Where I write

For the past four years on Tik Tok, my most common place I would write was on the bus across Boston to work. Usually, I’d not finish it until later in the morning, but the bus is almost always where the drafts started.

When I was in medical school, I always loved the idea of being a ~regular~ writer, as in someone committed to “butt in chair” time, as Anne Lamott coins it. It wasn’t until writing short form on Tik Tok that it was possible for me to have enough writing muscle to do longer form posts, and the past 3 years of writing have been a small oasis from the world of healthcare AND an eccentric way of developing that once sought after and elusive writing practice. To put it more clearly, getting feedback (mostly positive) on short form got me to come back day after day to write, and once that muscle was built, it made the longer writing I always aspired towards possible.

Point of all this, besides that I am on said bus right now, is that I wouldn’t have expected what started my intern year, in the middle of winter, writing about Taylor Swift, to become the platform it became, and this newsletter now. I think past me ideally wanted longer form, but back then I didn’t have any on ramp for it. Yet, with daily practice and some flexibility to opportunity as it came, the original thing I wanted is coming to fruition.

Process is the thing, and I repeat this ad nauseam to you all. The point is, if you have a creative dream for 2025, I think you should try it out. I think you should figure out the most fun way for you to get your butt in the chair, and see what happens. You can’t know at the beginning what it will become, but you can know if it’s something you’ve admired for a long time, the process itself will be worthwhile.

Take care, and see you soon.

Xx,

Margaret