Loved this essay, Aishwarya! Came here via your activewear-without-pockets issue, and there's a call back (or call forward?) to that here too. Very cool.
I could relate to a lot of what you say about writing 'personal essays' on Substack (a friend of mine recently called it naval-gazing). A 'do i really need to talk about myself again' reluctance is usually subdued by the 'writing something is better than not writing all' argument. But I'm not sure if that's always the right thing to do.
The eternal navel gazing loop is very hard to get out of when the focus of one's Substack is something and everything. Maybe we should do what everyone else does and cloak it as a movie/book review/recipe site which is actually a personal essay site - every essay punctuated by a movie, a book or a cookie
I disagree with your fundamental thesis that you are writing about yourself. I look at these blogs/essays as conversations. Knowing you, we would have this conversation in person. It's not about you. It's just what you're thinking about and a conversation you'd like to have. The challenge with this medium today (it was different once upon a time) is it tends to be a mostly one-sided conversation.
What kind of conversation? For a personal blog like this, it's a conversation with friends. You would rarely "overthink" a conversation like this with friends. They get you. They expect it. The challenge is thinking your audience is outside that circle of friends. Maybe just think of them as friends you haven't met yet. If they read once, it's happenstance. If they read twice, it's intentional. That's all that matters.
That is such a lovely way to put it 🙂 I never thought about how these are topics I would discuss IRL but to hit as many people as possible, just take to writing it down here as an essay. Maybe I should rename this to "Conversations with Friends Past and Future"
Much relate!
Loved this essay, Aishwarya! Came here via your activewear-without-pockets issue, and there's a call back (or call forward?) to that here too. Very cool.
I could relate to a lot of what you say about writing 'personal essays' on Substack (a friend of mine recently called it naval-gazing). A 'do i really need to talk about myself again' reluctance is usually subdued by the 'writing something is better than not writing all' argument. But I'm not sure if that's always the right thing to do.
The eternal navel gazing loop is very hard to get out of when the focus of one's Substack is something and everything. Maybe we should do what everyone else does and cloak it as a movie/book review/recipe site which is actually a personal essay site - every essay punctuated by a movie, a book or a cookie
Haha, yeah, I've agonized over how my newsletter has no "brand identity", as you put it.
That could be an idea. If I were to start writing about recipes, that would be comedy gold.
But also, if writing what you care about somehow resonates with some readers, why change, no?
I disagree with your fundamental thesis that you are writing about yourself. I look at these blogs/essays as conversations. Knowing you, we would have this conversation in person. It's not about you. It's just what you're thinking about and a conversation you'd like to have. The challenge with this medium today (it was different once upon a time) is it tends to be a mostly one-sided conversation.
What kind of conversation? For a personal blog like this, it's a conversation with friends. You would rarely "overthink" a conversation like this with friends. They get you. They expect it. The challenge is thinking your audience is outside that circle of friends. Maybe just think of them as friends you haven't met yet. If they read once, it's happenstance. If they read twice, it's intentional. That's all that matters.
That is such a lovely way to put it 🙂 I never thought about how these are topics I would discuss IRL but to hit as many people as possible, just take to writing it down here as an essay. Maybe I should rename this to "Conversations with Friends Past and Future"