I've been spending some time working on this newsletter, Creative Destiny. I'm trying to find a balance between sharing my work publicly on social media platforms, and having a direct way to reach my audience. Today, I'm going to share what I've learned so far.

There are many newsletter tools you can use, but I decided to go with Buttondown because it's simple and easy to use, and the customer support is really good. I've been a fan of newsletters for a while, because I enjoy signing up for them and getting information and creative stuff right in my inbox. But for some reason, I never thought about making my own until recently.

I was partly inspired by Social Media Escape Club and Seth Werkheiser, who runs his site as a way to help creators and artists think beyond social media sharing. After all, we all know that while social media platforms might help you reach your audience, you're still at the mercy of those platforms if they change their algorithms or lock you out. It's also challenging to keep up a steady "posting schedule", which can quickly become exhausting and distract you from creating the art itself. (Not to mention all the ethical issues around social media's design.)

So, the newsletter is kind of my answer to reaching my audience in a more direct way. I'd like people to learn more about the behind the scenes process in my work, and I considered options such as running a membership, but I knew that would be hard for me to run consistently. Although memberships can be great for people who have time to devote to it, I'm not able to start one right now.

I like to work on a lot of different things, mainly because I have many ideas. I really enjoy getting into a creative state and bringing those ideas out of my head into the real world. In fact, I have some upcoming projects I’m looking forward to completing. But one of the things I've realized is that I need time to rest, too.

Sometimes I push too hard and try to put out lots of stuff at once. It's always been a habit I've had. I would write stories even when my wrists were aching, because I had all these ideas that were begging to be released.

But over time, this started taking a toll on my health. I was reluctant to take breaks, because I felt they might waste valuable creative time. But my body couldn't withstand the constant output, and I would feel burnt out and lose all my ideas. I’d even deal with physical injuries from using my wrists too much (in writing and drawing, for example).

Now that I've grown older, I've started to slowly appreciate the importance of rest and relaxation time. It's still a challenge for me to take a break sometimes, because I feel I should always be doing something, but I see there's value in taking time off. I’m learning how to lighten my schedule, so I can give myself some breathing room!

One of the things I really enjoy doing is collaborating with other artists and creative folks. I know every artist is different in how they approach collaborations: some artists are really open to sharing and working together on a project, while other artists may want to have total control over their output. But I like learning from other creative people and seeing how they put things together, so I really enjoy collaborations.

One of the recent collaborations I’ve taken part in is the Human Acceptance Project with James, from Non Zero Sum Games. He liked an art project I made called “Human Acceptance”, which focused on accepting our humanity. We decided to work together, and he created a lovely page where other people can share their human acceptance projects, too!

This is one reason why I really enjoy collaborating with other people. I love to see other folks' take on my art and what they can do with it. As long as it's respectful towards the original purpose I have for the art, I really like seeing how people put their spin on it.

I've also been doing a fun collaboration, a "Mer May" project, with another artist (RosyDumplings). She invited us to send in our drawings of how we'd imagine mermaids! I think this will turn out beautifully, too. (I want to add that Rosy recently published the Mer May collaboration, with everyone's mermaids in the scene. It looks awesome!)

One of the things I figured out at the end of May was how to format my own e-books. I've relied on e-book converters such as Draft 2 Digital in the past, and while they do a very good job, I realized I need to know how to do it myself. It's a good skill to have as a writer! (Although I don’t think it’s necessary if you just like writing for a hobby.)

But I have to admit the initial process was really intimidating. I was reading all these articles, trying to figure out how to do it. Some of them, to be honest, made things sound even more complicated than they actually are.

I was kind of hoping I could work around formatting EPUB files, but I started seeing that EPUBS do have some advantages. Unlike a PDF, EPUB files are reflowable and can adapt to different screens. They're also really useful for people with e-readers or screen readers.

So, I set to work. At first, my converted EPUBS definitely did not look good. But I thought, "I have to keep practicing. Then I'll get better at it."

For many creative people, especially if you started making art, writings, music, or other things as a child, creativity has always been a part of you. But one interesting question to ask yourself is, “Where does creativity begin?”

I think we all have the capacity to be creative, but sometimes that trait gets trained out of us. We may not always feel encouraged to create; for example, creativity tends to fade if we grow up in an environment where getting the perfect answer for a test is more important, or if people in our lives dismiss or judge our creations. We may push away our creative side as “the real world” becomes the focus.

But one thing I’ve noticed in myself is that creativity is a part of my life I can’t let go. In one way or another, I always want to create something or use my imagination to invent new worlds and ideas. Whether it’s through writing a story or singing a song, I really love the creative process itself, whether people respond to it or not.

Even so, I did have the hope that I could share my work and publish it one day. I just wasn’t sure exactly how I would do it. I would plan things out, but I didn’t know when those plans would become a reality for sure.