I didn’t leave Instagram and tumble downwards into a void of nothingness. I left Instagram with an email list I’d been building for eleven years. I had another digital channel to fall back on. I’ll talk more about this in the first episode of Season Two of Common Shapes that comes out this Wednesday. I’d love if you followed Common Shapes on Apple or Spotify and when the episode comes out left a review or shared it. I feel excited to turn my attention to this form again.
Podcasts are a channel, newsletters, email marketing, social media, flyers, posters in the coffee shop, business cards, community radio shows, these are all channels. So to leave one that is addictive you’ll need another stream to jump into, or an entirely new job or business model, or both. Then you have to continuously check in to see if the new space is as addictive as the old one, and do everything in your power to leave it alone when it’s time to take breaks. We can turn anything into an addictive habit : checking unsubscribes, obsession about subscriber count, refreshing the gmail app, the list goes on.
I want to peel back the curtain a little bit before the episode comes out to set the scene for how things work in the Marlee Grace creative and business ecosystem. I have two main income streams : teaching classes on zoom and this newsletter. This newsletter is the art form itself and also is where I market said classes. This year I also had the job with Skillshare teaching my class about Substack, and in 2017, 2019, and 2020 I received book advances for How to Not Always Be Working and Getting to Center. A small portion of my income is 1:1 Creative Advising Sessions and the occasional sale of a zine or sticker.
Everything I have done in my job has been framed by one thing since even before my newsletter when I started writing my column The Art Of for GR Screamer in 2010 (hyper linked here is the free PDF version) - tracking my time trying to get sober and then finally getting sober in May 2011.
That one thing, the scaffolding of everything I do, is writing personal essays.
It has been the most consistent thing in my public facing creative life. The first installment of The Art Of came out thirteen years ago this month and I haven’t taken longer than a month off of sharing publicly since that time. It roots me in my job, my work, my channeling practice, and is also how I weave in everything else I am doing. I have crafted an art practice of tying together the loose ends and making them make sense. Or better yet, letting them not make sense at all. Similar to the sweater I’m currently knitting which is loose as all hell and much bigger than the pattern said it would be. Make a swatch? Not for me. Have a baggy sweater and probably run out of yarn and have to scramble to buy more but glad you started something? I’ll take that path any day.
Since leaving Instagram I have found that my writing and expression feels bolder, more myself, less afraid of what other people think of me. More rooted in my politics and with less hopelessness. I think the art of the personal essay is what brings us closer to ourselves when we read other people’s writing and can sink in to what it is we long for, want more of, and feel into.
In times of great crisis it is easy for the artist, writer, and cultural worker to feel incredibly hopeless. I have found though that the tether to the essay format and sharing it with the people has left me feeling more a part of the cycle of care and action. Not every person will be on the physical front lines, but this space puts me on the digital front lines of information sharing and slicing through media propaganda. A place to self publish and share knowledge freely and with care.
Reading other people’s personal essays can bring up jealousy and to this I say - let that guide you towards what you want more of, what you don’t have yet. There is not too much narrative non fiction in the world, there is enough space and energy for all kinds of storytelling. We want to know about your work and how it is informed by who you are as a person. You don’t have to share the nitty gritty details of your life. You get to decide what you do and don’t include.
Not only do I love and feel deeply honored that it is my job to take my personal experience and formulate it into the essay form, I see how it offered me a freedom and an escape from an addictive social media feed that I felt trapped in. On Wednesday in Common Shapes I’ll also share some big wins around being a self employed artist and launching something without social media.
I’d like to invite you into this same freedom, into this same form of writing and weaving together the political, prose, and poetic, into the form of the personal essay in the last class I’ll be teaching this year, and it’s a hell of a grand finale. I asked two of my favorite writers and friends to join me, and until November 21 you can take 10% off with the code 10OFFWRITE
WRITING THE PERSONAL
A three week class to bring the poetic, personal, and political together for essays of self discovery and service
with guest teachers and
🦋 WHEN : Sun Dec 3, 10, and 17 from 9-11am PST / 12-2pm EST Live on Zoom
Bonus 90 min sharing our writing workshop lab Wed Dec 13 10AM PST / 1PM EST
The personal essay is a vulnerable and courageous thing to put into the world. Whether it is in a weekly or monthly newsletter, part of a book collection, narrative non-fiction, in a zine, or a flyer you print out and spread around - we need personal stories to fill the world so we may all find the hidden parts of ourselves. It can be confusing to know when it is time to engage with the public discourse around current events, the news, world atrocities, movement work, mutual aid, and more. It is my hope that this class makes you more comfortable with knowing when to chime in and when to sit out. When is your silence a part of the practice of generosity and when is it time to speak up. There is no right or wrong way to do this, and in this course we will each define our own values, devotions, and decision making tools.
We’ll talk about the art of the essay, the business of the essay, the personal and social impact of the essay, and so much more
The season is ripe for doom scrolling, helplessness, not knowing what to do, and feeling like we’re all just screaming into the void. Whether it’s our continued call for a Ceasefire Now, promoting our own work, or reaching out to friends who are also burnt out, it is my belief that our creative practice and spiritual practice can overlap for the good of the people.
If you don’t feel like a writer, I believe this is a time that you can stretch yourself. This is a time that you can start to call on the skills that you’ve been building to talk about what is important to you. You don’t have to monetize the personal essay to have it be a tool of social change and action, you can simply practice it as a form of sharing about what you’re up to, caring about, and turning your attention towards.
I’d love to see you in class. I feel so grateful to have Anna and Fariha joining me. I truly believe that studying this form together will bring new and exciting essays into the world in newsletters, books, anthologies, oral history projects, and more.
May you free yourself from what traps you
May you use your own story to relate to others
May the personal and political stay intertwined
May you be safe and well
A portion of November’s paid subscriptions goes toward the Palestinian Youth Movement
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⌇⋰ Email : info@marleegrace.space
⌇⋰ PO Box 252 Cedar, MI 49621