The Newsletter Thingy
The Sybarite Newsletter
On being over it and the heady power of being a “nominator”
Greetings from Sybarite HQ. Yet again, it’s been more than two weeks since I’ve written a newsletter.
I’d explain why and apologize, but the last time I did that I got some critical emails saying that I was talking about myself too much. Fair enough, although I tried to explain that these newsletters are supposed to update y’all ( or is it “all y’all”?) about what’s going down at Sybarite, and because I’m still the only person behind the curtain, Sybarite is me and I am Sybarite.
At first I was annoyed by the criticism, and then I realized that if I tried to write these newsletters without giving you a blow-by-blow of my life, my writing could only get better. After all, the more art is restricted, the more rules and limitations, the better the output. Or as Orson Welles said, “the enemy of art is the absence of limitations.”
Architecture and interior design are some of the best examples of this phenomenon. Tiny houses, boat houses, the itty bitty apartments featured on Apartment Therapy: ever notice how beautiful some of these places are? Conversely, ever notice how truly disgusting some McMansions are, with stupid soaring ceilings for no reason (how do you change the lightbulbs?) and their curly cue stair railings?
Writing is like that too. Give yourself rules, like no italicizing or bolding text to provide emphasis and instead rely solely on your language to make the point; or force yourself never use the word “amazing” or any other word you rely on too much. Your writing will get better because it’s harder to do. It just will.
It will be difficult to not write about myself in these newsletters, but it’s (for now) a welcome rule, because maybe it will make me a better writer? But before I implement this for realsies, I need to announce or at least explain again that I am one of the nominators in Medium’s Boost Nomination Pilot Program! How cool is that? Ariel Meadow Stallings provides a great FAQ about it here, but the bottom line is that if you submit something great to Sybarite, I’ll nominate it for boosting.
But the writing has to be really great. I’ve been taking my nominating reputation super seriously, because once you lose your reputation it’s impossible to get it back. Ask Sean Young.
For that reason, I’m no longer nominating recipes, because I haven’t had good luck with those; but please keep sending them! I am laser-focused on making Sybarite the place for real instruction on how to cook real food, a place where you don’t have to read about the writer’s childhood trauma before you get to the instructions on how to make a single skinless, boneless chicken breast.
Speaking of food, the only new story in Sybarite is about it, and by yours truly, and it’s all about being over it. (I’ll graph that sentence later). Like, who cares about food anymore? Food jumped the shark. Food is a washed up action star who is now on a reality show. Like the painting above, I am a disillusioned Medea about food.
But change my mind! Write for something for Sybarite that will make me believe again?
Until next time,
Adeline, Sybarite-in-Chief
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