Wow, did I start subscribing at just the right time! I went through a similar experimentation and exercise with Future Thief a year ago. To summarize, I refined my focus entirely and started posting only speculative fiction. No literature. No meta. No poetry. No essays. No musings. Speculative fiction short stories only. Occasionally, I do share about my publication journey as a personal offering to readers, but it's very refined and focused on my fiction success and failures. My readers know exactly what to expect, and it has worked out amazing. It's not for everyone, and there are days where it requires more discipline than fun.
For what it's worth, you're on to something. Forget about branding and focus on your whole self. Out of that you'll arrive organically at your destination. I would invite you to answer a different kind of question, which I think you already have. If there is something you want to do, should do, and are called to do, then why aren't you focused on doing that? What I read is Lyle Enright is a fantasy writer. He writes fantasy fiction and fantasy games. If that's true, then why isn't Lyle Enright writing fantasy fiction and fantasy games here on A Particular Weird?
Man, these are incredible questions, Brian. Thank you for your generous reading here, and for sharing your own story, too.
I've been thinking about this all day, actually. I've asked myself the same question a few times: why not just do fiction? And I think the answer has multiple facets.
First is the fact that, for now, I'm still on the traditional publishing path. So most of the fiction I write, I'm also sending through the submission grinder. Publishing that work on my site would disqualify it from most markets, so until I decide to take a more independent tack, I need to be careful about which stories I post here.
On the other hand, I'm also just a more natural essay writer, and essay writing is more "restful" to me at this stage of my life. And as I'm trying to cultivate a place where my curiosity can just kind of have free reign for a while, that's the first form my mind goes to. Journaling about all the things that influence my fiction, all the things that I studied that have become grist for my stories... Why do these philosophical and theological debates still matter to me? What does it look like to make something so abstract feel concrete, as part of a story world? How do these questions already show up in what I read? That feels really enjoyable right now. Thinking through *why* I enjoy certain things feels like the way I can give myself as a kind of gift to myself. A gift of paying attention to inner movements I've lost touch with.
Might that be unpredictable and difficult for some readers? Maybe. I'm hoping there's a spear of curiosity and joy through all this that makes it attractive and worth reading all the same. Maybe my audience will stay small until, like you said, the destination emerges organically and becomes a destination for others, too.
... I think, in some ways, I *have* to be okay with that right now. To attempt a contentment with smallness. I think I've been worried about *being* that destination for a long time already -- and that's another branch of my story that could probably fill a book.
Right now, it feels right to meander, even in a public way, through all the ways my life fuels my imagination. As a way of being in touch with that life again. That sounds fun right now. It sounds like a relief. It also sounds like a way to find lingering joy in some things I'm tempted to grieve right now. And I think a space like that is what I need to keep me going...at least, for the time being!
I hope you continue to enjoy yourself here... And I'm sure we'll still have plenty of great conversations about fiction! I've got a flash piece that my writing group has strong-armed me into doing, this novella I'm doing with a friend (though maybe I'll create a different 'Stack for that? I'll let you know if I do.) And I've got an essay I'm drafting about how Alfred Bester's "Of Time and Third Avenue" won't get out of my head. So, I'm excited about what's coming down the pipe.
Thanks for reading, Brian, and for making me think so hard. Really looking forward to getting to know you better here!
This is great, Lyle! It sounds like you've really been thinking through where you're at in life and how it applies to your writing. I struggled for a long time with that, and being able to write for your own self and joy is a great focus. You may find starting a separate section on your Substack is enough to differentiate essays from fiction or other writing, but honestly, it's probably not all that necessary. I'm definitely hanging around regardless. 😁
I also started with a heavy focus on traditional publication, which means I had to hold stories back, which then did make their way onto Substack after rejection. Only recently, within the last few months, did I decide to stop doing that entirely and only post to Substack. I hope a lot of your stories get published! It's an encouragement to everyone in the community when that happens. Thanks for your kind words in your response.
