There Be Monsters? … or a Sea of Tranquility?

To 1821 and Back Again

As lots of you know, for the past month and a bit, I’ve been officially “off-the-grid.” At the start of May, I bid sayonara to Social Media as I set out on an expedition to the year 1821 to write the next Katie Watson instalment.

The results (i.e. the new book) I shall share with you presently. But for now, I’d like to share the unexpected benefits, the more personal by-products of my writing journey.

In short, unplugging has been so very liberating! … of my time, my thoughts and even my emotions. I had no idea just how insidious a dependency on Social Media could be until I went cold turkey. Only then did I realise how much time and energy I invest in trying to conjure up some image that I’m supposed to be portraying to the world but haven’t the slightest notion of in my own head. Only then did I recognise the lie at large that insists more and more and MORE activity and noise is the only way to gain success in this world of competing activity and noises. Only when I stopped flipping through news feeds did I discover the seeds of envy and discontent I’d been sewing in my thoughts by comparing myself to other seemingly more successful folks who seem to have mastered this idea of “image” so effortlessly. And yet I wonder, how many out there have come away from my posts feeling the same, demoralised way?

Before I go any further, I want to say outright that I don’t mean to demonise these tools or judge their avid users. And I am not, as a result of my time away, planning on going Social Media free from now on. Truth is, they have their place – they can inform us, connect us, broadcast, & show us funny animal pictures that bring us a swift smile in the midst of a busy day.

But are Social Media sites the golden key, the silver bullet, the Jacob’s Ladder to our success? As for myself, a small-fry children’s author, I choose to believe the answer is no. Why? Because success that comes at the price of discontentment, anxiety and brain clutter is no success at all. I want to connect with people. Truly connect. And if I have to go the long way around to do that, it will have been well worth the journey.

So, here is my resolution on the back of my Adventure to 1821 (Great Smokey Mountains where, as Katie Watson’s father puts it, “you’re more likely to see smoke signals than internet signals here,”): I vow to do my utmost NOT to add to the noise for the heck of it. After all, noise is the last thing we or our kids need these days, safe to say? My mission is to write for their benefit, their edification, and yes, for their pure, imagination-sparking enjoyment, and to keep the means to that end as pure and simple and honest as a morning walk in the woods.

All that said and set in (digital) ink, I am excited to share Katie Watson’s next adventure with you only a few months’ time, and I hope you and your young readers find it, as I did writing it, a refreshing getaway from all the noise.

Now for a few mementoes from my adventures to Cherokee Country, 1821: