8 Questions for.... Dominique Taylor

Spotlight on Be Writing

Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash

Dominique Taylor is an American video editor and writer based in Portugal.

1.    Why Substack?

I needed a place where I’d be encouraged to write. To be surrounded by anything is to eventually surrender your attention and your energy to it. My intention is, and has been, to surrender myself to writing. This intention has been clear and constant, even when my motivation or my discipline hasn’t. Finding a place where other writers mused on these intentions and on craft and actually posted their thoughts, raw or revised, felt welcoming and not intimidating. My introduction was happenstance, I subscribed to the newsletters of a few literary insiders and only received their posts to my inbox. However, when I forayed onto the website I discovered that all the people like me who had also stumbled upon those newsletters were engaging in real time and sharing their own content as well. So, I wanted to dive in and not just get my feet wet. I wanted to not only join but be an active participant in the community. 

2.    How long did it take you to find your groove?

Any day now. 

When I first started posting last year, I had given myself the assignment of posting every Friday but that turned into only posting when I had something to say. And then I wasn’t even compelled to do that. I quickly discovered I wasn’t accountable to the calendar nor myself. I had no North Star, no inflection point, no guiding objective that said this is what I’m working towards. In a lot of ways, it’s the same now. And I’m not sure what’s different other than actually ticking off the 52 weeks each time I post. Maybe, I’m hoping that by getting closer to 52 I would have figured out the rhyme or reason for this challenge and then I can come back to answer when and how I found my groove. Like I said, any day now.

3.    How has it changed you?

Substack has made me take writing more seriously. Because my writing journey isn’t (monetarily) a professional career, I tend to look at it as a hobby that I love doing but will put off to the side for more “important” activities. Important activities that contribute to my livelihood, having shelter, food, friends. But when I think about what contributes the most to my livelihood, it’s doing what I actually love. It’s the way I find the time and resources to afford me to do the writing. How I organize my life around it, so that I may do it in the down moments and the highs. And if the writing is something that I do with or without getting paid, because I love it, what is more important than that? It’s the thing that gets me going, that heals me, that gives me purpose and understanding. It’s my real time manifestation of clarity, taking the chaos of my thoughts and putting it down, and in order, for me to see. 

4.    What mistakes have you made?

Overthinking.

Pledge your support

5.    To pay or not to pay?

I’m currently a paid subscriber to two publications and can say that it’s because I value what they publish. Before, I did wrestle with this choice and would have said “I’ll go paid if people value enough what I’m sharing that they’d want to contribute.” And what do you know, completely out of the blue last week someone pledged to support my Substack! While I haven’t gone paid yet, the elation of that email that someone thinks my writing is worth paying for might be better than the actual payment. So, all that to say, let’s see?

6.    What artistic and technical choices have you made?

The technical choice has been to publish every week, the artistic choice is to condition myself to the feeling of what it means to publish every week. I’m constantly learning something about my relationship to craft. How I write and how to improve what I write has been an artistic choice every week. And the decisions I make lead me to understanding my own voice a bit more.

7.    What’s been the effect on your writing?

I’m more compelled to make sure there is output every week. There was a post from Story Club that I loved in which George Saunders said that a comma removed was a good day’s work. But a comma moved isn’t tangible or quantifiable for conveying how “work” went in some instances. Having this output at least gives the impression that work was accomplished during the week, even if it was just on the level of punctuation. And similar to the previous question, publishing every week has introduced me to my own voice. I’m more attentive to where I pause in my sentences, my tendency to say things backwards, and even my proclivity to humor. Publishing on Substack has been, more than anything, a self-edification on literary craft.

8.    In it for the long haul?

Absolutely! And by long haul I mean let’s see where these 52 weeks take us. :)

Thanks to Dominique Taylor for joining the conversation.

If you’re a fiction writer and would like to answer the 8 questions, please email me.