Someone once told me I could write about potato farming and it would still be interesting to read, and I really took that to heart. So I’m pleased to announce my first project: 30 Days of Writing About Potato Farming!
Actually, I just searched my Gmail archive and found the original comment. (From EIGHT years ago? Excuse me???) Before I slip into another existential crisis over the concept of time, let’s continue. Their exact words were:
‘Fuck yeah! Can’t wait for the new blog! (You could start a blog about potato farming and I’m sure it’d be a compelling read.)’
Thank you for your comment, Ariel, and enjoy the new blog! Hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long!
It may sound silly, but I truly believe I can write about a topic I know nothing about for 30 days, and not only will I enjoy it, but the outcome will also be excellent. And that’s what it’s like to have faith in your own ability, folks.
Don’t believe me? Well. I suppose that means your lie detector is calibrated correctly. Impressive. Either that or you noticed the URL and/or category of this post, like some kinda supersleuth. Have you considered a career in detecting? detectiving? as a detective? Because yeah, okay, fine. I’m not going to write about potato farming (sorry Ariel). Don’t get me wrong, I could, I totally could. I’m just not going to. Instead, I am once again going to be extremely predictable and basic. So, for realsies this time, introducing…
30 Days of Untamed Writing! Hmm… Untamed Writing? The name of my old website? The one I intentionally closed down because I didn’t like where I was going with it? Yeah, that one. So what’s the deal?
The thing is, I wrote a lot of stuff on that old website – at least a couple of hundred articles. And, I dunno, it seems a shame to consign them all to the junk drawer of the internet (The Wayback Machine). Wait, hear me out: I’m not saying I’m going to copy and paste a bunch of my old articles onto this blog for this project. And uh, especially not the ones I described as ‘cogent and readable but ultimately shallow and thoughtless’ in my previous post. I reckon I can salvage 30 of them, though. Hmm, that’s a bad way to phrase it. This is going to be worthwhile, I promise!
It’ll be more like a selective restoration project. (Yes, I’m aware I ragged on blogs for updating and regurgitating old content in my previous post. What can I say, my middle name is irony.) I’ll handpick my favourite articles and some of the most popular ones (including the one somebody randomly asked me to email them in exchange for precisely £19.20) (if you would also like to randomly PayPal me money, please go ahead) and I’ll—well, to be honest, I’ll probably just straight up rewrite a lot of them because, like everyone, when I read things I wrote several years ago, I spontaneously erupt in shingles. (The further back you go, the worse it gets. Once I tried reading something I wrote over twenty years ago and contracted the bubonic plague.) I may also add editor’s notes and addenda and critical analyses, and generally treat it as some sort of archaeological excavation project, because that sounds like fun. But we’ll see. Maybe everything I wrote is fantastic and I won’t need to touch it?
Safe to say I’m easing myself into this whole writing-and-publishing-regularly-again thing. But also, this feels like the most natural place to start. Like, I did write a lot on Untamed Writing, and it would be a shame to let it all disappear forever. Besides, this is the perfect opportunity to share my old logo (designed by the fabulous Harrison Tsai), which would be even more of a shame to lose! Because look at it!
Do you see it? DO YOU SEE???
I’m very fond of this logo and I don’t have anywhere else to put it now, so I’m putting it right here. Even though I walked away from it, Untamed Writing will always be special to me, you know? While I’m at it, here’s one of the original photos I used to market the site and portray myself as an intriguing, outdoorsy, impish sort. Those photos were taken by my brother in a little wooded area near my hometown in February 2013. He is still waiting for payment.
Can you believe I wasn’t even using a Mac back then? Incredible.
I mostly wrote about freelancing, marketing, productivity, writing craft, and other things of a similar nature on Untamed Writing, but from time to time I threw in a curveball because there were lots of different things I wanted to write about (TIME IS A FLAT CIRCLE?) so even though this project’s called 30 Days of Untamed Writing, it’s not strictly going to be about writing. Maybe I should call it The Best of Untamed Writing, or Greatest Hits, but who do I think I am? Cher? (No, I don’t know why Cher is the first artist who sprang to mind, leave me alone.) (Because she’s iconic, that’s why.)
I should probably check before I commit to this that there are actually 30 articles I want to republish, but I’m just going to trust in my past self! Not everything I wrote is complete crap, surely! I’ll also include the original dates I published things, because maybe I do want to have an existential crisis over the concept of time, actually.
Since this is 2023 and blogs no longer exist, if you want to stay in the loop, I recommend signing up for my newsletter, Clattermouth, where I’ll send out occasional, um, ‘digests’, I guess? Or if you want to put your finger slightly more on the pulse, I’ve also set up a Patreon where I’ll be sharing the posts daily (for free!) in a nice, non-intrusive way where you can choose exactly how notified you want to be about my shenanigans here.
I’ll officially start the project soon, with a post I have not yet decided upon. Look forward to it!