A Year of Writing ✷ for Sport ✷ on Substack

A reflection on my year of writing on Substack and using this app.

This may be in your email inbox or because I won the feed scroll lottery. But it is here because of Substack. A free (for me) app.

It all began with a Skillshare class by

Cody Cook-Parrott

, a self imposed residency friend vacay with

blue

, and a psychic saying that it would be a year of fulfilling writing practice development for Pisces.

Before the start of ✷ For Sport ✷, I had years of disappointment on Instagram. As for my gripes and misgivings, I will spare you but I am sure you could list them because… many people share my feelings. In fact, if you are new or receiving this in your email inbox you should know that many of the users of this app hate Instagram :) . Each week I am reading some of today’s brightest writers share, slam, and respectfully denounce Instagram and it feels like a revolution is coming for that app.

If I have taken anything away from a year on Substack is that Instagram is not the only place for artists but … it is more like artist purgatory. Since having Substack in my life, I see Instagram as a slot machine cosplaying as a creative connection tool. But it ends there, it is just a tool and I have cut the chord of codependency.

I know there are many ways this app falls short and I do not want to forget it. But this app did give me the chance to start, to which I am so thankful for. I made this app with the intention of it being another art sharing tool but it has become so much more for me. Let us be real, I could have never done this on Instagram.

The weird thing for me is, I always made art and got praise but my writing receives the most responses from people. I genuinely continue making each writing for fun and expecting nothing in return.

Just before making a Substack, I remember calling weekly with

Maya

. The formula of our conversations were like so…

1.) complain about all the ways Instagram fails artists (creatively, dependency trap, and overall inefficiency)

2.) Remind each other that we must succumb to using it for our work

3.) Brainstorm ways to grow and explore new ways of developing our practice

In these conversations, Maya suggested a blog. Simultaneously I found Cody Cook Parrots Common Shapes podcast. Then I payed for one month of Skillshare to take their class and I started. I took a few days during a self imposed residency / a dog sitting vacation to finally begin.

So here we are, one year later.

I would be remiss to not share, actually starting my Substack ✷ For Sport ✷ was a hard for me. Many people actually told me not to bother, claiming I should use other platforms or that “no one uses Substack”.

Growing up with undiagnosed ADHD, I remember always having work harder than other students and being told things like “you will never be good at…” [insert academic thing here]. Despite a childhood of fraught academic pursuits, I excelled in my undergraduate program where my primary course work was writing. One of my first classes was with Maura Reilly who often gave thoughtful feedback about my writing and I learned it didn’t have to be perfect the first time but I had to at least be clear about what I wanted to share. Maura’s class created a space where I felt like I could actually do the thing.

But even with a glimpse of my hero’s journey in writing, I still felt like a fraud before Substack. I wanted to prep all the time and “do it right”.

It was because of

Cody Cook-Parrott

on their podcast Common Shapes that I felt called to action. They encouraged the starting before you are “ready” and allowing the work to change shapes as needed. So, Another thing I have learned since starting my Substack is that just fucking start. This is a little bit of what I hope ⋆ ˚｡⋆౨ৎ˚Save to Drafts... can be, a place where the idea could incubate and if viable, maybe it could become its own.

Now my writing extends out of this digital space.

With a year of changing shape, ✷ For Sport ✷ is really the blueprints of my independent writing practice growing. I am hesitant to make bold statements about what the future of my writing will be but I can say with confidence… I just want to keep writing.

I keep thinking about this quote from Ta-Nehisi Coates where he says…

“people say ‘ the kids aren’t reading anymore’ … mother fucker why aren’t you writing?!”

I want to be writing for the love of it. I want to write the things my former self could have been reading. I want to passionately share about my life, pull together all the sources to prove a point, and just write.

Again, I am not writing this as an update to my newsletter ✰ HARK! ✰ or giving you a raw brain dump like my blog ⋆ ˚｡⋆౨ৎ˚Save to Drafts... but this could live in either.

I am here to say, I can’t believe I wrote on here for a year on Substack. All the spelling mistakes and deleted posts…. the times where I treated this like it was business and tried to create unsustainable weekly postings…. the way my followers keep growing and now mostly from with in the app….

I am so happy to be someone who writes for fun, aka ✷ For Sport ✷.

Thank you for being here.