Permanent Vacation

Until Further Notice

If you follow my work (which is not many of you, but some do exist!) you may have noticed that my schedule has become less reliable over the past few months. There are likely a few reasons for this, but what it really points to is the fact that my commitment to writing on this platform is much less than it was say two years ago, as my commitment has not been rewarded.

I’ll admit that I have more subscribers here than I ever have had (at peak I had thousands of followers on Twitter, but on has to take into account that following behavior on Twitter is often promiscuous.) Despite that, I have not felt safe to publish my best work, nor (in general) to republish or publish excellent poetry formerly written.

The fact is that rather than a boon for creativity, this platform is a creativity-sink, drawing one’s energy off into concerns about promotion and comparisons to rather unlike things. The Notes part of Substack is simply Facebook; perhaps the Pages are different and there are no Group Events to schedule, but the dynamic is identical to the one I experienced in 2009. It is not place for serious discussions, although it is a great place to tease, insult and deceive people.

Further, on Substack itself at the moment if one looks at the top achievers, one will be quite dismayed. If indeed a certain poster who-shall-not-be-named is number one in Education and recently wrote an essay defending child pornography one has to wonder who exactly one is working for here? One can only pretend one is working for one’s self for so long; every person publishing work here promotes Substack, and Substack promotes…

Moreover it isn’t profitable. Perhaps if I had a steady job it might form an interesting hobby, even one of those legendary hobbies-that-becomes-a-full-time-job. But not on this time scale; perhaps it is a ‘skill issue’, but regardless starting from nothing I obtained about 150 subscribers on this platform in 3 years. These are not ‘subscribers’ in the traditional sense, mind you, they are ‘followers of your blog posts’ in the form of an email newsletter. They are the free riders off of whatever supports your work, which in my case is… nothing.

This is actually not a letter asking for money, but one announcing a permanent hiatus from Substack. Permanent is a strong word; but I prefer it over the overly optimistic “until further notice”, which makes it sound like I will be coming back. If Substack remains in any form in 20 years, you may see a return to form. “But 20 years is such a long time, Mr. Ogle!”, no, Friend! Once you have lived for some time you realize that 20 years goes by in the blink of an eye.