandemic and its inauguration into the world has been derailed by the same doubts (and mainly zero funding) but your never say die attitude and live mas motto have really encouraged me to just fucking do it. And do it for me, not for anyone else, because it matters to me, just like my novel matters to me whether anyone else ever reads it or not. So, allow me to thank you for being a light in the world.
I love what you said, that blogging is an endless sandbox of the self, looking for people who’ll clap for you. I’m brand new to blogging, but it already feels like that when I think about my future in this medium. Like in a sandbox, I feel free to explore things I can’t in my more “serious” writing projects, but let’s not kid ourselves, I’m also doing this to get a bigger audience. Where does the balance lie? When do you stop blogging for yourself and start writing as marketing? Great post, TBQ, as always. Live Más!
More TBQ, and now in my inbox? SOLD! :) I write a Substack and also grew up in the LiveJournal age but thus far had failed to make the connections you did between that early performative taste for blogging and what I do now. Great post. Can't wait to read more.
I feel the same way about long form, but I'm back in here with you, waiting for my tiny likes. And I was very pleased to see that I was your third like for this post- I'm doing my part.
Thank you, you've done the Lord's work and I've subscribed to your Substack!
Shirley Bell at the Blue Nib Lit Mag let me in.
I’ve been watching escapist stuff on Netflix while I recover from my second round of Covid on top of Long Covid. Enola Holmes and Enola Holmes 2 to be specific. There’s a line from that goes like this: You find your allies and you work with them and you will become more of who you are. Here’s to the continuing the search. And this blog.
"Shirley Bell at the Blue Nib Lit Mag let me in" is literally one of the most breathtaking and beautiful sentences I ever read.
This blunt approach has saved my life. Not my actual life. But my creative life. It was almostdead and now it is at least on life support and showing signs of breathing on its own again. I writing brain has been at the bottom of a dank deep well expecting this to be the last of it all and now I smell Taco Ball and goddamn if there isn't something worth wording for again.
Live mas! It can't die because as long as you're here, you're a writer!
I got my popcorn ready and watched with glee when Elon took over Twitter. "Let it burn!" I said! "I'm tired of the discourse!" But, recently, it started feeling like he might actually break it. Like the damn thing might not open on my phone soon. It does make you take a step back and realize that you truly don't have unfettered access to your Twitter followers. A weird verification thing, an algorithm change, and it all gets lost in the shuffle.
Love you. Love this. My thoughts the last week or two have been like: share more actual writing, read less and do it slower, find one real reader for every few hundred social media followers.
"find one real reader for every few hundred social media followers" - a brilliant, and liberating, piece of advice Adam, thank you.
Agreed "find one real reader for every few hundred social media followers" is really insightful. I've been thinking on it all day. Thank you for the kind words
It’s really easy for my dumb ass to confuse interaction with actual interest and I do not wanna be that fool.
I discovered you and TBQ a couple of weeks ago and wish I had years ago. I love your attitude and tone and humour. I am writing a novel but desperate to write other stuff too because I want to talk to other writers and thinkers, but I've been reluctant to start, not sure if it's worth it, if anyone would even care. I conceived a 'journal of the sacred in global art and culture' (www.illuminejournal.org) just before the pandemic and its inauguration into the world has been derailed by the same doubts (and mainly zero funding) but your never say die attitude and live mas motto have really encouraged me to just fucking do it. And do it for me, not for anyone else, because it matters to me, just like my novel matters to me whether anyone else ever reads it or not. So, allow me to thank you for being a light in the world.
Thank you for the kind words! Just do it!
I love what you said, that blogging is an endless sandbox of the self, looking for people who’ll clap for you. I’m brand new to blogging, but it already feels like that when I think about my future in this medium. Like in a sandbox, I feel free to explore things I can’t in my more “serious” writing projects, but let’s not kid ourselves, I’m also doing this to get a bigger audience. Where does the balance lie? When do you stop blogging for yourself and start writing as marketing? Great post, TBQ, as always. Live Más!
More TBQ, and now in my inbox? SOLD! :) I write a Substack and also grew up in the LiveJournal age but thus far had failed to make the connections you did between that early performative taste for blogging and what I do now. Great post. Can't wait to read more.