TA #116: 🍑 Why You Need to Park Your Peach on a Beach; Standout Sentence of the Week

Hey, you. You're doing great. Click here to read this on the web.

Source: My phone

Welcome to the 116th issue of Total Annarchy, a fortnightly newsletter by me, Ann Handley, with a focus on writing, marketing, living your best life. I'm glad you're here. If this newsletter was forwarded to you, you need your own: Subscribe here.

Boston, Sunday, July 3, 2022

Hello, Beautiful!

I'm on the coast of Maine this week, on vacation.

The Wi-Fi password at the only restaurant in town is PUTDOWNTHEPHONETALKTOYOURFAMILY. (Not kidding.)

A piece in the NY Times calls what I'm doing this week "fallow time." Regular downtime is a part of creative life—not apart from it, the Times says.

"Fallow time is necessary to grow everything from actual crops to figurative ones"—like writing, like any work, says writer Bonnie Tsui. "We need to rest, to read, to reconnect. It is the invisible labor that makes creative life possible."

Said another way: we are doing something important when we are doing nothing at all important.

It's not just nice to park your peach 🍑 on a beach; it's necessary. That's true whether you grow wheat grass or watercress or white papers.

We need to slow down sometimes so we can speed up at other times.

* * *

I wrote a version of that ^^ in 2019 over this same holiday weekend of July 4th, which is Independence Day here in the US.

Ahh, 2019...!

We were so young. So naive. So blissfully unaware of how badly we were about to be sideswiped by... well, everything. So totally unconscious of how on edge we'd be here in 2022.

Rereading my 2019 letter to you... I need to correct one thing: That only restaurant in town closed a year ago. There's a pizza place now, but the Wi-Fi password is gone. (A loss in more way than one.)

I would also not call downtime "invisible labor"—especially when here in 2022 many of us have been *truly* laboring invisibly—balancing work, worry, grief, angry politics, gutting policies, economic fears, rage, mixed messages... and yet, also... just trying to live life. Must call the pest company about the ants. Garden needs weeding. Where can I rent a margarita machine? Just keep swimming.

For me personally, the last few months have been a slog. (Writing a book means zero down time.)

* * *

Maybe you, too, are roasting marshmallows over a burnout bonfire?

Maybe you, too, start to envy those who come home at the end of a day and don't think about work at all...?

Does the barista come home and think about oat milk lattes? Does the guy working the tollbooth go home and think about correct change? What would that be like—to leave work at work?

Fallow Time in 2019 felt like a simple vacation.

In 2022, it feels like salvation.

* * *

So I'm reminding you again of what I said in 2019 and again last year: Give yourself some Fallow Time this season.

Read. Rest. Reconnect with you. PUTDOWNYOURPHONEANDTALKTOYOURFAMILY. (Keep its spirit alive!)

I hope you are doing nothing much at all.

Yet at the same time doing what we all need.

* * *

STANDOUT SENTENCE OF THE WEEK
Writing that deserves a slow clap.

Usually we use this space to celebrate great marketing writing. But this is Fallow Time, friend! So today let's give the floor to my favorite author (and Maine resident), E.B. White.

In a 1962 letter to a friend, E.B. wrote:

The next grammar book I bring out I want to tell how to end a sentence with five prepositions.

A father of a little boy goes upstairs after supper to read to his son, but he brings the wrong book. The boy says, "What did you bring that book that I don't want to be read to out of up for?"

E.B. White wrote Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, and The Elements of Style at the spare little Maine seaside writer's cabin pictured in the header of this newsletter. I took the photo when I visited the property a few years ago.

Here's a shot of the inside of the cabin, featuring my beloved little dog Abby (RIP).

Thanks to leadership author and podcaster Scott Monty for the submission! Scott wins* $25 in $WORD and a lovingly signed copy of the second edition of Everybody Writes** due out this October!

* Got a sentence you want to nominate? Hit reply and suggest one.

** Please preorder a copy. I would be grateful.

SURVEY WE GO

Remember a few months ago when I asked writers, podcasters, and other creatives here to share their experiences growing their businesses?

Well looky at some of the results from the brand-new Creator Economy 2022 Benchmark Research, produced in partnership with The Tilt, Further, and me.

Creators are not making a killing but we are making a living.
More than 50% of us are self-supporting.
It takes 17 months, on average, to ramp up a business.
Most are motivated by independence.
Just 1% regret our career choice.

Get all the glorious data here. Ungated, because no one needs that kind of nonsense.

DEPARTMENT OF SHENANIGANS

Why this newsletter took me 8 more hours than it needed to this week.

* * *

P.S. I spent last week in Boston planning this fall's MarketingProfs B2B Forum with the MarketingProfs team. My dog Augie loved the hotel, the team, our plans for this fall. You will, too. We quietly posted the agenda last Friday. Get a sneak peek! 👀

* * *

Stay sane. Stay healthy. See you again on July 17.

P.S. If you like this newsletter and want to support it, you can:

1) buy the new book. Or get the OG while you still can.
2) Get yourself some $WORD coin. (Read more about creator coins here.)
3) Forward this newsletter to a friend with an invitation to subscribe right here: www.annhandley.com/newsletter.

SPECIAL THANKS to AWeber for being the provider of choice for Total Annarchy. If you are looking to up your email game, I highly recommend.

Ann Handley is the author of Everybody Writes and other books.
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Ann Handley

9 Bartlett St., #313, Andover, MA 01810

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