That’s right everyone, you read that correctly. This is the 53rd Newsletter. I know I said I was going to be writing 52 of them, but counting has never been a strong suit of mine and you get to be the beneficiary of that.
Ware and Why has finally reached the finish line.
I said I was going to write a newsletter for at least a year and by golly, I did it. As this is the final (regular) installment of Ware and Why I am going to spend this newsletter reflecting. I’ll share some of the things I’ve learned along the way, as well as some of the metrics from a year of writing - because who doesn’t like metrics? We’ll also have a paper plate awards ceremony of sorts. Let’s start with the lessons.
Nobody is going to read your newsletter and that’s a good thing
That’s not to say that I consider you to be “nobody”, dear reader. Quite the opposite - you are my everything. Please don’t take that personally.
What I mean is that vastly fewer people than you think are going to read your newsletter will read your newsletter. Most people are going to gloss over your weekly share. Maybe they’ll read the title and make a comment based on that. But only a few true fans will read what you wrote and that’s okay.
It gives you the opportunity to grow in the public domain without having too many eyes on you.
Sloppy personal writing > technically sound boring writing
In some of my earliest pieces I wrote as if I was following a book report grading rubric. Basically MLA formatted. This is not the place for that. Write freely, it’s more authentic. Authenticity is all that matters in the world of personal essay writing.
Write like you are talking to your friends
Elaborating on that last point, my writing improved when I stopped watching my language. In conversations with my friends I’ll sometimes drop a dirty word to emphasize my point or make a joke. That’s what I sound like when I’m speaking with my friends and uncensoring my writing made it sound much more like me.
You aren’t going to proud of every newsletter
I wrote some fuckin’ bombs throughout the course of this newsletter. There are a few incoherent pieces of writing I would be okay with nobody (myself included) ever reading again. That’s fine. Part of the process. See below.
It’s more important to be consistent than it is to be consistently good
Publishing a disgusting piece of word vomit that you’re ashamed to put your name on is still better than publishing nothing at all. Rome wasn’t built in a day. And it would’ve never been built at all if the brick layers didn’t feel like they were in the best mindset to lay bricks that day (I don’t know anything about how Rome was built).
Don’t do it for recognition, but also don’t hide your art
If you’re going to start a project like this, it can’t be for the purpose of creating a successful newsletter that will get you sponsored by Raid Shadow Legends and help you become an internet celebrity. That said, it’s still very important to share your work, even if it’s just a Instagram story like I did on a weekly basis. If you keep it all to yourself the stakes aren’t high enough and you’re not going to grow. Knowing that others are going to read what you’ve written forces you to do good work. I spent January/February off social media this year and during those months my newsletter quality dipped because I wasn’t as publicly sharing them. Shame works.
It’s okay to write about the same thing from different angles
Out of my 53 newsletters I probably only wrote about 30 or so different topics. I rehashed some stuff. I had more thoughts on things. I changed my mind on other things. It’s okay to revisit.
Don’t wait all week to start writing the next one
Most of the best newsletters I wrote were written on the same day I posted them. I know that flies completely in the face of this lesson’s headline, but in all of those cases I had spent the previous few days writing a different newsletter and I didn’t like it very much. However, because I had been writing, my mind was in the state of being necessary to write well and I was able to One-Up myself while having the safety net of having another newsletter ready. It’s good to have a back up plan.
You’re allowed to tell people in passing conversation that you’re “a writer”
This is less a lesson and more of a perk. If you write a newsletter you are allowed to snootily refer to yourself as a practitioner of the literary arts. You have the license to lump yourself among Bradbury, or Hemingway, or Stephen King as someone who also dabbles in putting pen to paper. Nobody is going to tell you you can’t do that. And those that do probably haven’t ever written anything themselves so who cares about their opinion?
Read other newsletters for inspiration
One of the best things that came out of this experience was the many wonderful newsletters I discovered on Substack (the platform that hosts Ware and Why). Whenever I was out of ideas I would read other incredible newsletters and use them to inspire myself. Substack is like social media but without all of the negatives. It’s incredible.
Don’t worry about proofreading and editing until you finish writing
Just word vomit. You can worry about getting rid of the smelly stuff later. The most important thing is that you get your outline down. Don’t obsess over every word or you’ll never finish. Just write a shitty first draft. That’s step one.
Don’t bother people about whether or not they read it - they’ll tell you
You can tell people you write a newsletter and you can encourage them to subscribe. But don’t bother them about it. If they like it they’ll tell you they liked it.
Use it as a tool to gather your thoughts on topics - it will make you more interesting
If you’re interested in a topic, then you should write about it. The process of putting together a piece will solidify it in your mind and make you a significantly more interesting person in the process. So many people have opinions on things they don’t know anything about. You can be that person that actually knows why they have the opinions they have. People like that person.
