The State of the Jabber: January 2024

It’s been a little over three months since I started Hyperjabber, and as the first days of the new year pass by, I find myself reflecting on where I’ve been and where I want to go in 2024. I published 23 posts last year, which isn’t bad given that I started in late September, and while I’ve enjoyed writing them, they have proven to be much more time consuming than I originally thought.

I spend most of my writing time revising over and over until every paragraph, image, and sentence rings true in my ear. And though it is time consuming, it is also delightful and I do it because each revision, each change, sharpens what the writing is trying to convey. Finding a more precise word or rearranging the rhythm of a sentence helps me better understand what I’m experiencing, and the revised piece better expresses what I’m thinking, but I’m not sure my weekly pace is sustainable.

In particular, I miss music making. My side hobbies all involve music: DJing, playing the guitar and Stick Bass, creating music in Ableton Live, programming Max and synth patches. My commitment to one post per week leaves me with no time to make music. This makes me sad. So, I’m going to slow the pace a bit and devote more time to enjoying the musical side of my life. Since I plan to write a little about my musical projects and productions, perhaps the overall pace won’t slow, just some of the posts will have a different focus.

Which brings me to the next change I’ve been thinking about. There are a lot of great writers on Substack, and as I’ve been reading their work, I’ve also been refining my understanding of what I like and what I find special about writing here. We have lots of people writing essays and articles on topics such as culture or politics or technology, and those seem to be the writers with the most subscribers. Other writers publish essays that are more personal, and still others write short stories, serialized novels, and poetry. I’ve read great writing in all of these categories, but the writing I find most intriguing on Substack is the kind that invites us into the writer’s private world and shows us what their unique life is like as they struggle to live well amidst the chaos and ambiguity that surrounds us.

This kind of writing is like autobiography, but not autobiography that’s neatly organized into elegant volumes edited to make a life look comprehensible. No, this is autobiography written in the blinding glare of confusion, with flashes of imagination and flares of reflection, it’s full of jagged edges and discontinuities, false starts and mistakes. It’s writing that shows, in real-time, the writer trying to make sense of their life. If meaning is the imagination’s response to ambiguity, then this writing is glittering with the stuff, and reading it is like tracing the contours of the writer’s thoughts, grasping the heft of their experiences, and falling into the depths of their emotions. It’s an intimate kind of writing that builds over time, and it works best, I think, when delivered as raw, uncut email sent straight into your inbox week after week.

I feel that this is adjacent to the kind of stuff I’ve been writing, but I often drift more into fiction. I think in 2024 I will try to write more posts where I apply the fiction with a lighter touch. I don’t know exactly what this will look like. Probably more like Loss of Presence than Stillpoint. Pieces like Emporium of Memory and Twenty More Minutes are probably in the ballpark too. I think they will feel more like essays than stories, but I’m not sure. Of course, I’ll continue writing the kind of stuff I’ve been writing, I just want to mix it up a bit.

I’m extraordinarily thankful for each and every one of you who subscribe to the Jabber and take time out of your day to read. I hope it’s been a fun ride in 2023 and that the changes I’m planning for 2024 don’t scare you off. You can always reply directly to the Hyperjabber emails to let me know your thoughts, and please don’t forget about that Like button which lets me know which posts are more popular.

Take care and enjoy this lovely photo from the even more lovely and very talented Stephanie.

Photo by Stephanie Kenan.