I’m taking a small break from blogging to focus on pitching to publications and writing book. I find when I finish my weekly blog my creativity is drained for anything else.
I also have an issue with social media (I sound like a broken record I’ve said this so many times). In attempting to get my name out there, I have subscribed to quite a few Substacks and now my email is bombarded every day. I imagine others feel the same way who have subscribed to mine. How can I be heard amongst the cacophony of blogs, ads, reels and memes? How do I want to show up for others (if at all)? What value can I bring to these platforms that quiet down the noise around us?
I just returned from a four day writing retreat that my husband bought me as a Christmas gift. Eighty per cent of the time, I was incredibly immersed in the experience and loving it but twenty per cent of the time I continuously noticed myself thinking, “this would be a good post” or “I should make a reel about this.” Social media and phones are an addiction that’s slowly infiltrated humanity without us fully being cognizant of it. Where I should have been present, I wasn’t. When I should have been writing, I was scrolling. It’s a vicious cycle and until I can figure it out, I just want to stay silent (and maybe scroll) without feeling like I need to be contributing to that noise.
It’s a paradox really: here I am saying I want more presence and less social media while writing this blog! It’s the exact opposite of what I want to do but I feel like I owe it to my readers to explain my silence for a bit. I am confident when I say, we could all use more silence. Silence is uncomfortable for a lot of people. I should know, I just had four days where I talked to maybe 10 people total and 5 of them were my family on the phone! Silence is unnerving to some but it’s in silence you hear the words you need. It’s like music; without the pauses between notes, you’d just have a mess of sounds. We need silence. So I’m embracing the quiet and solitude I found in the coulees of Swift Current, Saskatchewan and I’m taking a break.
See you on the other side where it’s hopefully less noisy ;)