Earnings Call #1: Dialing It In
Hello!
Checking in just to say that I've been hard at work on the next issue of Memory Leak (which is on the importance of not writing [and is currently in a saved draft on the backend with a complete detailed outline I've begun turning into the final article]) but I also wanted to get a few things out there for my own sake as well as yours!
- Still being very early in the life of this project, I think I've scaled a bit too large in scope for pieces that involve a lot of research or rather, dense academic language/references (to the extent I make use of them). It does take a bit of time and revision to make sure I'm using them the way they're intended, with the goal of making these longer, idealistically "evergreen" posts about concepts and situations which impact writing and not necessarily the writing itself.
- What I'd like to do instead is dial it down a bit and not be so ambitious all of the time, so I can hopefully get more writing out there on a more consistent basis and have that work be more approachable for hopefully more people. It's not necessarily the best sign that I missed the first milestone of getting a new post made in three months of the last one being finished and out in the world, but life happens! Such is the topic of the next mainline issue.
- For the sake of potentially reiterating, I also want the tone to be a bit more unbuttoned. I'm not trying to intentionally turn away from academic jargon, since accredidation is sorely lacking in all types of media these days and I am proud of the work I've done to achieve an advanced degree. This also isn't a classroom either. I'm not trying to be anything I'm not, and I don't wanna position myself as something I can't back up either.
- I can't help the fact that life is a series of overlapping contexts and how what happens in say, American politics, effects the ability of retail workers to function and so forth. What I can say first and foremost is that I'm a writer. I have an English degree and the larger picture this newsletter paints is done so by the hand of my interests and the things that draw my attention. I am a big believer that the most important thing my degree has taught me is how little I know about anything else at all.
- Speaking of what draws my attention, on the docket I have two postmortems on the series of video games I worked on in college and a writing competition I've taken part in more recently. I also would like to take a post or several to talk about how I plan out stories. This feels more in line with what one could expect reading in an author blog.
- These also feel closer in scope with what's achievable in the grand scheme of things being able to balance not just life but also other writing projects with the newsletter and developing my profile as a creative.
- The whole point of this newsletter for me, in the first place, is to get reaquainted with why I've always turned to writing as a creative outlet. In the year of our lord 2026, people have so many options for fulfilling their entertainment desires and my whole career as it were, has been spent making very specific decisions for reasons that I've never quite had the clearest grasp on or understanding of.
- Before anything else, I've always needed to write for myself, to better understand something happening in the world around me and not necessarily write with the explicit intention of those words being seen by other people (something which I've viewed as a side effect of choices I've made consciously or unconsciously and have hopefully grown into the consequences of instead of shyed away from).
None of this should change anything for you, the reader! You can still expect four main issues a year. This post is just meant to better clarify the route I will take to get there.
Cheers,
sb
to blatantly steal a line from people I like, any typos in this post are on purpose, actually.