Wow, did I start subscribing at just the right time! I went through a similar experimentation and exercise with Future Thief a year ago. To summarize, I refined my focus entirely and started posting only speculative fiction. No literature. No meta. No poetry. No essays. No musings. Speculative fiction short stories only. Occasionally, I do share about my publication journey as a personal offering to readers, but it's very refined and focused on my fiction success and failures. My readers know exactly what to expect, and it has worked out amazing. It's not for everyone, and there are days where it requires more discipline than fun.
For what it's worth, you're on to something. Forget about branding and focus on your whole self. Out of that you'll arrive organically at your destination. I would invite you to answer a different kind of question, which I think you already have. If there is something you want to do, should do, and are called to do, then why aren't you focused on doing that? What I read is Lyle Enright is a fantasy writer. He writes fantasy fiction and fantasy games. If that's true, then why isn't Lyle Enright writing fantasy fiction and fantasy games here on A Particular Weird?
Man, these are incredible questions, Brian. Thank you for your generous reading here, and for sharing your own story, too.
I've been thinking about this all day, actually. I've asked myself the same question a few times: why not just do fiction? And I think the answer has multiple facets.
First is the fact that, for now, I'm still on the traditional publishing path. So most of the fiction I write, I'm also sending through the submission grinder. Publishing that work on my site would disqualify it from most markets, so until I decide to take a more independent tack, I need to be careful about which stories I post here.
On the other hand, I'm also just a more natural essay writer, and essay writing is more "restful" to me at this stage of my life. And as I'm trying to cultivate a place where my curiosity can just kind of have free reign for a while, that's the first form my mind goes to. Journaling about all the things that influence my fiction, all the things that I studied that have become grist for my stories... Why do these philosophical and theological debates still matter to me? What does it look like to make something so abstract feel concrete, as part of a story world? How do these questions already show up in what I read? That feels really enjoyable right now. Thinking through *why* I enjoy certain things feels like the way I can give myself as a kind of gift to myself. A gift of paying attention to inner movements I've lost touch with.
Might that be unpredictable and difficult for some readers? Maybe. I'm hoping there's a spear of curiosity and joy through all this that makes it attractive and worth reading all the same. Maybe my audience will stay small until, like you said, the destination emerges organically and becomes a destination for others, too.
... I think, in some ways, I *have* to be okay with that right now. To attempt a contentment with smallness. I think I've been worried about *being* that destination for a long time already -- and that's another branch of my story that could probably fill a book.
Right now, it feels right to meander, even in a public way, through all the ways my life fuels my imagination. As a way of being in touch with that life again. That sounds fun right now. It sounds like a relief. It also sounds like a way to find lingering joy in some things I'm tempted to grieve right now. And I think a space like that is what I need to keep me going...at least, for the time being!
I hope you continue to enjoy yourself here... And I'm sure we'll still have plenty of great conversations about fiction! I've got a flash piece that my writing group has strong-armed me into doing, this novella I'm doing with a friend (though maybe I'll create a different 'Stack for that? I'll let you know if I do.) And I've got an essay I'm drafting about how Alfred Bester's "Of Time and Third Avenue" won't get out of my head. So, I'm excited about what's coming down the pipe.
Thanks for reading, Brian, and for making me think so hard. Really looking forward to getting to know you better here!
This is great, Lyle! It sounds like you've really been thinking through where you're at in life and how it applies to your writing. I struggled for a long time with that, and being able to write for your own self and joy is a great focus. You may find starting a separate section on your Substack is enough to differentiate essays from fiction or other writing, but honestly, it's probably not all that necessary. I'm definitely hanging around regardless. 😁
I also started with a heavy focus on traditional publication, which means I had to hold stories back, which then did make their way onto Substack after rejection. Only recently, within the last few months, did I decide to stop doing that entirely and only post to Substack. I hope a lot of your stories get published! It's an encouragement to everyone in the community when that happens. Thanks for your kind words in your response.