Try to write about your specific interests in a way that’s widely applicable
I wrote about my woodworking hobby quite a bit over the course of this newsletter even though I’m sure most of you don’t know and don’t care to know much about it. That’s okay. But I can still speak on the process of learning, of creation, of overcoming adversity using woodworking as a vehicle. That’s something others can understand.
Just get started
My initial plan was to have 10 articles ready to go before I started publishing anything. I stressed for weeks over them. And they sucked, because I had no feedback and I was keeping everything in my own head. Fuck that. Just get started. Write the first one, publish it, and then go from there. Don’t overthink it.
Set a Deadline
Committing to an article every Wednesday was the most important thing I did while writing this newsletter. I never would have been consistent enough to write 52 of them without having a weekly deadline.
Newsletter Stats
Total Newsletter Views - 4,111 views
Total Subscribers - 45
I have subscribers located in 10 states - which is actually news to me as of this moment
Top Subscriber Shoutouts:
Marissa T., James W. , Shannon S., Jordan S., Julio L., Abby R., Permveer L., Wong, Adam B., my mother, Coach Haren, and Axjxl12 (I don’t know who this is, but you’re awesome) . All of you were the most active subscribers of Ware and Why.
Special shoutout to Adam Bartley who’s write the newsletter, The Freelance Graduate Student, which inspired me to start Ware and Why.
Paper Plate Awards
Most Liked Post:
It makes sense that my first post would have the most likes since it’s the oldest. I also think it’s among my best writing.
There’s a great scene in The Big Short, a movie about the 2008 financial collapse - weird tie-in, I know, bear with me.
Michael Burry, one of our protagonists, discusses how he met his wife.
He met her on match.com. His bio read “I’m a medical student with only one eye, an awkward social manner, and $145,000 in student loan debt”
His wife messaged him “You’re just what I’m looking for.”
She meant honest.
Here’s my version of Burry’s dating bio:
I’m a recent college graduate with a short attention span, a penchant towards overthinking, and multiple SSRIs prescriptions. I have few marketable skills, zero impressive certifications, and no intention to return to school to get any. I’ve never owned or operated my own business, my mile time is atrocious, and I have a bad knee I’m insecure about. A few days ago I sent the first draft of something I had written to a friend for critique and nearly scrapped the idea of starting this newsletter based on his mild criticism.
The point being I have little business giving advice, especially not on a regularly scheduled basis.
But I’m going to be honest with you.
And maybe that’s just what you’re looking for.
Most Viewed Post:
This was a reflection on my experience leaving a job that I was very successful at and was making over a quarter of a million dollars per year working, but that was making me miserable. Something about it must have resonated because it’s by far the most engagement on any of my writings.
Tip #1: Your Job Isn’t Supposed to Make You Happy (but it shouldn’t actively make you unhappy)
In 2020, a year that most of my friends were living off Trump checks and enhanced unemployment, I made over a quarter of a million dollars.
I was also catatonically depressed and teetering on the edge of complete mental collapse before I broke for lunch most afternoons.
Golden Child Award (My Favorite Post):
This was one of those newsletters I mentioned earlier where I had actually written something else entirely but when I sat down to proofread it, this other newsletter just took form and was written in less than an hour. I think my personal voice shines through it more than any other post. Ironically, it’s about how I’ll never become a great writer because its not something I am willing to suffer for, and me being okay with that.
The reality for most of us is that our writing doesn’t sound like the best version of us. It sounds like the version of us that shows up when we’re having dinner with our significant other’s parents for the first time and we’re not sure what to do with our hands when they ask us to say Grace with them. We’re all elbows and left feet. All yes ma’ams and thank you sirs. We write as if our readers are about to ask us our intentions with their son or daughter. As if we’re trying too hard not to rest our elbows on the table because we heard somewhere sometime that it’s considered rude.
Honorable Mentions
The Sacko (My Least Favorite Post)
This one just never came together the way I wanted it and I abandoned it before it was fully formed. As I said, sometimes you suck that week.
Woodworking is a pretty on-the-nose example of keeping your tools sharp but it applies to all sorts of crafts. If you’re a painter it’s important that you keep your brushes clean. Keeping your tools sharp can apply to non-physical tools as well. A writer should constantly read the writing of others and practice their craft, a programmer should continuously test themselves solving problems.
Dishonorable Mentions
Whelp.
That’s all folks. This has been Ware and Why.
My sincerest thanks to those of you who took the time to follow along with me in this experiment. It has been a pleasure.
I will continue the newsletter, although not weekly. Only when I have something I want to get into words. Which could potentially be never. I make no promises.
Cheers!
Trevor