It’s ironic that I consider myself someone who wants to write, to be a writer, perhaps even to be an author (a very distant dream), and yet I leave this blog for inordinately long stretches at a time.
But you’ve been on my mind, dear Substack reader. As I consider what the future of…well, my future is, I find my thoughts drifting back to writing and how less of it I’m doing (my last post was March!).
You see, (ah here come the excuses), I’ve been so caught up with life (yep, that’s the one). Amidst full-time working, freelancing, job hunting, and figuring out monetisation for my ‘art business’ (as much as I hate to call it that) my writing has fallen off the wagon.
Actually, the long coma of my writing has come about because my reading habit died out. I find myself in periods where I voraciously read (and inevitably end up writing), versus dry spells like now where I neither can settle on a good book, nor a blogpost. I’m slowly getting back into it (my latest book is The Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai - I’m about 1/4 of the way in and still unsure how I feel about it, but I assume I’ll keep going).
It’s ironic because I actually made a video about how it’s okay to not be consistent (I think this advice still stands). But it’s funny how I look back at that video and think…wow, this is the same stuff I need to hear now!
In lighter (and better) news though, I recently took a trip to visit a cousin in Baku. Azerbaijan is a beautiful country and I was so blessed I got to complete my first travel sketchbook. If you want to see more of my adventures, you can follow me on Instagram or subscribe on Youtube (in fact here is a short I made about the sketch below). I occasionally (sporadically) post on Twitter but I forget to use the app…(my social media brain isn’t as partial to the blue icon it seems)
.In fact, inspired very much by the likes of
, I think it’s a great idea to finally start sharing the sketches I do here. I mean, what better place for both my writing and art? Not only that but there are so many stories behind the artworks that are too descriptive for Instagram captions or don’t have enough of a lesson for YouTube scripts. Sometimes I just want to write about the sketch as is.I think another reason I actually don’t write much anymore is because I wonder: What if I write something too personal? And so, it’s with much deliberation that I’ve decided to put some of my blog behind a paywall. It’s (hopefully) not a seismic amount, just enough to give me a little incentive to actually write, (because if I’m getting paid then I’ll need to deliver), whilst also keeping my privacy intact.
I hope to offer you some benefit in your inboxes (and don’t worry, I will still be offering as much as I can through my free writing). I just hope this is one step in my fighting my financial anxiety (i.e. asking people to pay me for my creative work lol).
I’d love to know what you’re working on. Let’s start a conversation below.
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