I'm pausing paid subscriptions...
And making my writing free.
I have decided to pause paid subscriptions and open up my writing to everyone, for free.
When I started this Substack I was hoping to monetise my passion for writing - and thanks to my wonderful paid subscribers, I did that, even if just on a small level. As time has gone by I have lost momentum and feel I do not have the capacity to write as much as I would like to for the people that chose to invest their money in me. I don’t think it is fair to pay for something that isn’t being delivered, and I feel I am not delivering. Maybe in future I will regain the capacity (and confidence) to open up paid subscriptions again but right now I feel more comfortable sharing my writing for free.
As someone with an AuDHD brain, consistency is not my strong point (I don’t mean this in a deprecating way, it’s just how my brain is and I’m learning to be ok with that). I also struggle with anything that feels like a demand. When I started writing for this Substack I adored it (hello hyperfixation) but as the months have gone by, the dopamine has left the building and it has started to feel like a demand. I don’t want writing to feel like a demand. I don’t want to lose something I love because of capitalism.
Maybe the joy of our hobbies is lost when we try to make money from it. Maybe the pressure of profiting from something you love takes away the very sense of play and freedom that lead you to start in the first place. Maybe it won’t always feel this way but right now it does.
My hope is that by taking away the perceived demand - feeling like I have to churn out something of value every week - I can fall back in love with writing and coax my creativity back out and onto the page.
So, if you have been a paid subscriber, firstly thank you so much for your loyalty and support of my work, it means the world. Secondly, I am pausing your billing. That means no further payments will leave your account for Georgia Writes, but you will continue to receive anything I write and share here for free.
Thank you for being here.
Georgia x
Hey! Just found your writing as you mentioned in a chain of us chronically unwell folk (hi, that’s me too 👋🏽). I have fibro, CFS, navigating anxiety and depression and about to be diagnosed, at 40 with AuDHD 🙃 so all of this and your page has struck a chord. When I joined Substack I was ALL in. Then I got fearful and felt so much pressure and last October there were a lot of the start of the most awful world events we were seeing in real time…and it felt a lot for an already frazzled brain. 1 year later, I posted last week. I took the time off to journal and sketchbook journal too, and take some courses and just *be* and I think there’s just this constant need to always prove our worth. I’ll speak for myself; there’s a pressure I feel, even as an unwell woman, to keep turning up. And for so many reasons, I just can’t do that how I used to or how an able bodied person will. All this to say, yay, it’s nice to find other writers who share in 2 mins what’s been circling in my brain and hasn’t quite landed until now.