The Driftless
Why Artists Can't Get Paid
An exploration of the structural problems that keep artists financially struggling despite unprecedented tools for creation and distribution. From winner-take-all dynamics to the passion premium, this essay maps the many pitfalls that prevent creative work from becoming sustainable careers - and why tech platforms promising to solve these problems often make them worse.
Creative Weather
The Abbey in the Oakwood by Caspar David Friedrich, 1809-10 I read Virginia Woolf’s diaries earlier this year, and what struck me was the shape of the entries over time. As Woolf conceived, wrote, edited, and released each of her books, I found myself tracing a shifting rhythm in her creative ebbs and flows. Not a calendar, exactly, but a kind of weather.
Finding Your Creative Signature
When I first started writing, over ten years ago, I quickly discovered a common bit of advice: “find your voice.” It seemed like a good idea and, at the time, easy to do, but I ended up searching for it like you do your car keys.
Is There Objectively Good Writing?
An all-too common position today when it comes to the arts (and creative work in general) is that quality is subjective. This essay inspires a reflection on the criteria of quality and the changing nature of art.
Touching Snow
There is nothing more clarifying—and more terrifying—than a health scare. Something happened to me one night in late November. This piece reflects on the experience when the body speaks loudly to us.
Melville and His MFA by Sea
There has been a recent discourse on Substack about the uses and disuses of an MFA. This essay explores the various perspectives on the necessity and impact of an MFA in writing.
The Daemon in the Machine
This is not the essay I meant to write, reflecting on the shifts in personal belief about the nature of genius and writing.
Writing Through Denial
For six years, I've been abandoning successful writing platforms the moment they started working—not because they failed, but because it wasn't the specific success I was looking for. I thought I was chasing better opportunities.
Fiction in the Age of the Phone
Why do we happily consume endless nonfiction on our phones but reach for physical books when we want fiction? This essay explores the fundamental tension between how we experience digital content and how fiction works in our minds.
Farcaster is a Car
What if Farcaster isn't just another social network with crypto features? This essay explores how Farcaster could transform social media by enabling users to build their own contextual experiences while maintaining a consistent identity across the web.