I’m writing as my personal self on Instagram again.
As writers, we have an audience — but not all audiences are the same.
When I’m writing to the WordPress community, I come as I am. I always have.
The fact that other people outside of WP can see what I write in my slippers and pyjamas at 4am doesn’t seem to bother me. So — thanks, guys, for that.
Substack feels similar. It’s full of writers and poets. I’m just me writing to another version of me — same species.
Instagram, though — or any mainstream social media — it’s a different beast.
And this week, I tangled with it.
And got bitten.
For the first time in a while as a writer, it made me pause.
Made me roar a little, internally.
Because on Instagram, I have family.
People I might bump into in Woolies.
And I complicated it further by leaving the door wide open —
Everyone who has ever had an axe to grind against me can now wander in, take a seat, and read me.
Why would I do that?
Because a young woman at the Winton Writers’ Festival asked this question:
“How do you write in public? I feel like everyone is watching me.”
I told her,
“Get a blog. Call it something obscure. Just write. No one is watching you as closely as you think.”
And I still believe that’s true.
That’s where you begin — in comfortable obscurity.
If you write from the heart, and you’re sensitive about the echo (as many of us are), you need time to grow your butterfly before the world has a chance to squash it.
You need space to build resilience.
Fiction is easier in this regard (though it has its own challenges — that’s another post).
I think I was talking about Instagram.
Right. It’s different.
But I think I’ve cracked it, for now — comments off, DMs open.
At some point, we all reach a fork in the road:
Are we only writing from the heart because we’ve tricked ourselves into thinking it’s private?
Or have we grown — through the act of daily writing — into someone who can speak clearly, no matter who’s watching?
Because here’s the truth I’ve come to understand:
There is nothing in art that will not transform the person making it.
The closer and deeper you go into the craft, the more aware you become of this.
You might say, at the end of your days,
“I wrote thirty books, a trillion words.”
But if you’ve paid attention,
you’ll know instead:
The words wrote me.
And that — that’s a reason to pay attention to what you’re writing.
Because whether you know it or not,
it is shaping you.
Reveries post on Substack this morning . Much lighter reading 🙂
Well said! “the words wrote me”! 💕
Cindy you are full of beautiful joyful words – they have truly written you 💕
Aww thanks so much, Kate! 💕
Thought provoking, as is your way;
a haiku reply, which might become me!
another poem
from the scrabble of my life
organic letters
~
Thank you Kate,
DD
Ahh thanks David – I love haiku – it is disciplined poetry – one that came to me yesterday …
Consistency is
Day after day after day
That is all it is
😊 I’ve pulled on something big in another universe of me, so from now until next year, I have to adhere to it now. Consistency is….
DD
I love haiku
Disciplined poetry
I thought of one yesterday:
Consistency is
Day after day after day
It is how it sounds
And I have to use it now ~ Kate 😊
is will and will be
…
…
I greatly admire how you flow with creativity, connecting, and staying open to possibilities, and how you support others along the way. Thank you, Kate.
Thankyou Michele there are days I could throw it all in and take up pottery but my writing gives back to me so much – and to be in connection with wonderful people like yourself – I would never do that. Mind you I’m pretty pathetic at pottery too😉
“pathetic at pottery too” I doubt that and there’s no “too” when it comes to your beautiful writing! I’m glad you’d never do that – throw it all in. 😌✍🏼🌟
a thought provoking post, Kate — though I’m not sure what I think on this one —- except I feel comfortable on WP; I have my little band of stalwarts; I can write material renegade as I choose; but does the ease of posting remove or soften the passion to get published as in book form?
Oh most definitely John. I spend far too much time on anything but the work – I haven’t touched my manuscript lately and it has hardly anything left to be done to it. Rather frustrating except that I guess I have also reframed what the work is. I could have spent the last ten years writing books – several for the amount of posts I’ve done here – but then I wouldn’t have what I have here – which is a different sort of archive. And I could have several books on the the give away table of the library or coffee shop. It depends on- words are words and if they are written with heart and intention then they are still of value even if they are not in a book form
true — we both have a rich archive on WP —
Hi Kate
I am an author as well writing for Random House – who else. About 62 books of mine are published but I wouldn’t say the words wrote me. It was my editor and other authors I read who made me write my books. Words don’t write me. As a semiotician I must say I give the words the meaning by using and organising them and I use or play with the meaning a word got through other peoples use.
Well, did the writing change me? I was teaching linguistics at the university which changed me more. But both jobs gave me professional deformations. Authors run into the problem to take themselves too seriously and professors run into the problem to intellectualise everything – but it could be worse 😉
The Fab Four of Cley
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
I think it depends on what the writing is about as to whether it changes you perhaps – but well done on 62 books, that’s a hell of an achievement.
In worked with a good agent.
I can really relate to what you’ve written here. Right now, I have slowly gotten out of my anonymity and it’s not that scary.
What comes from the heart touches the heart. It’s the thinking that makes it hard.
This is a fabulous piece and it’s nice to know that there’s others in the same boat. It takes a serious amount of courage to bare your soul on social media.
The impulse to delete everything and throw my phone away is incredibly difficult to beat. But I don’t want to lose that feeling and become desensitised either – because there is too much numbness already. Plus I put the parameters around it that I wouldn’t explain what I was doing – i would just do it. It is challenging.
This is literally so relatable couldn’t agree more people ask me why do I even post with no engagement but the amount of peace it gives me is impeccable
Absolutely – peace – the peace is indescribable – when you explain or communicate something important exactly how you mean to say it, something goes quiet
As I have written about things that are more and more personal, I have become less self-conscious about it. Maybe it’s because I care less what people think of me than Idid before, or maybe it’s that I’m finding there are a lot of people who have the same struggles that I do. (I’m also a lot happier if I can laugh at myself.😉)
Taking things lightly is everything and you are right – everyones story is more similar to our own than we think