Welcome to The New Story Letter! I wanted to let you know about a couple changes and also say HI after a long while.
First off, new email host. No shade to Substack but I've moved to beehiiv and I’m excited to be here.
ALSO there are some changes to the newsletter itself. Here’s why.
When I started The Story Letter, I wanted to give advice and guidance about storytelling. And for a while I truly enjoyed that.
But I got super writer’s block. (I mean, you haven’t heard from me for months!) I love teaching and coaching when I’m literally with people, but when it came to "declaring" something on the internet, I wondered:
Why am I the one people should listen to? Why am I giving advice, when I'm so often lost myself? Why is THIS how I am relating to people?
I started to feel like THIS guy sometimes:
Love Ben Stein, obviously, but I want to share way more of myself than that. I want to tell you about stories that excite me even if I don’t know the “lessons” behind them; ideas I’m exploring in my own life and work; things in the world that make me feel curious/creative/lit up.
So.
You can look forward to a slightly different vibe here at The Story Letter. I’ll be writing about:
Memoir writing and storytelling strategies, of course, but specifically ideas that I’m trying in my own work. We will get personal.
Romance novels and other stories that fascinate me! I'm going to write about romance and other culture as a story nerd, an armchair sociologist and a true enthusiast. Sometimes it'll be criticism or commentary, and sometimes chatty recaps with optional, well-hidden spoilers.
Personal stories like the ones I tell in my memoir work and storytelling: about transitions, creativity, relationships, and whatever else I'm figuring out in real time.
Skewering self-help/self-improvement culture and challenging perfectionism in life, work, art.
And sometimes, thrillingly, the relationship between all of those things.
You can go to your email preferences (see the footer of this email) and choose what you want to get from me. If you want the storytelling but not the romance, you can always uncheck that box. And vice versa.
To be clear: therapy is also my therapy. But the sentiment stands.
You can unsubscribe with a click below. But if you like my stories, my teaching, or you've liked my posts so far – I hope you'll want to stick around. I think the biggest change here is that I'm going to let myself be as weird, as vulnerable, as enthusiastic as I am in real life.
Ok bye! I love you.