Something New (This Year)
One year of a new thing.
What is the last new thing you spend a year working on? Or working towards? I don’t know what my answer would have been before starting Something New last December. It would probably be my frisbee coaching, an activity I had thought about a lot, but somehow still jumped into without too much thought. It was 2016; I was 26 years old. I was greeted by a wonderfully supportive group of leaders and players that allowed me to be new at something. That role has been one of the most fruitful I’ve ever been in.
The same has been true here, a role I took on without too much thought, though I had been thinking about it for years. I don’t do a ton of reflecting on what I have written in the past – which is maybe something I shouldn’t be admitting so openly – and as I sit here now, I realize reflecting isn’t purely necessary to feel a massive sense of growth and accomplishment. This path I’ve traveled has been educational and fulfilling, and I am never not looking forward: to the next thing to write, to the next adaptation to my process to make, to the next writer to read and analyze, to the next source of something new.
Looking forward now, I have some plans for the near and distant future. Let’s talk a few of them into existence, shall we?
Narrated Articles
After not even trying to create anything in the audio space, but thinking about it all the time, I think a perfect outlet for that creativity, which will also help me become a better writer and editor, is narrating my pieces. I appreciate the format that Ethan Strauss takes over at House of Strauss: write an article, and then narrate it and release the audio a couple of days later. This would let me write and edit just the same, and then it would let me create something in the audio space with little creative overhead. I’ve been a creative tinkerer since I was 1, recording and editing videos for school projects and for video game montages. I think I was good at those, and I miss working in that type of space. I should treat myself to that work again, and I think it would be a fun way for you to share my ideas. It’s 2023, nearly 2024: I must pivot to audio.
More Things that are New to Me
There was definitely some wish fulfillment in my topic selection this first year. I think that’s okay, and I think it was helpful to empty the chambers. With less editorial baggage on my plate, I’m hoping to dive into more personal homework assignments, and more random searching for art that moves me. The wind blows, we must follow.
More Engagement
I sincerely dislike the activity of seeking engagement online. There was a ten or fifteen year stretch where “being online” was an active and chosen part of my DNA, but the weariness of being a 30-something has curbed that trait severely. That, plus the plummeting quality and cultural footprint that social media has taken on in this past year, have resulted in me having no central source for outreach. Currently, I’m most active on Instagram, where most of my active and online friends still reside. The Substack app is an increasingly useful tool, but my current audience doesn’t really use it. Writing this paragraph alone is already giving me anxiety and is more thinking about this than I want.
Anyways, a part of this writing experiment was always aimed at getting recommendations from readers, and I would love for that to be a bigger, broader experience. Shoutout to those who DM’d on Instagram and other places, or, heaven forbid, talked to me in person. If anything I ever write sparks a thought of Something Good in your brain, please, share it (with someone [like me]).
Just More
This has been a tough year to be on planet earth. For anyone, everyone. I’ve been in a financial crunch that I’ll feel for a couple years, probably. I’m lucky to call that my biggest hurdle. Outside of many more life-threatening and life-ending dangers and evils, the world of writing, and publishing, and creating, and sharing, has been attacked and cleaved into smaller parts by corporations and CEOs and other money grabbers who treat everything as a personal stock market. There were so many hundreds of layoffs at print and online publications; so many striking unions fighting for responsible wages and a modicum of respect; so much sweat and tears shed just to be given the bare minimum, and cast aside. AI and the replacement of personhood in the art world. Internet brain rot and a terrifying population of evil internet cretins waiting to scare and hurt you. It’s hard to try and create light when darkness so easily overwhelms. But that is why I feel more secure in my choice to spend time here than I ever have, and why I want to expand and explore the ways I can contribute to a positive environment of sharing and enjoying and loving what other people make, what stories other people tell. I really believe in carrying your tiny candle in a dark, empty space, and that handing that one light over to even one other person can make waves from a ripple.
I hope you keep going. I’ll be right there beside you.
Thanks, as always, for reading. Your participation means the world to me.
I hope you’ve had a good year of consumption, and I wish you many great finds in the coming year.
Coming up next on Something New: the End-of-Year lists.
TTFN,
Bobby
Here’s what I listened to while writing this piece: