The Wisdom of Creative Resistance

My mind kept resisting every idea I had for this essay, and I'm glad that it did

In my first essay that will stay permanently exclusive for paid subscribers, I tackle the topic of what happens when you sit down to write your promised exclusive essay but then find your mind rejecting every idea for it. My first impulse was to see that as a problem - my mind not being willing to cooperate - but a closer examination revealed the wisdom that this resistance carried. I discuss the way that creative tasks are deceptively similar to other tasks in many ways, while having one crucial difference that one might easily fail to notice.

So, I promised that my paid subscribers would get an exclusive perk of reflective essays where I talk a bit more about what’s going on with my life specifically. I’m not entirely certain of what these essays should look like, so if there’s anything in particular that any of you are interested in, feel free to let me know! This is just for you, my dear paid subscribers.

Before I get into the meat of this essay, I’d like to thank everyone who has subscribed so far. Just a month after starting with this paid thing, I'm now up to 11 paid subscribers, with an annual revenue of $987 if you all end up sticking around!

I think that this is pretty amazing for the first month, I'm Internet Famous in some circles but not a particularly big celebrity overall. And there's a lot of free content online as well as many other creators and services that ask you for money. For what one month of my Substack costs, you could almost get a Netflix subscription. I think there's a pretty high threshold for people to get yet another monthly sub, and the fact that ten people have chosen to do so in just a month feels pretty amazing.

Of course this isn't enough to live on, but it's enough to keep me motivated and continue writing. My essay writing before this had gotten pretty sporadic and I'd felt significantly blocked on various topics I had ideas for but never wrote about. But this has gotten me back on track, with five published articles in the last seven weeks. That makes me feel quite satisfied. I have ideas for many more, too. Hopefully I might get even more subscribers and be able to continue with this kind of a pace!

(That being said, if you at any time feel like ending your subscription, due to budgetary circumstances or just not finding the content interesting enough, please don’t feel any pressure to continue. I’d prefer this subscription to be something that is a source of joy rather than an obligation.)

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Now, for the actual content of this month’s special, exclusive paid essay.