Sometimes we just need a damn buffer...

When I started publishing Great Things in November last year, I had no real plan or expectation. All I knew was that writing on Substack had the light feeling that good, inspired ideas tend to have.

I’ve pushed enough shit uphill to know that trying to force or control things is a) exhausting b) soul-crushingly ineffective.

I wanted to do as little pushing and forcing as possible, so that Great Things could unfold naturally, at its own pace.

I knew I wanted to post weekly. But I also knew I didn’t want to sacrifice inspiration and flow for the sake of my publishing schedule. Which is why I resolved to build myself what I like to call a ‘publishing buffer’: 2 or 3 finished posts that sit on the bench, eagerly awaiting their release into the world. 

So far, I’ve had shiny posts awaiting their posting dates approximately zero times.

I finished last week’s post at 9:15 pm - so I guess it technically sat on the bench for 3 hours before being posted? [To be clear, by ‘finished’ I mean, ‘I stopped writing’ - feedback from a talented friend helped me realise I’d kinda forgotten to include an ending to tie last week’s piece together! 😂]. 

To be fair, there’s a handful of legitimate reasons that have made creating my buffer a wee bit challenging:

• I’m running a business (and that takes time)

• My dad is (hopefully!!) recovering from brain cancer and needs a lot of support during and after chemo

• I have a debilitating mystery health condition that often means I’m spending 1-3 days in bed most weeks

• Writing and drawing posts takes way longer than I’d expected (between 10 and 16 hours! 😲 I KNOW!!)

I love writing and drawing for you/us. I’m getting clearer on what we’re doing here and I look forward to Great Things continuing to unfold in ways that feel delicious.

Something that feels mighty delicious to me is finally creating my publishing buffer (did I mention I’d like a publishing buffer? 😁).

Which is why I’m taking a 3 week holiday from publishing - but not writing!

Genius! I KNOW!

I’ll stay flexible and open to inspiration blah blah, but I’m currently planning on writing about the masses of stuff in the spiritual/personal development world that is murky, confusing, and/or heavy. For example: 

• if we’re all the empowered creators of our own lives, how do systemic prejudices and unfair systems impact all that?

• if thinking positively helps to attract what we want, what are we really meant to do with our fears, doubts and rage? And why do we have those feeling anyway?

• are things like affirmations always helpful? 

I’m curious. Are there any spiritual/personal development concepts that piss you off? Or that feel contradictory or confusing? Anything you’d like explored in written/drawing form by moi? I’d love to hear them.

I have aspirations of calling this series something fun, so I asked chatgpt to provide some options and it pumped out a bunch of bland, cookie-cutter crap. 

So I challenged our soon-to-overlord to provide more creative options and it came up with these:

1. Cosmic Clarity: Untangling the Mysteries of Spirituality

2. Mind Warp: Navigating the Bizarre World of Personal Growth

3. Zen Head Scratchers: Exploring the Paradoxes of Enlightenment

4. Spiritually Confused: Sorting Through the Noise of Self-Help

5. Soul Food for Thought: Chewing on the Tough Questions of Personal Development

6. Inner Alchemy: Turning the Lead of Spiritual Confusion into Gold

7. Enlightenment Enigmas: Solving the Riddles of Self-Discovery

8. The Personal Development Puzzle: Fitting Together the Pieces of the Spiritual Journey

9. Quantum Conundrums: Wrestling with the Mysteries of the Universe and the Self

10. Mystic Mayhem: Navigating the Chaos of the Spiritual Landscape

Not too bad! Maybe eventually being ruled by AI won’t suck as hard as I’d thought it would?

Do you like any of them?

If everything goes according to plan, Great Things will return to your inbox on 11th May. Until then - because I rather enjoy not being an arsehole - I’ve paused all paid subscriptions!

In other news, Substack has launched new functionality called Notes and it looks like a fun way to connect! I’ve got about 54 notifications from writers I’m subbed to who’ve posted something on Notes, so I shan’t be adding to that noise this week.

But maybe when I’m officially back?

If you have anything to say about anything in this post, I’d love to hear it!

If you’d prefer some questions, then here are some I prepared earlier!

1. What was your fave drawing this week?

2. Is there anything going on in your world that you’d benefit from taking a little break from? Even fun things like publishing on Substack? 😁

3. Had any fun insights lately that you’d care to share?

4. Are you in love with any other Substack writers or illustrators?

Thanks for being here!