This Is Not Working
Treat your self like a brand, they said. Get your content out there for people to read it. Reach them on social media. Interact with them. Foster a community. These is great advice if you have a product to sell. If you’ve found a modern solution to a modern problem people didn’t even know they had. I’ve followed all the rules like a good, obedient boy since merging the site to Squarespace in 2016 and all I managed to do was to go back exactly where I was prior to it.
I’ve also exhausted myself creatively in the process and I feel like the site suffered from it. Your enjoyment suffered from it too, I’m sure.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not throwing in the towel (at least not in 2022), but I’m done treating the site like a professional media or brand. I don’t have anything to sell. I am grateful for every meaningful connection I’ve made with readers of Dead End Follies, but let’s not kid ourselves: I’m the biggest beneficiary of this website. Dead End Follies is a diary, a training routine for my brain, an outlet for my anger and the purest expression of my marginal personality. So, there are going to be massive changes in 2022. Buckle up, it’s about to get weird.
I’m abandoning the idea of a preset calendar. No more guaranteed 10 to 13 contents a month. From now on, I’ll write a piece whenever I have something clever to say about it. What does it mean for the total output of the site? Will it be more or less? I have no fucking clue.
I’m going to start writing journal entries. I’m not going to publicize them on social media because they will be mostly for therapeutic purpose. The idea is also to help me put words on feelings and improve my storytelling skills. Hopefully, it’ll help you put words on feelings too. They won’t be advertised, but they will be here for you to read whenever you feel like it. Some of it might not be 100% true, but I’ll always indicate it.
I’m reintroducing creative writing entries on the site too, mostly though poetry and aphorisms. Short stuff. I know better than to put short stories on here. I might advertise some on social media, I don’t know yet.
The reviews are staying. The essays too. Albeit they might not be the backbone of the site anymore. I love writing them. You love reading them. It would make no sense for me to stop.
I’m not sure what to do with my social media outlets yet. I really, really feel like completely nicking Facebook from the equation since it’s the one I’m not having any fun with anymore, but I’m also debating making it a grassroots content page where I will talk to people and engage without ever posting anything from the site.
The newsletter will live on and will be more or less unscathed because you guys responded really well to it and it has been really fun to do. It’s been different and challenging a lot of fun to make.
The Larry Prater Awards are staying too.
Thank you very much for showing up through 2021! I promise to make Dead End Follies a more unique place in 2022 and foster a more authentic space for my self. Quality over quantity and lots of weird.
