Let's try this again...

Newsletter Round Two

I’ve done this before. 

I started a newsletter last year, with Revue. I wrote 7 issues that I’m really proud of and that seemed to resonate with people. 

But I stopped it. I quit as I was just getting started. Why?

Well, apart from the fact that I was quite unwell at the time, I was also writing and editing for someone else, and that work, along with feeling like death, meant I needed to step back. My body and mind was saying “no.”

There was also another element to my premature exit. Somehow I just wasn’t connecting with any of it — twitter, emails, editing. Something was off. Maybe the timing wasn’t right? Who knows. 

But the last few days in particular, I’ve felt a surge of creativity in my veins. A kind of wellspring of inspiration.

I took a trip into town the other day to run an errand, and afterwards I did something I hadn’t done in a while: I went to the beach. I sat on the plastic lawn chairs with tables that are neatly set up, and I stared at the sea. 

There’s nothing quite like encountering the ocean — the colors, the waves, the smell, the brightness of the morning light almost blinding me, despite it being overcast and gray. 

Just be one with the sea.

It’s like encountering the subconscious, but also what Kant and others called the sublime — something divine, beyond comprehension, that can’t be contained, which creates a tension between the beauty of the thing and the fear its universal incomprehensibility elicits.

You see, I thought maybe I didn’t have enough to say or that what I had to say wasn’t useful. 

Yet, I found myself flipping through a notebook from last year the day before, and I started rereading a note on my phone titled “newsletter ideas” while I was face to face with the sea, and I realized…

I have an almost infinite number of meaningful, practical, and profound ideas.

Pages upon pages worth. And not just “ideas,” but wholly fleshed out and complex observations, thoughts, and analysis. 

And these were just related to writing and editing (nevermind all the other ideas that are far outside this subject).

I kept reading and noticed that the ideas weren’t just about myself and my creativity or worldview. As I read through what seemed like endless pages of my mind, I saw that these ideas incorporated material from any and every aspect of life… of my life.

https://twitter.com/BrookeProof/status/1493835153797304321?s=20

So what’s the point of all this?

We are saturated with “content,” especially on social media.

What is outrageous and lacking in nuance and artistry gets the most attention and feeds the algorithm. 

Take Twitter, for example. It can be draining, boring, and even depressing when you keep seeing the same content over and over, like an echo that doesn’t know when to stop. 

Of course, there are also daily moments of surprise and joy when I encounter a beautiful line, an interesting quote, or biting analysis. 

There are some pretty funny moments, too… and memes. 

But there is a dark side to Twitter, and it has its limitations.

On the writing and business side, it’s often about tips and tricks and the same threads and templates and trends and godforsaken listicles that everyone tweets over and over again. 

(Not that there’s anything wrong with tips. They’re quite useful, in fact, and I enjoy sharing them and maintaining a practicality that enhances the craft of writing.)

But there’s a big difference between vomiting out content to fill your feed, “getting followers” in some quest for dopamine and vanity metrics, versus creating something original, authentic, and giving your readers valuable insights. 

Read Arunima's long tweet for a brief history of Twitter nonsense.

There’s something very materialist, boring, and utilitarian about it all. It’s become mathematical, but with all the beauty and joy stripped from it. 

What I’m trying to say is that a lot of content is soulless. 

It lacks not only depth and detail and authenticity, but magic.

I’m sorry, but I don’t want to hear this “dead-simple method” that is just “crazy value.” 

So what do I want and what’s in it for you?

I want the magic, and I’m looking for the gold.

And I want to share the gold with you, every week. 

No “content,” no schedule, and no posting — sorry, POASTING — for the sake of appeasing the content machine. 

Yes, I will write about punctuation and sentence structure. I’ll talk about things like alliteration and literary devices. But I will not write about it like a grammar textbook; those already exist and are much better than I could write.

Instead, like Borges says above, I’ll use literature, visual art, music, experience — aka LIFE — to teach and entertain and, if I’m lucky, create something that just maybe touches the sublime.

I want to alchemize my inner and outer world into nuggets of gold to share with you. 

Don’t you want something more than platitudes and internet speak and gossip and drama?

Don’t you want authentic gold, diamonds formed under years of pressure, and precious gems, or do you prefer gold-plated jewelry from the corner store, a cubic zirconia pretending to be a diamond, and “too perfect” fake gemstones? 

There’s a sea of content everywhere you turn. But when it comes to the art of writing, of language and words, of visual art and aesthetics, of beauty… something deeper is missing, or at least lacking. 

Or perhaps it’s been there all along, it’s just drowned out by so many other empty vessels. 

So that’s what we’re going to do here. 

Not a RETVRN, because there is no return. But let’s call it a new beginning.

The best way to learn and teach writing and editing… is to write and edit yourself.

And that’s what I’m going to do.

Welcome to The Visual Detective.