Five lessons, one year of Escribir en Voz Alta.
I celebrate Colombia's independence as I celebrate my independence as an author. Thank you for joining me on this journey
It's July 20th!
A year ago I was sitting in a coffee shop in Raleigh, North Carolina, with a broken heart and renewed power of will, taking the picture you see in my profile on Substack. On Colombia's Independence Day, I started mine, with this newsletter to reflect on the audio industry and my creative practice. Proudly, today I celebrate 35 publications, almost 400 subscribers, and readers in 27 countries!
Today I write from my home in Houston, TX. I write almost every day and mix audio also as a writing exercise because I am perfecting the scripts for Juventud Maldito Vacío. It launches on September 4th, more on that in the next newsletter.
Today I want to take a break to celebrate this independence. Today's edition is a compilation, like the 14 Cañonazos Volume 1 (Colombia's greatest hits Christmas album, for those who don't know the term) featuring some of my favorite posts and my greatest learnings after one year of Escribir en Voz Alta.
1. When you are independent, nurturing your community is everything.
None of what has happened to me in the last year would be so real if it weren't for my colleagues: Emma Alabaster, Caro Rolando, Martine Chaussard, Laura Hernandez, Camilo Garzón, Mariano Pagella, Laura Isensee, Andy Fechy, Tali Goldman, Daniel Murcia, Samia Bouzid, Maru Lombardo, Josephine Karianjahi, NK Kelly, Justine Hagard, Angelina Mosher .... the list goes on and I'm sure I'll read this later and think I forgot to mention important names.
Thanks to all of them, who surrounded and supported me in cultivating this love of audio storytelling. A shared practice. It was with them (mostly women) that I learned my most important skills and it is because of them that I continue to spread the word. Podcasting is still a very young industry, projects come and go, but the connection with your colleagues is, at the end of the day, what podcasting is about.
I wrote about how being part of an audio community is fundamental.
2. Routine is the most important thing.
I learned it by sheer force of repetition: you can't create if you do it on a sprint one day or one night or (so many times) until the wee hours of the morning. Well, you can, but the cost is your health. When I left the routine of full-time work I think I had very internalized that resting and creating were the same thing, because I did both in my free time. But I learned week by week that if what I want is to create in a sustained way, everything depends on my routine. Or more specifically: it depends on what time I go to sleep.
More about that on this post I wrote.
3. I learned to differentiate a job / my craft.
Being honest has been the most important thing about sharing my journey: the audio industry is still suffering from layoffs and lack of funding, so we continue, yes, but knowing how to differentiate our craft and our value as professionals quite apart from the employment opportunities that the market has was the most important thing I learned this year.
We have to think more about the business and find more outlets for high-quality content. In the meantime, I still consider this text relevant.
4. “Beginnings and Endings” is still my favorite short story.
This summer many of the friends I made last year in Savannah graduated with their master's degrees, and some of them have to return to their home countries. Others are, like me a year ago, thinking about where success lives in the United States. This short story is about that moment in life. And about the silent dance of saying goodbye to a friendship.
That's why I keep coming back to this short story. My friend Tanaya got, almost 10 months later, a remote job in New York.
5. Creating Juventud Maldito Vacío is the best decision I made.
Even from the struggle of scriptwriting, mixing, and producing independently, I feel very proud to have taken the step. I’m making a six-episode series about being young and figuring out life in Bogotá. Every day I’m more in love with my project, and I’m putting all my best tricks into this big act of magic.
More on that in the next Escribir en Voz Alta. Thank you! If you want to support this newsletter, please complete the further survey and share, send this newsletter to whoever wants to become more creative or in love with audio like us.
Gracias, gracias, gracias. I celebrate with pan de queso and Ponymalta.