I loved this and it was also so relatable. I’ve talked myself out of so many things that I’m not even able to count them. But I feel this throbbing in my chest lately, which I normally would take for the fear, but now I feel it’s the feeling of not wanting to wait anymore. Of not caring what will people say. Let them talk, let them think whatever they want to think. They would probably do that even when I was ready and ‘an expert’. That’s what people do.
I totally resonate with this! It’s definitely how I’ve felt about my own newsletter (launching soon): who will even care? Maybe someone more qualified has done something like this before... pushing through that and writing my own permission slip ☺️ I absolutely love your writing on nature!
Congratulations on your forthcoming newsletter, Ashton!
I like to remind myself (as I have here) than I am the only person in the whole world who has my exact outlook on things. Therefore no one has ever done something exactly like this before. This unique take is needed.
This is the same for you. And at the same time, there may be people doing similar things. This is actually an opportunity because it is evidence there are people out there who are seeking what you're going to share.
The very beginning is a tough part of the journey. I'm cheering us on all the way!
I love this Janelle! I can’t wait to read more. I have found myself accidentally writing about nature in my letters, from the photos that I take and the illustrations that I draw inspired by walking with my dogs. 💛
Oh Janelle, this rings so true for me, too. I grappled with the very same inner voice telling me not to when I submitted my manuscript to a nature writing prize recently. I know I wrote about nature and the complex relationship to our mental wellbeing but even so, I would never have classed myself as a naturalist nor someone qualified to write about nature.
But then I had a brilliant chat for my Substack with the writer, Caro Giles, who was named Countryfile Nature Writer of the Year in 2021 yet STILL doesn't class herself as someone who can be defined as a nature writer!
Maybe it's another manifestation of that imposter syndrome we're grappling with in other areas of our creative lives, too?
Thank you so much for sharing this. And congratulations for submitting to this prize! I'm so glad you went ahead and did this anyway despite the doubts.
I really need to catch up on your convo with Caro, it sounds incredible. I'm almost at the end of her memoir.
That's kinda validating and also kinda sad to hear.
I wonder if the big male names in nature writing have this issue!!?
Thank you so much, Martin. Yeah once you start tuning in, it's amazing how often we discount our own ideas for a million different reasons. We are allowed to do the thing!
Just what I needed to hear I'm regard to my writing, thank you. My two most recent posts on here - where I wrote about things that are important to me - got less engagement than older posts (I mean, the margin between small and lots is very small)... But I'm encouraged to keep going reading this, thanks.
Oh how happy I am to hear you are going to go forward with writing about nature! I relate to so very much of the not-beginnings because of not being expert enough. Of course you are already a nature-writer because you will be writing about your very own intersections of noticing details and emotional connections with what you see - but looking from the outside and seeing validity is very different from feeling from the inside and seeing vulnerability and lack, no matter that the truth is that there is no lack. Here's to a season for all of us of just going ahead and doing!
I often think that when you know very little about something that’s the time to write about it.6’You have fresh eyes and are not ‘bogged down’ with weighted opinions. Mistakes will be made, embrace and write more. Well that’s my opinion. 🤩Great job
Great post. I think nature writing is particularly hard to see yourself in as just lately it has really taken off. I love to write about nature and feel the same as you - in fact, most of my nature posts stay as drafts and don’t make it onto the ‘stack. It’s interesting who Google class as a ‘nature writer’. Two of my absolute favourites are not there - Ronald Blythe; and the guy who I think is our greatest living nature writer, John Lewis-Stempel. I adore his writing and I aspire to write like both of them. Sigh. Which is quite enough pressure!
Thank you, June. Ah this is so interesting! Thank you for sharing. It really has taken off and I am one of the recent converts to all these fantastic books and writers.
I think for now I'm just going to think of it as writing about nature. Rather than 'I am a nature writer'. These feel very different in my mind even though they shouldn't! It's the same with 'I am a writer' for me. This took me a long time to be able to say. But I was still writing all the time.
I'd love to read some of your writing about nature, June. I wonder if there are any in the draft vaults that need to see the light of day...?
