Welcome to voidposting.
I have been ruminating on making a Substack for a long time for reasons including 1) my entire lack of accountability in writing on a regular basis, 2) saving myself the looks of “oh yeah, sure buddy” in case I am ever presented with a scenario in which I need to tell someone about my Substack, 3) extreme precious-ness around the quality and perception of my writing, 4) I figured no one would read it. But recently in a conversation with Amber (hi Amber, you’re probably one of two (hi Zoe) who will read this first post when it comes out), when she told me she had decided to start a Substack, I felt inspired. I felt further inspired when I told her about an essay idea I had and she said she would be really interested in reading it. I felt further inspired seeing her make a post of her own for the first time. And it all just snowballed from there. Perhaps the real Substack is the friends we made along the way, haha. But I digress.
In advance of the new year and going into what better be a more successful year than 2025 was (even if I have to shape it that way with my bare hands) I have decided to start this as an accountability measure, a place to share my writing with my friends and draft my ideas in a closed-terrarium-style scenario so that I get more in the habit of making things out of them, and an effort to let go of my desire to be wordly-perfect. A place in which output triumphs quality. This past year (and especially the past six months) have got me really into this whole independent practice thing and every day I feel more and more like I must develop my identity outside of my existence within an institution (I’m talking about school). I feel my work is best shaped of its own accord rather than trying to fit perfectly into a box.
The title of this first newsletter, “voidposting,” comes from an idea that I had on the subway about a year and a half ago. I was thinking about Instagram and existence for an audience, but contending with a lack of audience presence and trying to understand how, even on a private account with 0 followers, I would still be compelled to perform. Even with no one watching, the medium itself implies an audience which inhabits the mind of the performer both in public and in private. The subsequent act, “voidposting,” refers to that performance in which the performer touts themselves for an audience that observes them indirectly, not with their own eyes but through the imagined eyes of the performer’s own mind. I’m sure there is some relationship to surveillance here which I will unpack when I dive further into this concept in a later, more polished essay. For now, I have chosen it as the title of this newsletter, perhaps a little cheekily, in reference to Hesitation 4 listed above.
Something more put together will come soon, I’ve had a lot of theories marinating. But for now, I am going to send this off without proofreading it, which may be the scariest thing of all.
Glhf!