One of the prompts in Creative Doing is Set Up Surfaces, which suggests that you create new places to store or publish your work. “Set up at least three different surfaces—one for storing your works in progress, one for sending to other people for feedback, and one for displaying your finished work,” I write.
I write every day in my journal and at my blog, which I had balanced with a full-time job the past couple of years. However, as I explore a season of independence, I’ve found my mind smudging the lines between how to think of my various different surfaces. I realized that it was because I needed to start writing for others more, and my practices needed to adjust to this.
Yesterday, I found a moment of clarity, and sketched the following on a napkin:
And for Dark Mode fans:
I wanted to add in the image of the tree because it’s a useful metaphor; the private journal and blog serve as the foundation for the newsletter and social media. Without them, the leaves will start falling off. At the same time, the leaves also nourish the trunk and roots of the tree:
Your arrangement of surfaces will look different from mine, because it will mean different things to you. The takeaway is that setting up these surfaces is a really useful exercise.
Dropping in some links for further reading:
Private journals:
Blog:
Rohan Rajiv on writing what you repeat, inspired by Deb Liu and Andrew Bosworth, and Swyx on three strikes
Newsletter:
Jason Shen’s 90 day note and example
Peter Kang’s friend and advisor email for Barrel
Social media and publications: