Irregular, risky, and spontaneous. These define both adventures and my writing. For the past year or so I’ve engaged in new work— emergency services. Fire and EMS work has consumed much of my time. When I started doing this work, my interest in writing plummeted. At times, I feel as if I’m allergic to my desk, chair, and computer screen. With emergency services, there tends to be immediate gratification, a cause and effect. And hopefully some adrenaline.
I’ll likely write about this more alongside the everlasting topics of nature, hunting, and kinship. I’m still perplexed by what to write and I’m sure many reader-writers feel that way right now. Part cognitive load issue, part hesitancy to keep investing in writing in the age of AI. A big consideration for me has been the slide of Substack towards pure social media— an endless thirst for likes and dopamine hits that broadly benefits only the platform. That’s something I personally have needed to remove myself from. Substack turns the hard work and often thankless writing of many writers into hearts (not money). An endless universe of clicks and empty subscriptions became unsustainable (and unenjoyable) to me.
For newsletters I read regularly and in full, I show my support not with a valueless click, but with money. Economic systems have been around for a while now and the logic behind them is effective. Writing as an art isn’t excluded from this; most writers would prefer to be paid. This is not a pitch for paid subscriptions, but more of a pitch to pay for any of the writing you consume. I believe this is a more sustainable feedback loop between reader and creator.
If my new cadence is problematic for any paid subscribers of Next Adventure, I’m happy to issue a refund. My goal, as always, is to share something of value with you and what I’ve realized is that value-generation does not occur (for me, at least) on a predetermined cadence.
Like a true adventure, these things often occur spontaneously, without planning or expectation.
