michael-dean-k/

I’ve been reflecting on how my writing will change once I have a newborn, and I keep coming back to this idea of releasing a “monthly EP of essay demos.” This means that I’ll send a post with 5-10 links to other essays that I “ghost posted” (publish without sending) earlier in the month.

I currently only have the S and L lanes of writing working. Either it’s a 2-minute log or a 20-hour essay. The goal is to prioritize the M (medium) lane, a 2-hour essay; instead of sending them out in real-time, I’ll batch them and let readers click into the topics they want. Feels like a strategy to be more divergent, more experimental, less formal, without overwhelming people and confusing them from the core mission of Essay Architecture.

I had Coco read through a week of my logs, and she shared three patterns she’d want to read more of: (1) unique, vulnerable experiences that show conflict and inner struggle; (2) lens on for self-improvement regarding life or writing; (3) culture commentary that helps make sense of big ideas. She was less interested in technical topics, or hypothetical scenarios (such as trying to imagine the handicap we’d have to give tennis pro Carlos Alcaraz for us to have a competitive match in tennis). The beauty of the EP strategy is that it gives readers a menu, and each will have their preferences.