Moving Forward
This article was originally published on davidnwaeze.com on December 5, 2021

A new year is around the corner. So, I need to reset a bit of what I’m doing in order to focus my work. An important piece of moving forward is realizing that the approach that I’ve been trying to take is biting off more than I can chew and just flatly not right for me. Learning and experimenting with several modes of content creation this year has taught me a lot about what’s done out there across a variety of social media platforms and why. More importantly, it’s shown me a little bit of who I am and what I wish to actually do. I’m not particularly interested in the models of success demonstrated by the psychotically content-addicted web-media world. Moreover, I’d be doing any of my subject areas a disservice by trying to shoe-horn my work into any of those models. So, to stay true to myself, and the work I would like to do, I’m making a few changes:
- I am discontinuing my personal blog site. If you’re reading this in December of 2021, you’re reading it. Honestly, I don’t need this site, right now. I may later, and am keeping the domain intact to put away for later. I’ll be moving the articles on here over to Medium in January. My Medium blog (hint: you’re already here) will become a clearinghouse for my more personal writing and short fiction that I don’t intend to publish professionally. If you’re reading this, please follow me over on there.
- I am putting Discontinent on indefinite hiatus. For all of my love of what I want it to become, I am in no position to make this project what it needs to be, at this moment. This fact began to dawn on me as the weight of the responsibility to do it right drove me into a state of paralysis over its content. Through future contacts and opportunities, I hope to relaunch it again later. Much as with my personal blog site, I intend to keep the domain and (most) associated socials for later use. I wish to focus primarily on Secessio Populi for now, as the content and context of that project are much more immediately accessible and give me more room to make mistakes in the short run. As for non-fiction investigative work that does not fit Secessio Populi, I’ll be posting that stuff up on my substack, feel free to subscribe over there, too.
- I will be discontinuing the use of Facebook and Instagram for project promotion. On Facebook, the Secessio Populi, Discontinent, and my personal “page” will be closed. I will keep my main account for as long as Facebook will have me, but I don’t particularly care to use it for much more than my equivalent of shit-posting. On Instagram, I will be closing the Secessio Populi and Discontinent accounts. Facebook and Instagram are extremely clunky platforms that eat up way more of my time trying to navigate than I’m willing to give them. On top of that, their American audience, being older, more conservative, and frequently — though certainly not exclusively — dumber than many other platforms, does not feel relevant to the future of online media in the long run.
- My main efforts are going to be focused on a somewhat systematic approach to my work. the briefest explanation of this is that I have 170 accomplishments to complete in a tiered system. At the moment, I’m working on building my Twitter following and getting a news story published by any professional news outlet. These are small accomplishments, but I need to take perspective and work from where I’m at. I will be working on a lot of peripheral work as I go, anyway, but prioritize my central goals at any given moment. I need that kind of clarity.
- I have a Patreon. If you want to, you can support me on Patreon. If you’re reading this before 2023, chances are very good that I’m not turning out a lot of content, and you’d just be throwing money at me. Which… thanks! Fair warning, though.
In short, I’m taking stock of what is within my capabilities and helpful in moving forward while putting down what is not. This year has been an emotionally rough one for myself, and my family. I know it’s also been so for plenty of other people. But I’m feeling good about next year (new COVID variant or not). I hope that, on balance, whatever 2022 brings us will be a reprieve from the stressful backdrop of the past two years. As for anyone looking at what I’m doing at this leg of the game, thank you! I know that, as I grow into what I’m doing little by little and hit it smarter and harder, I won’t let you down. I suspect that this year, things will begin to get interesting.