it's my 2 year insta-versary: my experience as an Instagram writer
Is it lame to celebrate Instagram anniversaries?
January 1st, 2021 marked the two-year existence of Tipsy Love Letters (my Instagram baby), and at a time in my life where every day seems more challenging than the last, I decided that I should celebrate this.
I put up a poll & questionnaire on Instagram to ask a few friends what they wanted to read. Here are a few questions they had for me!
Tipsy Q & A
Share Some Things We Don't Know About You!
This is a light one to start off on, a lot of people asked me questions like 'what's your favourite colour?' (Tiffany blue, don't cancel me because I'm basic.) Favourite movie? (Little Women/My Girl/500 Days of Summer/Life As We Know It) and things that people don't necessarily know about me. So here are a few things you may find interesting:
I love trashy reality TV, like, I *really* love it. TLC's 90 Day Fiance - obsessed. The only thing I love more than 90 Day Fiance and trashy TV is the YouTube channel Psychology in Seattle, where family therapist Dr. Kirk Honda reacts to TLC shows. I live for it. I think it's great, and it helps me "justify" my trashy TV consumption by masking it as educational. If you're a fan, check it out and let me know what you think.
Does anyone remember the App QuizUp? It was a popular trivia game back in 2014, and I played it regularly. My biggest flex in the ninth grade was that I received my "Top 10 International" badge on the European Geography quiz.
I'm afraid of bridges. I don't trust them. Especially rope bridges. Why are they moving as I walk across it? Scary.
97% sure my house is haunted. I have many paranormal activity stories in my room. The most recent was a few weeks ago; I woke up to the crashing noise of a painting falling off my wall and my turntable playing one of my vinyl records at 5 a.m.
Why did you start sharing your writing?
It started as a joke, more or less. I drunkenly decided that my 2019 New Years resolution was to create an Instagram writing account, with no serious intent. One month passed, then six, and then a whole year, I ended up loving the writing community.
Writing has always been a coping mechanism to work through my feelings when I was overwhelmed. Receiving the writing community's response and encouragement made me feel less alone during one of my lowest points.
I've loved making friends and reading all these incredible poets I would've never stumbled upon otherwise. It's helped me learn and grow my craft. I owe a lot to this community. I share more of my' origin story' in my post 'Drunken Beginnings' if you're curious to know more.
How often do you get writer's block, and how do you overcome it?
I permanently reside in a cute little bungalow on Writer's Block.
For me, writer's block always hits at a point where I doubt my ability and worthiness, whether it be about my writing or not. As over-said as it is, I try to write through it.
I'll write something every day, whether it be a journal entry, a letter, a string of words in an app. Most of the time, I think they're shitty, which is most likely because they are. Not everything you write has to be amazing. You're allowed to write shitty poetry and short stories. It's about evolving and growing. You might find what you were looking for in one of your writing slumps.
Better to have written and sucked than to have never written at all. That should catch on, just saying.
(I'll be doing a more detailed post on writer's block very soon! Subscribe to my newsletter if you don't want to miss it)
How has your writing evolved?
My writing has evolved immensely over the past few years, thanks to the writing community! It's still far from where I would like it to be, and most of the time, I'm not very satisfied with most of it, but it's all a learning process.
When I started sharing my writing on Instagram, it was mostly one-liners from longer pieces I was too afraid to share. One of my first posts that did well was a line that said 'my thoughts must have conjured you into existence,' it makes me laugh quite a bit because I was trying way too hard to sounds like someone I'm not.
Sharing my writing and reading different contemporary poetry styles that I had never been exposed to have pushed me out of my comfort zone and given me the confidence to experiment with my writing.
In the past two years, I've developed a stronger sense of self, and my writing feels a lot more truthful to who I am because of it. I used to be insecure about being too vulnerable in individual pieces, and I think I've established a consistent voice in my writing. I want to continue working on style and technique, but I am proud of how far I've come.
The future of Tipsy Love letters?
I don't have any cemented plans for Tipsy Love Letters at the moment. I want to establish a consistent bi-weekly newsletter schedule and continue expanding my blog, but there's no clear direction of what that means yet. If you'd like to keep updated with my newsletter you can subscribe here.
Tipsy Love Letters is an outlet, and so long as it brings me joy, I will continue to write through it. I want to keep my options open and work on new projects in the New Year.
A huge Thank You to everyone who submitted their questions and have supported me over the past two years.
As a two year anniversary treat, I'm also sharing two poems I've recently published that I have not shared on Instagram. You can read those here.
Love you all,
- t o d o
