Up: [[Tell About It MOC]] Created: 2024-02-29 Updated: 2025-12-29 I’ve been trying to figure out the sharing thing for years, literally years! I make lists — [[Pros and Cons of Sharing]]. I recognize that I don’t have to do things with the same driven crazy intensity of my previous life — [[When it came to sharing, I had fallen into my old trap of all-or-nothing thinking]]. That intensity was [[What Writing Used to Be For Me]], and not just books but also my blog [[My History of Online Sharing]]. An alternative, for example, is the poet, Alison Luterman, doing a newsletter just on the first day of the month. To share is to be vulnerable [[A Vulnerability Check Before Sharing Writing]] Social media has made me leery of the anonymous ‘other’ and of the extremes of people who are dismissive of what they read and those who want to rescue the writer. [[We Can't Fix Being Human. Don't Try.]] Contrary to who I was in the past, I now [[Don’t Write to Help Other People]]. I question the often expressed conviction that [[The World Needs to Hear From You]] and I rail against what I see as the [[Unreasonable Expectations of the Creator Economy]]. Plus it's [[So Much Work to Tell A Story]] and I'm at a point in life where I don't want that work. Finally, I believe that the impact can be there even if not publicly shared. [[On the Relationship Between Artists and Society]] But all of that aside, there are times when I feel real excitement for possibilities. I've taken [[Substack - A Course on Starting]] and enjoy reading many Substack publications, but I'm not interested in writing for Substack. Still, [[Creating a Body of Work]] is really appealing to me. I like to work on a theme, rather than disparate pieces. And I believe that [[Heightened Awareness is the Gift]] that comes from paying the close attention that is demanded when immersing in a theme. But I’m not at all sure this demands public sharing other than for the very good reasons that [[Writing Keeps You Alive After You Die]] and that I’m likely to make more effort for others than I do for myself. What I've realized is that sharing in the past was never about recognition for me, but it was big time about contribution, about believing I didn’t have value if I wasn’t making a difference to others. My question always was, "What do people need?" Now it’s about satisfaction in the process. Do I enjoy my day more when I write or create and communicate that in some form than the days when I don’t? Yes. That’s the only answer I need. After that everything else is detail and logistics.