Except I never considered myself to be a creative person
Peek at my LinkedIn profile and you’ll find a mashup of careers that don’t quite connect together. My parents wanted me to practice law, but my graduate degree is in public administration. After talking myself out of a Ph.D, I worked in local government as an emergency manager (yes, everything about Parks and Recreation is 100% true), and quit after my husband’s cancer went into remission. Then I launched a freelance copywriting business, crafting email campaigns and white papers for some of the biggest software companies in the world—and paired it down after the birth of my daughter to work on my debut novel and write this newsletter.
(Confused? Don’t worry—my family can’t keep track either.)
Yet every creative goes through the same internal battle between success and fulfillment
We want to climb the corporate ladder, and simultaneously yearn for work that nourishes our soul. We dream of making a living with our art, but also desire a steady paycheck so we can drive Teslas and qualify for a mortgage. We compromise by applying business principles to the creative process—which sometimes works, but more often leads to burnout and self-doubt. For writers like myself, that often looks like:
😵💫 Comparing your work-in-progress to a bestselling novel—often aided by the social media hell spiral.
🤳 Building an audience, only to feel trapped by the demands of the content algorithm.
⏳ Lamenting about your lack of time to write (while dreaming about a cabin in the woods.)
📉 Using word counts and query rejections as a metric of your self-worth.
Because success as a writer isn’t about book deals and bestseller lists
Success as a writer is believing that your stories are important to share with the world. Success is showing up every day to create, despite the exhaustion from your day job and kids or pets and the never-ending piles of laundry.
As a society, we do a terrible job of capturing the messiness of the journey in favor of sharing our triumphs through an Instagram filter—and
is my attempt to change that.So join me every first and third Tuesday of the month for:
📝 Essays that share my biggest obstacles towards self-actualization, ranging from imposter’s syndrome to a predatory English teacher.
🎙 Interviews on how other writers juggle their creative projects, life, and self-care.
🥗 Occasional recipes, usually accompanied by commentary about my Vietnamese American identity.
Every issue is free of charge, and the only affiliate links I use are through Bookshop, which help independent bookstores maintain their presence in local communities.
If you believe in mission and want to support my work, the best way is to subscribe or share this newsletter with a friend.
Thank you for reading,
Sophia :)
P.S. Have a question? Fill out the form on my website, or send me an email directly: hello at sophiale dot com.
