If you are reading this, you are likely a writer, artist, or creator. We often talk about creative work itself as a craft, and I believe that how we share is a craft, as well.
We share to complete why we create: when your intention as a writer and the experience of a reader meet, something special happens. We share because we hope that what we write may move someone, inspire them, educate them, connect them, or help them understand the world — and themselves — even better.
I’ve spent my entire life around writers, artists, and creators. I’ve heard them describe the elevated feeling they get when attending to the craft of how they create. And also, their frustration that sharing their writing and art can feel like… a mess.
Each person describes it differently, but these are some of the ways that they’ve expressed to me their challenges in sharing their work:
- It feels like an unwanted obligation.
- Sharing triggers complex feelings of fear of being seen.
- They worry it changes their identity from a true artist to a scammy marketer.
- Thinking of sharing their work makes them feel alone, as they struggle to know what to do to effectively share their work, without embarrassing themselves.
- It causes apprehension about having their life influenced by big tech companies, algorithms, and a pressure to overshare.
I’ve helped writers and creators share their work for years — it’s what I do every day. I firmly believe:
How you share what you create is a craft.
You can attend to this craft in a manner that fills you up inside, instead of depleting you. Today I want to talk about how to feel joy and fulfillment in how you share, with three components:
- Having a clarity of focus, and approaching sharing with an intention that is authentic to who you are, not compromised by expectations of others. This should be a process that honors your boundaries.
- Showing up to share as part of a regular routine, attending to this work not as a single spectacular moment, but as an integral part of honoring what you write and create.
- Making small improvements over time, and feeling satisfaction in celebrating what you learn along the way. Even when you “fail” with one specific thing you try, there is a learning that is essential to improving your craft. This is also where useful discoveries happen, which can spark new ideas that feel right.
Okay, let’s dig into each of these…
Feeling Deep Clarity and Intention
It makes me think about a comment that Vanessa Lowry left on on a recent post of mine:
“Last year in my gardening, I consciously focused almost all of my energy on one flowerbed that I can see from my office window. And it was glorious. So I’ve been reminding myself that if I can do that in my creative work, that can also be the result.”
I love this ethos of focusing. My family did something similar years ago, installing a bird feeder directly outside the large double windows in our dining room. This is where we spend so much time eating, talking, and working on various craft projects. We looked at that bird feeder as one would look at a television — a constant source of conversation and drama. Something was always happening at the bird feeder, and my family was there for it.
Consider how that kind of focus allows you the most frequent possibility for joy. Where throughout the day, this narrow intention fills you up inside.
People often tell me they are overwhelmed with the expectation to share. One thing I think about with this is to actively manage how we receive and process ideas, expectations, and social pressures. Invariably, when we talk about sharing writing and art, we consider social media and being online. For many people I talk with, they feel overwhelmed by:
- All that is coming at them, even if some of these things inspire them. Following 200 people who you deeply admire can feel like a lot some days if each of them share something inspiring.
- All of the ideas they see for how one can effectively share their writing and art. It becomes a constant to-do list, and unfortunately, a constant feeling that they “aren’t doing enough.” It’s the pressure of “more, more, more,” bouncing from one idea to the next.
- All the fears they have about not knowing the tech, of doing it wrong, and of feeling inadequate or embarrassed if they share, but no one engages. It can easily bring up longstanding social anxiety that we each have.
I encourage you to actively manage what you receive and how you process what you may share. Let me explain…
I love music, and for a period of time in my life, my stereo system was my primary hobby. It truly got ridiculous. There was a point that I had multiple turntables, rare record needles from Japan, vacuum tube amplifiers, and hand crafted power cables. Before I had kids, there was a room in my apartment dedicated to listening to music. One side had my stereo:
And here is the other side of the room, a single chair for listening:
My wife had her art studio in the next room — it was an apartment filled with music and art!
The hobby around my stereo taught me to appreciate how we receive and process things. Some of it was technical: to focus on the cleanest source of music to get accurate reproduction. I’ve heard stereo systems that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and if you close your eyes, you would swear the musicians are literally in the room with you — you could pinpoint exactly where each person is standing.
But it also taught me that my attention and mindset enhanced my appreciation even more. The simplicity of the listening room allowed me to focus, which calmed the world around me. I would turn off the lights, turn on the music, and just… listen. Just experience the music.
This is different from how we tend to experience music — or many forms of creative work that inspires us. So often, we are multitasking with our other senses.
To feel a sense of deep intention, without feeling overwhelmed, consider:
- The inputs you allow. It is possible for you to be on a social media channel and follow only 10 people (instead of hundreds), and to ensure that each of those 10 people deeply inspires you?
- That your attention is driven by intention. One way to do this is to schedule specific times to look at email, or Substack newsletters, or a social media channel. This, as opposed to constantly pulling out one’s phone for fear of “missing out” or for a moment of emotional distraction, hundreds of times throughout the day.
- That when you share, you do less — but do it really well. This could mean focusing on one channel alone, or one type of content that you share. The important part of this is to let go of the guilt you may feel about not doing more. I can tell you from experience working with so many writers, that doing one or two things really well far outweighs the perceived benefit of “being everywhere” and trying every trend.
Want more help in finding clarity and focus? Check out my Clarity Cards process. Hundreds of people have used this process, and it’s completely free. All you need are 10 index cards (or scraps of paper) to get started.
Simply Showing Up is the Single Biggest Action You can Take to Engage Readers
Learning how to share what you create comes down to two things:
- Communication
- Trust
Things that are deeply human. Not hashtags, or viral videos, or AI-generated content, or whatever seems to be the flavor of the day. Instead, just show up frequently, communicate in a manner that connects with authenticity, and appreciate those around you.
How does one do that? This is the work I focus on each day, and talk about each week in my newsletter.
For those who do engage with you, to simply let them know that you see and appreciate them. I can’t tell you how many people I have seen online who talk about wanting engagement, and then rarely reply back to the comments they do receive. Is that their prerogative? Absolutely! But I think something powerful happens when you validate those who spend time with what you create.
This doesn’t have to be complicated. For me, each week I show up and publish a new essay. Each day I show up and engage with readers and writers on Substack, on the phone, and elsewhere. And it feels amazing — an absolute gift to have one’s day filled with writing and readers.
Be the Gateway: Celebrate Every Connection with Readers
Seven years ago I published my book with the title, Be the Gateway: A Practical Guide to Sharing Your Creative Work and Engaging an Audience.
The “gateway” is a metaphor for how your writing and creative work leads people into a new way of seeing the world and themselves. But it also works in the opposite direction — you walk outside of your gateway to understand your readers and what resonates with them. It is inherently a process of feeling fulfillment in creating and sharing.
Recently Deb Lund said this of the book: “Your gateway concept is a magical portal — we can’t know where or how far the reach extends or expands. What we do makes a difference, and it may do so in infinite ways we will never know.”
When you consider sharing as being a gateway, you are focused less on “marketing a product” and “how can I get attention?” and more on the nuances of meaningful connections with readers and your work.
Please let me know in the comments: What is your biggest challenge in sharing? What has felt the most right to you?
This week for my paid subscribers, I shared a 13-minute video encouraging them to give readers multiple ways into their writing, using emotional, intellectual, and social cues. You can see a preview of that post here.
Thank you for being here with me.
-Dan