Starting Afraid

Procrastination is the arrogant assumption that God owes you another chance to do tomorrow what he gave you the chance to do today

I always wanted to have a blog back when everyone had one. However, by the time I finally committed to writing, blogging had already been replaced by vlogging. I never got the chance to blog. When I was ready to write, Facebook became my main writing outlet.

I have been writing on Facebook for a couple of years now. It has been a good experience, and I have had a lot of growth from writing and sharing my work on my timeline. Nevertheless, saying “I write on Facebook” never quite feels right. Facebook still remains, by all standards, a social media app.

This substack is something I have been meaning to start for a while now. “A while” in this case means for more than one year and it didn't hit me until two hours ago that I should just start.

Since last year, I have been waiting to get better at writing. I don't know to what standard. Getting better at writing is simply the narrative I have been using to explain why I do not have a substack yet.

Years ago, when I wanted to have a blog, "getting better at writing" was my excuse for not starting one. My sentences never quite felt right, and my grammar always felt very poor. That feeling has not changed. The difference between now and then is that Facebook pushed me to write—because when I was writing posts that showed me my words were worth reading, I was more concerned about what I had to say than I was about grammar and style.

“Start Afraid” might sound like a cliche but it isn't one. It is perfectly good advice. From what I have learned from myself, no one has ever started anything by waiting to be good at it. People just start and get good at it along the way.

I do not know what I hope to achieve by having a Substack. All I know is that I have wanted to share my writing on a writer's platform for a while now, and I cannot keep avoiding it when I have no valid reason for the avoidance. I especially would hate it if, years from now, I wrote, “I always wanted to have a Substack when everyone had one.”

Thank you for being here and for reading to the end. Please subscribe—and if you feel inspired, share the link with a friend. I promise you good writing and consistency.