005: Pivoting
Peep the new favicon—my sister designed it! You'll also notice that Wendynoms Weekly has now been changed to Coffee with Wendy. This week's newsletter is more of an update that I'll be experimenting with different content now, and to also explain why.
When I first started writing this blog, I thought I was excited enough about food and restaurants that a weekly newsletter would be a sustainable and fun way to hone my writing craft. As I started writing, I realized that I prefer to write reflections and cultural essays (similar to what I like to read), and the food features almost felt like a chore after a period. Worse, I became conflicted about publishing pieces that were "off-topic," worried that I'd deviate from the niche I had "committed" to. (Funny how I create obligations and rules for myself...)
Confused, I took a few weeks off my publishing schedule to reflect on the stories I want to tell and what being a "writer" really means to me, instead of bullishly pushing forward with a rigid food newsletter while still searching for a direction. The part of this project that I loved (and probably, subconsciously, always knew I loved) was the writing itself, and food a fun muse. A more authentic goal for me now is to become the best writer I can be, rather than a more surface-level goal of having [theme] blog with 100K followers in n months.
Thus, I've decided to pivot my newsletter in more of an exploratory direction: I'll still be publishing weekly, but will focus more on open-ended topics or whatever it is I choose to be interested in writing about for now. I'll still likely feature food every now and then, and will still be publishing restaurant reviews here and there, but until I find my pacing I won't commit to more structure than hitting publish once a week (which feels doable and sustainable, no matter what comes into my life).
Of course, I still have fears: My business mind loves to think about output metrics—"it's all about the results!" However, for a craft or practice or anything longer than a short term sprint, I now believe that input is the most critical factor. Am I searching for a topic that I resonate with, that I care to shed light on? Am I writing something that feels true to me, even if it's not at the caliber I expect? Can I commit to writing for a certain amount of time every day, even if I want to delete it all later?
So, I hope you as a reader will still stay on this exploration of mine, and join in the discussions as topics of interest come and go. How cool will it be to see what I will have been able to create several months, years, decades later—but that's only given that I spend time on it continuously.