There are "Things to Realize"

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Welcome to Things to Realize by me, Mark Patterson.

Over the years, I’ve written in all kinds of places, including technical projects for my clients, lots and lots of posts on CompuServe and Usenet back in the ‘90s (where I would argue passionately in favor of one point of view or another), comments on various blogs, and a on few blogs of my own. As I review my writings from over the last few decades, one thing stands out loud and clear: inconsistency. My pace of publication has been erratic. As I analyze why this is, three reasons come to mind:

1. It hasn’t been my “day job.”

2. I fall into the trap of writing only when the Muse urges me on.

3. When I do end up writing, it consumes me. If I write a piece in the evening, and I am done at midnight (and it seems that no matter what time I start, I always finish it at midnight), I am so wired I can’t sleep. That can be a problem when I have client meetings the next morning.

These three reasons can be distilled into one reason: lack of a deadline driven by people who want to read my work.

Over the last several years, I’ve been publishing my muses on a blog hosted on Wordpress called “Indelible Mark.” The conceit of the name is that while electronic media seems ephemeral, in actual fact what you put online never goes away. However, despite the clever name, the name says nothing about what I’m writing about, and to be fair, Indelible Mark was a place for me to write about random things, with no regard to the audience, and no focus at all.

I came across Substack a couple of months ago. Substack is a platform for writers. It is not a platform for corporate web sites, shopping sites, or business platforms. No, it is a platform for writers to publish their writing. The idea of this appeals to me, because Wordpress, while being a great platform, requires way too much babysitting for me to make it what I want it to be, and Substack has what I want, out of the box, with no other fluff. In other words, it allows me to write and not think about the platform.

Now, there is another reason I haven’t written consistently, and that is that despite having written hundreds of articles, and hundreds of thousands of words, I’ve never picked up the mantle of “Writer.” Time for that to change. I am indeed a writer. And what does a writer do? Write. So this is my medium.

Indelible Mark was a catch-all for what I wanted to write. As I sporadically published posts to it, some posts resonated and some did not. The ones that resonated were posts that spoke about the human condition, most notably about grief and love. The feedback I received about these articles was enormously positive, and more importantly, people have told me that reading what I wrote helped them in their own circumstances. As part of the process, I found my “tribe” - or they found me - or both. This provided me with focus. I’m writing for my tribe here. And who are in “my tribe?” It is not exclusionary: If you like what I write and want to read more, you are in my tribe - and all you have to do to make it official is to subscribe.

I am calling this endeavor “Things to Realize” because there is a lot going on in this life, and it is too easily painted over, or just plain lost in daily existence. Things are happening now, and man, we need some support, and some insight.

So here’s the deal: rather than post a few posts a year, or less(!), I will post at least every two weeks. Your subscription encourages me. I envision an audience sitting out there awaiting the curtain to rise, murmuring with expectation, and getting somewhat irritated when showtime comes and the curtain is still down. It becomes easier to just write and open the curtain. So, please subscribe. You’ll help me write more, and in so doing, you get more to read! Win-win.

Sign up now so you don’t miss the first issue.

In the meantime, tell your friends!