I Didn't Write Anything in August, But Here Are Some Musings Anyway

Reflections on a month "off" and what I got-- and didn't get-- out of it.

As mentioned in my August newsletter, I took an entire month away from writing and Twitter and Instagram. The intention was to give myself a break, to rest and recharge, and to catch up on reading and other projects that didn’t involve a screen.

The result? Well… I have some new writing ideas. I did finish some books. I’m not sure I feel terribly rested or particularly recharged.

But that may have to do with the fact that a LOT of not-necessarily-planned personal stuff took place, including but not limited to: touring houses and then BUYING ONE, my husband being off work unexpectedly due to an injury, starting work for Door Dash part-time (see previous two items), starting the fall semester at college, transferring our toddler from a crib to a toddler bed (and teaching him to actually sleep in it) and tackling way too many sewing projects for the very limited free time with which I suddenly found myself. So yeah, I may have ended August more tired than I began it.

I did read some good books, though, and that was a plus. Reviews coming soon.

The Social Media Part

Part of the reason I chose to take a step back from writing and Being Online was also that I felt I needed a break from… well, needing to be “seen.” There’s a lot of advice online these days about building your platform and creating content for your audience and “growing your reach” and all that, and it’s certainly not untrue. In this day and age, it is almost impractical to write for any kind of online consumption and not have some kind of social media following. Blame algorithms, blame the barrage of information, blame overconsumption, but the cold hard fact remains that people may forget about what you have to say if you do not present yourself to them consistently and repeatedly.

And yet quantity often trumps quality, and I don’t want to fall prey to that practice. Writing endless drivel just so my name appears on screens as often as possible is not the way that I want to improve my craft. There is a reason, after all, that the best writers tell the aspiring to merely write every day, not to publish every day. Working on one’s skills in quiet solitude, rather than refreshing social media notifications for repeated dopamine hits, will almost certainly produce better work in the long run.

But that can be weary work, and lonely work, and not always satisfying work.

I’m not here to bash the community I’ve found through social media. On Twitter, and to a lesser extent on Instagram (sorry, Instagram, but the algorithm hates me because I refuse to Reel) I have made friends and been inspired by so many wonderful people, and I don’t take that for granted. I don’t think we need to give up social media altogether, and in fact I don’t intend to. But my experiment in August helped to sever some of the ties I’d unconsciously created for myself, and showed me that I didn’t need them as much as I thought.

Connecting with like-minded people online is a beautiful thing. It can help you feel less alone, give you a safe place to share opinions and ideas and even complaints, lift you up when you’re down and open your mind to new perspectives. But sometimes it can also give an overinflated importance to minutiae, and encourage you to waste time where you could be learning and growing in a more fulfilling way. When I backed off from Twitter, I was pleasantly surprised to find that being out of “the discourse” didn’t take long to feel like… not much of anything at all. I missed the connections I felt with friends, but I was still able to text and email the people I’m close with, and I found that giving my opinion on whether it’s okay to use “creative” as a noun is not nearly as crucial to my day as I thought it was.

You can still be important in other people’s lives without constantly reminding them of your presence. You don’t have to have an opinion on every topic, a reply to every question, or a witticism for every weird holiday on the calendar in order to matter to those who matter to you.

It’s okay to just exist quietly on your own, and check in when you feel like it, and stay silent when you don’t.

I guess that’s the TL;DR version.

The Writing Part

You know how a lot of people embrace the principle of intuitive eating as a way to lose weight at first? Like, that’s not the stated goal of course, but it’s subtly assumed that maybe if you just don’t try to lose weight, you’ll lose it anyway because you stopped trying so hard. (It’s me. I’m people. I’m in a much better place now though.)

Taking a month away from writing was like that, for me. I didn’t plan to write anything or outline anything or even scribble ideas for anything, but honesty would have me admit that I did secretly hope for a Muse to ascend the brightest heaven of invention when I least expected it, and to bestow upon me a perfectly formed plot for the Great American Novel (just in time for National Novel Writing Month, at which time I would be back at the keyboard).

This did not happen.

It turns out that the human brain can only hold so much at once, and when this particular human brain (mine) was bombarded with so many Life Happenings all at the same time, the writing-idea section just took a little holiday.

And you know what? That’s fine.

Rest and recuperation does not have to equal replenishment of creativity. That part can come later, with time, after the rest quota has been met. (And, quite frankly, I’m not really sure when the rest quota is going to be met. Maybe it’s still a long time coming, lol.) I should have just appreciated this period for what it was instead of trying to make it into a subconscious brainstorm session.

That being said, I do have a few new pieces in the works and I hope my October newsletter will bring you at least one link to new content! I won’t promise more than that, though, because we’re preparing to move and my toddler enjoys unpacking boxes as quickly as I pack them.

But until then, I shall leave you with some links to older work from years past…

I Want My Son to Be a Bookworm in P.S. I Love You (from 2020)

Fictional Schools for Your Child to Consider This Fall in Jane Austen’s Wastebasket (from 2020)

Please Consider Me, a Humble Deep-Sea Blobfish, as Your Next Whimsical Baby Motif in Frazzled (from 2021)

What to Write in a Thank-You Note (Other Than “Thank You,” Of Course) in The Haven (from 2021)

Thank You for Doing the Dishes in P.S. I Love You (from 2020)

My Porch Plants are Rugged, Embittered Surivivors… For Now in MuddyUm (from 2020)

How to Succeed as a Nineteenth-Century Novelist in Jane Austen’s Wastebasket (from 2020)

Everything You’re Doing With This Job Application is Totally Wrong in MuddyUm (from 2020)

Fun Baby Activity Ideas, Developed by an Actual Baby in Frazzled (from 2021)

…and to the list of excellent picture books I started compiling in August, which went out in an earlier newsletter but bears repeating—and I’ve added a few titles since then, too. (My dad also put some of these books together into an animated PowerPoint presentation, which you can access here. I would recommend downloading it rather than viewing online, since the animations won’t work well in a view-only Google Slide format.)

Did you write anything you’re proud of in August? Did you read anything you just couldn’t put down? Let me know in the comments, and I’ll see you all in October!

-Amy