Well, look at that, my favorite season has arrived. Guys, 2020 can’t be a total flop as long as the air cools and fills with migrating birds and multicolored leaves around the end of September. We’re right on schedule. God doesn’t cancel. So, hey, it’s not all bad, is it?
You know, I’ve done a lot of soul-searching and Buzzfeed quizzes. You’d think I’d know myself pretty well, but I guess there’s always more to learn. I had a breakthrough in August. Years of accumulated frustration over my career finally made me rethink my approach to my art, my promotion, and my online presence. I realized I’d been trying to do what people—strangers online and business-minded experts—insisted worked, rather than letting things grow naturally from who I am and how I have always succeeded.
There’s a lot more to authenticity than not using beauty filters on your selfies, kids. Being true to yourself isn’t just striving to assure everyone that you’re imperfect and have a lot of issues by venting about your bad days on social media. In fact, that’s something I’ll probably always avoid doing. (But that’s for another post.) Authenticity, in its deepest sense, is about living your own life—not trying to build a life that looks the way ‘it’s supposed to.’ And for me, living and creating are the same thing. I have to focus my creative energy in the way I know works for me. Even if it doesn’t check all the boxes other people say are essential.
Okay, so what does all that abstract rambling mean in the concrete world? It means a lot of things, for me. Here on Startdrift Nights, it means you’re going to see some exciting changes like you haven’t seen since I launched the blog. I’m done trying to be niche. “Stay focused,” they said. “Get into a community,” they said. And I tried that, all the while knowing I was a very distractible lone wolf who hated to be tied down in any way.
I’m not just an author. I’m never happier than when I’m splicing and mashing media. I’m a visual artist and a musician as well. The term ‘creative’ as a noun has always seemed pretty vague to me, but it has its place. Why limit myself? Why not let Stardrift Nights reflect all facets of my creative life instead of fishing around for topics that haven’t been covered better by a thousand other niche writing blogs? Want to see my sketchbook? The insights I had writing songs this summer? Before and after pics of the little Japanese garden I’m working on? Or do you really want to hear another ramble on POV?
So, I’m expanding. This blog is about to become a lot more fun. I’ll be honest, I haven’t been having much fun with it, lately. That’s why my posts have been so infrequent. I want to pour more into this blog and less into the social-media rat-race. I have a lot I could share with you. And I think you might find it more inspiring than most of what I’ve posted in the past.
For me, Fall is always a time of fresh energy. I get kind of fired up. I think it helps me coast through the dark winter months—which take about half of the year, where I’m from—and keeps me from getting in too deep of a rut. All of this is to say, you’re about to see a comeback for Stardrift Nights. One of my New Year’s resolutions this year was to beat my record for number of posts published in a year. I’m going to smash that goal here in the final months.
I hope you enjoy the renovations and renewed vision for Stardrift Nights. I know I will.
Happy Autumn!