A Pause for Some Input

Questions? Feedback? It’s all welcome.

What up, party people. 

As wild as it is to type this, it has been a little over eight months since I started this newsletter. In that time, I’m so proud to say this space has grown into an engaged, curious, and wildly talented (humbling, honestly) community of 213 people.

I didn’t have many grand ambitions when I started Dwell, but the one goal I did lay out was to create a more intimate conversation with readers than I felt like I could achieve while writing for traditional, mainstream publications. 

Thus far, I feel like I’m succeeding there. 

Since starting this newsletter, I’ve built relationships with writers I had previously admired from afar for years, forged new friendships with those like me just starting out their careers, and found much inspiration in the comments and wonderful notes I’ve received after posts have gone live. 

On my end of things, coming up with new essays to write in this space every couple of weeks has been a joyous creative challenge, and I’m happy to report that I’ve hit my bi-weekly target every single time. (If you know anything about me, you know I believe in consistency, even if it is only for the sake of consistency.) 

Mainly, I’ve tried to focus on organizing my thoughts around some of the creative insights I feel I’ve learned in the ten-year journey to getting my first novel together, and in the more recent journey I’ve been on to publish it next Spring. I’ve touched a bit on some literary trends here and there, too. 

My intention with these pieces is to, hopefully, stimulate some thoughts in you, the reader. Perhaps inspire you, perhaps provide you with a brief moment of recognition, or even perhaps push you to think about a creative choice or the creative process in a new and interesting way. 

My hope, ultimately, is that these little dispatches I put together are helpful and meaningful. 

Which is why I figured that now—as I’m also in the midst of a few creative projects, and getting my bearings after a weeklong vacation with my family—is as good a time as ever to take a quick pause and get a pulse of how things are going so far. 

Instead of hitting you with more output, I’d like to ask for your input. 

As we near the 1-year mark of Dwell, I’d love to know if there are questions or topics that you’d like me to write about that I haven’t already touched on.

This can be anything related to writing, publishing, parenting while writing, the “literary scene” or trends (as much as I know about them), MFA school—whatever you think is relevant and interesting to you. 

I’m also open to general feedback, too. Thoughts on the cadence of the posts, their length, the subject matter. I’m all ears.  

I should say: I am no expert and don’t want to pretend to be one. I have plenty to learn in this writing and publishing game. 

What I am, however, is a guy who has been writing and publishing and grinding for the last 15 years, a guy on an exciting journey to accomplish a dream I’ve had since I was a little kid, and, ultimately, a guy who really cares a lot about helping others on their own creative journeys, however I can. 

My promise is to try to respond to any questions as authentically as I can. I’m hopeful that if I can do this, we might both get something out of the process. 

Depending on the volume of responses, I may write one post responding to questions that come up or, more likely, spread them out over time. So if you ask something and don’t get a response right away, don’t be deterred! 

Aight. Now that the housekeeping is out of the way. 

Please feel free to register your questions/feedback in the comments section below, or by emailing me (you can reply directly to the email you received delivering this post and I’ll see those replies). If you’d rather share your thoughts anonymously, you can also send them through this form I’ve created (it won’t collect your email and won’t tell me who you are). 

If you can get your thoughts in by Sunday, November 5, I’ll do my best to respond in some way or form in a future post. 

I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

And in the meantime, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for coming along on this ride thus far. I highly value this space, and I’m looking forward to doing my best to ensure it continues to be of value to you. 

Peace, 

Andrew