On Writing (Jo's Version) — Fearfully & Wonderfully Jo

I have an incredible amount of life updates to share with you. “You” referring to this blog and this blog alone since I deactivated the subscription function. But before I attempt to catch you up on all the recent happenings and musings, I thought I’d first explain a little about the radio silence.

The truth is, writing is hard now. For various reasons. AI, of course, has contributed to turning my brain a little mushier in the writing department, but I think it would be wrong (and too convenient) to shift all blame onto this new technology we humans have created.

In the past year, I’ve felt some pretty big feelings that have felt difficult to process and put into words. It used to be a pretty automated process of turning feelings/happenings into a blog post with insightful learnings, but at some point, that changed. I’m still in the process of discovering why that is. Now when I experience big things and emotions, I question if it’s even worth a post, or if it’ll all sound absolutely ridiculous once I put pen to paper. I fear being a drama queen.

And that’s the reason I deactivated the subscription feature. I wanted to remove some of the pressures I felt putting my thoughts out there, so that this blog can once again feel like a safe space for me to be unabashed in my musings - no anxieties around how people will perceive me or the things that I go through. I’m really hoping this works because I really miss the act of writing.

Since I last wrote, this thing called “Substack” has become another addition to the world of blogging. I guess it’s still relatively new because I’m getting the dotted red line screaming at me that this is not a real word. Honestly the amount of people who have flocked to start their own Substack newsletters, along with the resulting content, has intimidated me. Now it seems that status, credibility, clout, and writing prowess are dictated by how many followers and how much money one’s Substack earns. Gone are the days (it feels) where traditional blogs (like this one) have any impact or influence.

Maybe one day I’ll feel comfortable enough to bring back the subscriptions and let people into my thoughts again. For now, if you’re reading this, consider yourself a super sleuth and/or a dedicated reader! ;) You’ll be one of the few who get to peek inside the inner workings of my brain.

Anyways, that’s all for now. Hopefully the next time I write will not be 1+ years from now. Ha.

xoxo, jo