Shout-out to Toulme as I Jump into Literary Fervor
In appreciation of Ciara Toulme's Myth of Time
It’s 2am…
As a new Substacker, I have read pieces offering advice on how to get subscribers, inner insights on Substack, and even multi-level marketing-style secrets on how to gain enough subscribers to make a monthly income. Observing each in their own journey of discovery about how the platform works, as I joy-scroll Stacks offering encouragement. I searched why I was compelled to join Substack and create an account.
From my crash-course education on Substack, I found the intersection between my first passion and true love, writing; my second passionate obsession, technology (former coder here…are we ever former when we code?), and my need to ethically define my own journey on the capitalism spectrum. I’m not alone in seeking compensation for doing what I love the most.
What surfaced for me is that Substack creates an opportunity to express our inner author, instantly and without the traditional restrictions of editors and publishers. With a growing community of free and/or paid subscribers who not only love our work but share theirs. A contemplative space where we can engage in quick Stacks offering news, information, connection, humor, recipes, savvy retorts, sports, special interest, politics, and witty insights. Yet, there are also the Toulmes of Substack, authors who ignite on the spot. The narratives that viscerally place you at the office building, on the subway, in the reflexive discovery, and awaken an awareness that pouring your story on the page IS your purpose, your lived experience, your expression. To inspire a break with literary confines. To rocket you from the shoulders of all the authors before you—far too many undervalued ancestors (like Phyllis Wheatley), and too many undiscovered authors residing in cemeteries without the chance to ever leave a drop of their collective brilliance on paper.
I am now remembering why I loved writing so instantly at such a very young age, and what bonded me to writing to this day. Writers who cannot exist without writing, know that they have an unlimited inner source of abundance that is compelling. When life is just gonna life, the connection to eight million other humans vibrates in what I call our “energy essence”—that inner animation energizing us authentically, imaginatively, and dreamily. That place where we just are. No apologies, no explanations, no fears, no limits. The place where our pain, our trauma, our frustration, our reluctance dissipates into warm brilliance. The place where we birth the phenomenal.
I think there are so many humans in existence in this moment because we are meant to connect and to know something deeper about our existence. Something that can only be revealed as we each step into our true selves. As writers, when we do this, we activate all the knowledge known and unknown that resides within. We transcend time in its perceived linearity and push into the vast impossible. This is where writing from our energy essence can take us. Sure, writing can solely communicate news, offer information, identify function, inspire engagement, share ideas, and transfer knowledge. Yet, the writing that unlocks who we are and offers the self-aware processing that pings another human is deliciously magnificent. Not to put labels on how we identify this type of writing when it reveals a deeper connection because that limits its transformative possibilities.
Unburdening the labels and confines, reading and audio-booking voraciously (that awakens the author within), and untethering our own creative abundance to freely spill out into our anxious and eager readers, makes me speechless.
Quick Sharing: I recently found a chosen community of individuals who are so of like mind and yet not, that the experience reduced my need to assert my voice as I listened to similar lived experiences from others. Simply refreshing. Such an unexpected and enriching experience. This likely contributed to the burst of literary energy I’m feeling and sharing with you at 2am.
Appreciation to author Toulme for sharing your narrative and telling your truth with vulnerability. For extolling your love of literature and visual media. For taking that trek down Twilight Zone lane and making me remember how much I enjoyed those famous reruns, however lacking representation, that ignited our collective reflexivity.
I invite everyone to write abundantly. We author-readers need your books!
I look forward to connecting with self-aware authors on Substack who viscerally relate to Toulme and similar authors with a fire bursting to bring yourself to the page. Let’s definitely connect and build a chosen community!