on 52 issues

Reflections on one year...

Today approximately marks the 52nd issue of this newsletter, which, if you’re a numbers person, means I’ve been writing for about one year. *If you’re reading this on Substack, all 52 issues can be found on andrewfleig.net/newsletter*

Every writer has their own unique path, most of which are littered with distractions and insecurities. To say that I was immune to such would be a disgrace to myself and the process of writing. Most Gen-Z writers have an idealistic version of the career, stumbling into the ideas that your words will inherently be revolutionary ideas under which someone can change their life.

This is not to say that writing cannot lead to change – its potential is as such. But to write is to also understand that there have been millions that have used the same words as you and failed. That have reached the same audience as you and failed to resonate.

Writing is, at best, a form of personal communication. Most times, it is a method of discoloring. A method of shaping others’ opinions into one’s own, of forging reflections that others wish to see. We write what we think others want to read, reshape our stories until they fit the template of success. Until our words sound less like ourselves and more like everyone else.

When I first began in content, I was taught the now-infamous notecard method. Read a book, mark it up, write it down. The very first notecard I ever wrote was “We can’t distract ourselves from the wonder.” A sentiment that most writers often forget. Some things are meant to be witnessed, not measured. Writing is one of those things. When it becomes too performative, too preachy, it loses all sense of artistic autonomy. There is grace in letting words fall where they may, in trusting the silence that follows.

My favorite writer Hanif Abdurraqib wrote, “I do not confuse hunger / with the need to fill myself / with anything that will have me.”

Perhaps I’ll phrase it differently for this upcoming year:

"I shall not confuse writing/

with the need to prove myself/

to those who may never read."

And to those who do…here’s to another year.