Why I'm Writing

I want to share my thoughts with the world in a fashion that prioritizes expression over engagement.

Photo by Florian Klauer on Unsplash

If I am to take up residence in this platform and pretend to take myself seriously, then I suppose a formal introduction is in order.

My name is Spens Soria, and before I give myself an aneurysm and an identity crisis considering how best to describe myself, I’ll resort to the simple descriptors I use in my profile: I am a reader, a watcher, and a new thing trier. I’d say that’s also pretty much what I want to write about in this Substack.

As for the why of creating this space, the short of it is: I want to share my thoughts with the world in a fashion that prioritizes expression over engagement. I speak of engagement strictly in the sense that I don’t want to be thinking about views, likes, and comments. I’d like to be in conversation with potential readers, to be sure, but I’ve decided that I’m doing this mostly for myself.

I’m a naturally introverted person, but I often feel that I have a lot to say. Whether it’s about the books I read, the queer experience, or just general musings on life, there’s often more that I want to share than I am able to. I’ve had some meager attempts at content creation before, beginning with my YouTube channel where I discuss books. But after a couple of years of inconsistent uploading, I realized just how limiting it was. Being a reader is pretty much one of the few things that has remained consistent about my identity from childhood, and books are the topic I can probably talk about at length the most. But as I’ve progressed into early adulthood, my interests grew more diverse and the more that popular social media platforms just weren’t doing it for me.

I wanted to talk about films beyond just my short reviews on Letterboxd. I was annoyed by the character limit on Instagram posts. Editing long videos for YouTube became exhausting. I had opinions to share and only limited channels through which to share them in a manner that was satisfying to me.

When one of my dear friends, Kate, began her Substack, I was instantly intrigued by what the platform had to offer. I had met her back in her book blogger days and my booktuber era, and as I’ve gotten to know her more through get-togethers with other bookish creators, I’ve come to appreciate the person she is and was always interested in what she had to say even beyond the topic of books. I liked that the platform allowed her to talk about pretty much anything under the sun, from her travelling adventures to opinions on media trends and other topics I generally wouldn’t get to read about in depth on her book blog.

So here I write. I hope in so doing I might bring myself out of obscurity, even if only to myself. Thank you for coming along for the ride.