⏸️Please note that there will be a brief pause in daily posts as various administrative and aesthetic adjustments are being made to the Daily Drafts & Dialogues site and backend, and that daily posts will resume the week of October 19th.
✨ Also note that moving forward, we will no longer be following monthly themes on Daily Drafts & Dialogues.
✨✍️✨ But rest assured, what comes next for this space will be even better. So, if you’re still interested and invested in “Breathing life and digital ink into writing aspirations. One draft. One dialogue. One day at a time.”, this is precisely where you’ll want to be.
I decided to try monthly themes out for a few months with full gusto and, well… they ended up making this space a little more instructive than creative and collaborative, and a little more formal and less familiar than I originally wanted. While the monthly themes seemed to attract a steady stream of casual views, they didn’t attract or ultimately help me facilitate the vibrant creative and supportive community I’m longing to build here.
A few weeks ago, I also began to notice that I was having a lot less fun writing daily posts, as I was starting to feel more like an instructor trying to simplify a maze of lengthy or complex material than a fellow writer and reader who is engaging more directly with you and our community about what we’re creating.
While I have written hundreds of pieces of instructional material and taught age groups ranging from five to fifty in various spaces throughout my life, and believe doing both are honorable and commendable vocations, I never wanted Daily Drafts & Dialogues to become a virtual on-demand writing classroom of sorts. And I certainly don’t want it to become just another informational newsletter about writing and books that gets buried in inboxes.
No, I want Daily Drafts & Dialogues to inspire my own daily writing practice as much as it inspires my daily life. And I genuinely want it to do the same for you. Truly, day-to-day living in this world is rough right now for most of us. So, it’s more important than ever that this space becomes a space for us to not only feel more connected to ourselves and what we’re writing, but to feel more connected to one another as fellow creators who are trying our best to literally write ourselves into a better world, one word, one sentence, one page at a time.
My current conundrum, however, is that I also don’t want Daily Drafts & Dialogues to become a personal blog or a hobby blog, mainly because I don’t view writing as my hobby or as something that I am capable of doing on the side or sporadically. Which sometimes feels more like a curse than a comfortable conviction, believe me. But nevertheless, for better or worse, doing language and writing every day is my life’s purpose. Which, I’m also realizing, is the reason why I keep reinvigorating this Daily Drafts & Dialogues experiment until it reaches its full potential and becomes everything we need and want it to be.
✨ And what I want and need Daily Drafts & Dialogues to be is a space where we can use language experiments and practice as both a playground and a mirror, to not only continue to evolve into the writers we’re meant to be, but to better evolve our small corners of the world, one draft, one dialogue at a time, together.
This is not hyperbole or a marketing gimmick to me. I sincerely believe that our world and what happens in it is directly influenced by the stories we tell ourselves and one another about ourselves and one another, day in and day out, and that there is nothing more important than acknowledging that truth then leveraging it for the betterment of all.
So, what now?
I’ve already mentioned that I don’t want Daily Drafts & Dialogues to be a virtual lecture hall or a generic newsletter for writers, and that I don’t want it to become my personal blog or a niche hobby blog.
So what, then, should this newsletter and creative community be about?
One draft. One dialogue. One day at a time.
That’s what Daily Drafts & Dialogues has been about, and will still be about, as indicated by its very name. Only now, things are about to get a lot simpler and easier to follow for all of us around here. And hopefully, as a result, a lot more engaging and rewarding to be a part of.
Don’t worry, the essence of what you love about Daily Drafts & Dialogues remains.
ℹ️ What’s Being Modified and What’s Not
🎨 You’ll see a new site aesthetic with new colors and a new logo.
I want to update the colors on the site to embody a more community-like atmosphere that promotes both focus and calm. I also want the site to be a bit easier on our eyes as we scroll. And, honestly, the logo has been needing an update for quite some time… so now is as good a time as any to update it. ✨I’m giving you a heads up because I don’t want you to think you’re somewhere else when you see different colors and a new, more straightforward layout.
❌ The publication’s sections (Drafts, Dialogues, Books, Exclusives) are going away, as they will no longer be needed without monthly themes.
You’ll still see drafts, dialogues, and book discussions. They’re just going to be delivered a little differently, and in a less compartmentalized fashion. You will no longer be receiving different posts each day based on a strict weekly cadence or calendar.
📚 Book Club picks and posts are also going away, but there will still be plenty of prompts and posts inspired by books and reading, as well as regular reading recommendations.
✅ Daily posts will still be available for free each week for seven days before they’re auto-archived, so that won’t change.
Each daily post will now include:
✍️ Writing prompts (1 creative, 1 reflective)
📝 My response to one of the prompts
💬 A dialogue prompt related to the post to kickstart a discussion
📖 A relevant book or reading recommendation, which could include your indie work or Substack!
Basically, each post will prompt drafts and ongoing dialogues, instead of those drafts and dialogues being included in separate posts throughout the week. They will also be less cluttered with buttons and links and unnecessary text as a result, which will offer a more straightforward and engaging experience.
💬 Both free and paid subscribers will be able to engage in the comments of each post.
💎 Paid subscribers will have some modified and improved perks.
✨ Unlimited access to the entire post Archive
✨ WIP Wednesday Access: A weekly, behind-the-scenes look at my drafting process, what’s inspiring it, and raw snippets from my current manuscript
✨ Exclusive Daily Drafters Workshop: Workshop your writing in the chat whenever you want and receive personalized feedback.
✍️ If you’re interested in starting or maintaining your creative writing practice or ‘morning pages’, this is an ideal space for you. Both novice and experienced writers will feel at home here.
💭 If you want to read creative and reflective pieces that inspire you and your own writing, or that simply make you think and feel outside the box more often than not, this is a space for you.
✍️ If you want to write about things that help you understand your own writing process a little better, or the world and all the people in it, this is an ideal space for you.
💬 If you like to chat about what you’re writing and reading, this is a great space for you.
✍️ If you want to start a daily or weekly writing routine or rhythm that works for you and is fun but rewarding to do, this is a good place for you, too.
Whatever your specific writing goals or aspirations, I’m so glad you’re here!
I’m looking forward to modifying Daily Drafts & Dialogues so that it has more of what you want and need when it comes to your daily writing practice.
As always, please feel free to send me a message if you have any questions.
Thanks so much for being on this journey with me!
Until we meet again in the comments or chat-
K. E. Creighton