I just love that you've given yourself this permission slip to go for it and to write about something you love. Your passion and excitement comes across in this post ❤️. I've had these same feelings, well actually have them a lot, but this week I went for it and wrote a post about something that I've wanted to but felt like I wasn't qualified to write about - maternal anger. But I went for it and it actually resonated with a lot of mums. Here's to getting braver and writing about the things we love!
Ah amazing, Jenna! Massive well done for making that leap and writing about maternal anger. (I'm going to find your piece). I'm not surprised people have connected with it because you will have a unique angle on this that others will connect to.
Thanks Janelle, it feels good doesn't it once you've got your words out there, feels freeing! Thank you, that's very kind. It does doesn't it, and I am here for all the permission slips!!
Oooo Janelle, this is true brilliance. And yes hugely relatable in terms of the thoughts of not having the depth of knowledge to write about or do something. I loved what you said about your own experience of nature and your surroundings as unique, there is certainly a Janelle-shaped hole to fill! I am learning more and more that by tuning into writing into our experience and what we know to be true, we can't go far wrong x
I loved this and it was also so relatable. I’ve talked myself out of so many things that I’m not even able to count them. But I feel this throbbing in my chest lately, which I normally would take for the fear, but now I feel it’s the feeling of not wanting to wait anymore. Of not caring what will people say. Let them talk, let them think whatever they want to think. They would probably do that even when I was ready and ‘an expert’. That’s what people do.
YES YES YES to this, Anna!
Let's not wait anymore. What is it that we are waiting for?
I don't think it's realistic that we'll feel 'ready' one magic future day. So we might as well just take action now, right?
I'm massively rooting for you whatever it is that you're feeling called to create.
Thank you so much, Janelle. I certainly don’t believe that we can ever feel fully ready. So let’s just do. ☺️
You ARE a nature writer. You’re already writing about it! And beautifully too. Such a lovely read and reminder to just begin 🌱
Ah thank you so much, Sarah 🥹
I totally resonate with this! It’s definitely how I’ve felt about my own newsletter (launching soon): who will even care? Maybe someone more qualified has done something like this before... pushing through that and writing my own permission slip ☺️ I absolutely love your writing on nature!
Congratulations on your forthcoming newsletter, Ashton!
I like to remind myself (as I have here) than I am the only person in the whole world who has my exact outlook on things. Therefore no one has ever done something exactly like this before. This unique take is needed.
This is the same for you. And at the same time, there may be people doing similar things. This is actually an opportunity because it is evidence there are people out there who are seeking what you're going to share.
The very beginning is a tough part of the journey. I'm cheering us on all the way!
I love this outlook! I will remind myself of it often :)
I love this, and I’m very excited to see that Janelle shaped gap in the nature writing canon filled 🌿
Hurrah! Thank you for your support, Chloe. I'm very inspired by your writing
That's so kind of you to say, and really touching to hear. Thank you, Janelle. I'm inspired by your gracious permission giving!
I love this Janelle! I can’t wait to read more. I have found myself accidentally writing about nature in my letters, from the photos that I take and the illustrations that I draw inspired by walking with my dogs. 💛
Thanks so much, Emily. Definitely, I can see a lot of nature inspiration in your work.
If it's present in our lives then of course nature is going to make its way into our creations!
Now it's just a case of letting that be and not putting mental blocks in the way :D
Oh Janelle, this rings so true for me, too. I grappled with the very same inner voice telling me not to when I submitted my manuscript to a nature writing prize recently. I know I wrote about nature and the complex relationship to our mental wellbeing but even so, I would never have classed myself as a naturalist nor someone qualified to write about nature.
But then I had a brilliant chat for my Substack with the writer, Caro Giles, who was named Countryfile Nature Writer of the Year in 2021 yet STILL doesn't class herself as someone who can be defined as a nature writer!
Maybe it's another manifestation of that imposter syndrome we're grappling with in other areas of our creative lives, too?
I think it definitely is. That sneaky so and so!
Thank you so much for sharing this. And congratulations for submitting to this prize! I'm so glad you went ahead and did this anyway despite the doubts.
I really need to catch up on your convo with Caro, it sounds incredible. I'm almost at the end of her memoir.
That's kinda validating and also kinda sad to hear.
I wonder if the big male names in nature writing have this issue!!?
