A Substack Challenge

I often find myself drowning in a world of inspiration, constantly looking for an outlet to put it. I say this not as a “deep” thing, but more as “I’m inspired by everything, and I want to tell others about it.”

Little scraps of notes here and there. 

Apartment littered with post-its. 

Notebooks full of thoughts. 

And yet, I have never taken the time to put that inspiration somewhere. Not truly. 

I’ve blogged here and there. Started a cooking YouTube channel for the briefest of seasons. Created a website. Wrote an entire Cookbook. But a dedicated, consistent pursuit over a long period of time, I’ve never done. I’ve sat on these scrap notes, post-its, and notebooks, knowing one day that I would come back and do something with them, and I guess that day is here. 

A close friend of mine has been talking to me about their love life, and something that he constantly says that sticks with me: I’ve got all this love that I want to freely give, I just need to find the right person to give it to. This is probably the battle cry of every romantic out there. Another topic for another day. And though I deeply resonate with this sentiment, it also made me think inwardly to my thoughts and creativity that I want to freely give; I just need to dedicate the time and energy to do it. 

I’ve had my fair share of people recommend to me that I put my writing on Substack, including said friend, and in a moment of banter, we created this challenge that helps hold me accountable to actually putting thought to paper, and paper to publish. Because for some reason, challenge breeds inspiration, and what better way than to do it with a friend. The first post can be found here: Dropping the Act.

The challenge is simple: at least one post a week, by Sunday, on a random topic we agree on, given to us by a topic generator. Obviously, the work I post to Substack will also live here, as this site is fully mine. There are no further requirements for this challenge, other than: write by the deadline. No dedicated word count or writing style that it needs to embody. And it should obviously go without saying, it must be an original piece—just words, published, to push this creativity out. 

So that the little scraps have a place to go, 

the post-its become fully fleshed out thoughts,

and the ideas sitting in my stacks of notebooks are finally given the necessary dignity they rightly deserve.