#81 Writing to be understood vs. writing to be in service
Allowing myself to eviscerate myself in the book I'm currently writing has been extremely good medicine; it's also made for some of my better work.
UPDATE! A WINNER HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED! THIS IS CLOSED.
As part of a new project I'm working on (still haven't announced--I will next week), and as a way to leverage my own influence and large subscriber list, I’m diverting funds from my income here to buy gift subscriptions to the paid offerings of writers and creators I love—on and off Substack. That means using my cash to support their work, promote their platforms, and give you access to some of my favorite resources. This won’t happen weekly, but I plan to make it a regular practice here.
This is only available to paid subscribers (and a reminder that if you cannot afford a paid subscription, we will comp you--all you have to do is email contact@hollywhitaker.com and ask for it).
THIS WEEK--AMANDA MONTEI!
FOR WRITERS: I'm giving away ONE annual subscription to Amanda Montei's newsletter and writing group (a $99 value) just in time for her writing retreat this coming week. Here is a description of the writing group, her newsletter, and a description of the upcoming online writing retreat.
ABOUT AMANDA MONTEI: I am an author, critic, and writing teacher. My latest book is Touched Out. You can read essays from or inspired by the book at The New York Times, The Guardian, Elle, and TIME. Interviews and other coverage of the book are also at The Cut, LA Review of Books, Guernica, Write or Die, The Boston Globe, and a bunch of Substack newsletters, including Culture Study.
HOW TO APPLY/ENTER: This time, the first to respond is the winner--all you have to do is reply to this email and change the subject line to "Amanda Montei".
A FEW RULES: PLEASE BE A WRITER OR WANT TO BE ONE. PLEASE PLAN TO USE THE WRITING GROUP AND THIS WEEK'S WRITING RETREAT. Please use the honor system and make sure this is something you will use and benefit from--there will be many more of these and if it's not for you, the next one might be!
Hello there! Thank you to those who read and engaged in last week’s newsletter. I have not read all the comments, though I have read many (and many emails and texts as well), and I won’t be commenting on it further. I said what I said, and there is a pinned comment in last week’s post in which I reply to one of your comments with my thoughts. What I think is that I wrote a very large check with my mouth, and that means I have in a way committed to not doing some things, and doing others, and that’s what I’m paying attention to: What I do next, which is the only thing I can control.
Next week, I’ll announce a new project I’ve been working on that I am extraordinarily excited about.
This week, I’m doing a video instead of an essay (it’s right below the paywall). In it, I talk a little about the book I’m working on, and the difference between writing to be understood/to maintain an idea of yourself, and writing to be in service (to your art, your muse, the collective, yourself)—and how finding that distinction helped unstick my work and returned me to a kind of writing I missed, in which I had less to lose, and wrote like I had nothing to. I am trying to return to that.
I mention in the video the book Health and Safety by Emily Witt (a memoir in which she does not spare herself at all, IMO) and talk a bit about how hard it was to write about using pot again, and how doing so basically greased my art in ways I didn’t anticipate, and freed me in ways that have allowed me to be a much better and happier creator.
It’s in video format because I’m writing other things and this week it felt hard to write. It’s also for paid subscribers only because I still hate using video/sharing my face, and it makes me feel safer sharing it with a smaller, engaged audience rather than everyone.
As always, if you cannot afford to pay for this newsletter but would like full access, please email us at contact@hollywhitaker.com.