Totally. Those bloody men who were given entry into the canon while women were excluded! Time to rewrite the narrative!
We are ON IT
This is such a brilliant post. A great reminder to us all to just write that thing. You are allowed!
Thank you so much, Martin. Yeah once you start tuning in, it's amazing how often we discount our own ideas for a million different reasons. We are allowed to do the thing!
Just what I needed to hear I'm regard to my writing, thank you. My two most recent posts on here - where I wrote about things that are important to me - got less engagement than older posts (I mean, the margin between small and lots is very small)... But I'm encouraged to keep going reading this, thanks.
I'm so pleased to hear this, Kaspa. Do keep going.
Maybe the quantity of engagement might appear lower but what if the impact on some individuals was deeper?
Or maybe people are still thinking about your words now but didn't comment or click.
The world needs our writing!
Oh how happy I am to hear you are going to go forward with writing about nature! I relate to so very much of the not-beginnings because of not being expert enough. Of course you are already a nature-writer because you will be writing about your very own intersections of noticing details and emotional connections with what you see - but looking from the outside and seeing validity is very different from feeling from the inside and seeing vulnerability and lack, no matter that the truth is that there is no lack. Here's to a season for all of us of just going ahead and doing!
Such a lovely comment. Thank you, Lou!
Oh yes. This is our season! Let's do it.
Nature is our teacher. It’s a reliable starting point of writing. 🙏👏❤️
Yes. The simple act of noticing and seeing where it takes our creativity
I often think that when you know very little about something that’s the time to write about it.6’You have fresh eyes and are not ‘bogged down’ with weighted opinions. Mistakes will be made, embrace and write more. Well that’s my opinion. 🤩Great job
Ooh what a great way to frame it. Thanks Jon!
Yes to this, and to you writing about anything else that you want to. Looking forward to reading your nature writing 🌳
Thanks Hannah! Hear hear! Today has actually ended up being great fodder for future nature writing. Let's see what might come of it!
Great post. I think nature writing is particularly hard to see yourself in as just lately it has really taken off. I love to write about nature and feel the same as you - in fact, most of my nature posts stay as drafts and don’t make it onto the ‘stack. It’s interesting who Google class as a ‘nature writer’. Two of my absolute favourites are not there - Ronald Blythe; and the guy who I think is our greatest living nature writer, John Lewis-Stempel. I adore his writing and I aspire to write like both of them. Sigh. Which is quite enough pressure!
Thank you, June. Ah this is so interesting! Thank you for sharing. It really has taken off and I am one of the recent converts to all these fantastic books and writers.
I think for now I'm just going to think of it as writing about nature. Rather than 'I am a nature writer'. These feel very different in my mind even though they shouldn't! It's the same with 'I am a writer' for me. This took me a long time to be able to say. But I was still writing all the time.
I'd love to read some of your writing about nature, June. I wonder if there are any in the draft vaults that need to see the light of day...?
Your response epitomises what I love about substack. Always encouragement, always generosity. Thank you. 🙏🏻
I just love that you've given yourself this permission slip to go for it and to write about something you love. Your passion and excitement comes across in this post ❤️. I've had these same feelings, well actually have them a lot, but this week I went for it and wrote a post about something that I've wanted to but felt like I wasn't qualified to write about - maternal anger. But I went for it and it actually resonated with a lot of mums. Here's to getting braver and writing about the things we love!
Ah amazing, Jenna! Massive well done for making that leap and writing about maternal anger. (I'm going to find your piece). I'm not surprised people have connected with it because you will have a unique angle on this that others will connect to.
I seem to be all about permission slips atm haha.
Thanks Janelle, it feels good doesn't it once you've got your words out there, feels freeing! Thank you, that's very kind. It does doesn't it, and I am here for all the permission slips!!
🌱
Oooo Janelle, this is true brilliance. And yes hugely relatable in terms of the thoughts of not having the depth of knowledge to write about or do something. I loved what you said about your own experience of nature and your surroundings as unique, there is certainly a Janelle-shaped hole to fill! I am learning more and more that by tuning into writing into our experience and what we know to be true, we can't go far wrong x
Aw thank you so much, Lyndsay.
That's right. We can't go wrong because it's our unique take on things, right?
Exactly that! x