The TLDR version of this post: I’m taking a time-out to rethink the Sunday Circle and how it functions in 2020, which may see it either migrate to a new platform or have the shutters pulled down entirely.
I started the Sunday Circle a few years back, inspired by a write-up of the idea in Todd Henry’s The Accidental Creative and an idea that it might be possible to replicate the process online. Over the years we’ve had a number of writers, voice actors, and others drop by on a Sunday to check in with each other, laying out their various projects and inspirations for the coming week.
At the time I kicked off the Sunday Circle, it was part of a long-term strategy for the blog. A natural fit for the kinds of topics I blogged about and talked about in the long term.
These days, not so much. My focus has shifted away from the long conversations about writing and business, and blogs posts don’t get the numbers they once did (largely, I suspect, because they can no longer cross-post to a personal Facebook stream).
And one of the other big take-aways from the Accidental Creative is this:
It’s easy to assume that because something has always been done a certain way, that must be the one and only right way to do it. We sometimes develop the assumption that because a system or method brought us success in one instance, it will always do so. Or we may assume that because something didn’t work in one instance, it will never work under any circumstances. Any of these assumptions can, over time, be disastrous to our creative process because they limit how we look at problems.
Henry, Todd. The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment’s Notice (p. 68).
The Sunday Circle was always an attempt to solve problems for me: a means of connecting with other writers and artists as I moved away from regular work, a public habit that prompted me to define my focus and shift attention onto positive influences on my work.
Lately, it’s felt like less of a solution to those problems, so I’m packing it away for a stretch and see if there’s an alternative solution.
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Welcome to GenrePunk Ninja supplemental, where I occasionally post foundational essays written before I launched the GenrePunk Ninja newsletter, especially if they’re
One Response
I’m extending here because The Sunday Circle was the first thing I thought of when I came across the Undivided Attention podcast episode ‘The Opposite of Addiction’ wherein the point is made that the opposite of addiction (to whatever, including online things) is not sobriety, but connection. Hence damaging behaviors like addictions tend to set in when meaningful connection to other people is lost. I have enjoyed being part of the Sunday Circle, but I have long felt online connections are poor ersatz relationships. SC certainly performed as a self organising tool, but I find myself more and more trying to resurrect in-person connections for similar functions, however difficult that is to do now in a social environment that pushes us all back online. I find it even more critical having been isolated by the small child, where I am not free to be and go when and where I might choose. As the same podcast pointed out, it’s a bizarre paradox that we are so interconnected in a way that functions to be more and more isolating. So, while I’ll be a little sad to see SC go, it feels like a shove in the right direction to me. 🙂