Welcome

In which I kick this whole shebang off

Alright, friends. I’ve started a newsletter. Welcome! Thanks for being here.

For months now, I’ve been itching to write… anything.  Well, more accurately, to finish writing anything. I’ve got all these ideas percolating in my brain, all these scribbles on notepads and in journals and on random scraps of paper… and hardly a finished piece to show for them. I keep getting stuck, convinced that every one of those ideas has to turn into something grand and profound, or—even more irrational—that once I write one piece about [insert topic here], no one will want to read anything else I write about that topic, so it better be the best damn thing I ever write about that topic. Then, once I start trying to write the thing, comes the incessant self-editing, and… you get the gist.

Not only does the fruitless pursuit of perfection rob me (and, I’m guessing, many of you) of creativity and joy, it also doesn’t line up with reality—if everyone only settled for perfection and nothing less, no one would ever do anything. At some point, you’ve just got to just shed the pressure, throw your hands up, and let the draft go. As Anne Lamott says, “Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft.”

Especially if you’re going to produce a newsletter, which so many of my favorite writers do. And somehow, despite the time constraints of sending a regular newsletter, it doesn’t seem as daunting to me as other writing platforms do—maybe because it feels more contained, more casual, more intimate. Plus, I get a little flutter of excitement whenever I see a new edition of someone else’s newsletter in my own inbox, like the dopamine hit that used to accompany a new issue of American Girl magazine in my mailbox, ca. 2005.

So, may this newsletter serve as your own American Girl in the mailbox. May it brighten your day and resonate with whatever’s been on your mind or get you thinking about something entirely new. May it invite an extra helping of grace and maybe even inspire your own creative endeavors. May it feel like it’s coming from a friend, because it is. And I will fight the inevitable stomach-churning urge to hide all these drafts away in a corner, and I’ll keep hitting “send” every week instead. (Or every two weeks. Or four. Or… uh, we’ll see.)

Things I’m into these days:

• This piece in the Atlantic about one family’s grief following 9/11 absolutely floored me.

• Speaking of grief, my friend and fellow Hokie Abby wrote this beautiful meditation on how loss so often comes in forms we least expect it to.

• High School Musical: The Musical: The Series is way better than it has any right to be, and I can’t stop listening to the soundtrack, which absolutely slaps.

  

Love,

Jayne