First Anniversary!

Trying to be Creative #39

On April 28, 2023, I published the first issue of this newsletter. Just over a year later, I’m writing the 39th letter with Ben Rector singing in the background.

To be honest, I should have written more by now, but it’s been a wildly inconsistent year of Trying to Be Creative. This newsletter has gone through various formats and publishing times - from twice a week to once a week until I finally landed at the current setup of twice a month (This is a good time not to mention that this is the first issue in about 2 months).

Wildly inconsistent!

Yet, we still have readers. The funny thing is, there are more new subscribers when I’m inactive than when I consistently publish. Some Substack shenanigans!

We’ve talked about many things on here, from creative problems like dealing with no motivation and how to make better work to more recent photography-focused topics like fun photography challenges and finding our photography style. Hopefully, we get to talk about more this year. Thanks to everyone who subscribed and keeps on reading.

Before I forget, I recently read this beautiful piece on content fatigue (which I didn’t know was a thing) by

Ronald Smeets

of

Retro//Reflection

and I recommend you check it out.

Now, I’m not saying content fatigue is the full reason why I’ve been inactive in March and April, but it played its part in addition to life doing its thing. So, going forward, I have also made a list of about 30-odd topics to write about in future letters. The current schedule of 2 per month will continue, but I’ll let you know if it changes (making this a monthly letter is looking attractive, but I think I can still keep up with this fortnightly schedule for now).

Once again, thank you all for reading and sharing your thoughts and feedback. It means a lot.

Keep making photos and experimenting.

Keep trying to be creative.

See you May 15.

x

ash.

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