do your teeth ache?

Mine did.

For thirty-one years.

Years full of mistakes. Many learnings. Many loves. Lost and found and rediscovered and burned and brought back up again. Days upon days of sifting through the ashes of the mind and the soul and the heart to mine the pieces of coal and discard the false diamonds. Countless explorations; some that led to me collapsing and curling into myself, and weeping like a goddamn child.

Because the little girl in me had a Voice, and it was that Voice she was ignoring.

I’m on a path of cutting my teeth once again—for being an Eternal Novice is not a mindset you can really replicate, and thank God for that—on the art of language as a craft for fiction, brands, advertising, and newsletters I tried and tried and tried to make work… but failed to make something I liked. I’m opening up a new chapter—as a multi-hyphenate writer who wishes to truly, without abandon, without control, and without resistance—on a mission to forge my creative palate in the fires of what lights my soul on fire.

My hope is my honesty is permission for you to do the same for yourself.

And you? You’re invited to come along. These are daily letters. I’ve called it a diary. I’ve called it a column. I’ve called it a bunch of things. That doesn’t matter. What matters most is it’s an open space for you to read my most raw, unedited thoughts. It’s also a place to explore stories and thought pieces and essays varying from 50 words to 5,000.

There’s no rhythm or defined system anymore because—even though I love creating these platforms of storytelling and narrative and creativity and beyond for client brands—my writing suffered as a result.

Restarting only stops for creative people when they create a rhythm of their own. This is less about marching to the beat of your own drum, and more about redefining what a “march” or a “drum” or any of that really means. For you.

In more casual terms, you can expect daily snapshots into my life, and what I’m thinking or daydreaming about. My (life) process as a an entrepreneur/artist hybrid who’s always suffered from others’ rules and is now making her own. And of course, explorations into the things you likely read about before you subscribed, including but not limited to:

Daily adventures, in my business and out and about. Taste. Ambition. Brand. Creativity. Language as art. The classical arts. Entrepreneurship as an artist. Art as an entrepreneur. Architecture. Design. Narrative. Creating a point of view. Media. Digital culture. The internet. The convergence of the work of the masters and how it inspires the work of the future—if we’re not stupid enough to ignore how important that is. Legacy. Forging a palate. Curation as a creator. Creation as a curator. Storytelling (lots and lots and lots of storytelling). The intersection of everything listed here, and how to craft an uncopyable, un-algorithmic, unapologetic identity that transcends anything you’re building and anything you’re consuming. God, what else, what else?

And then some, because every day is unpredictable and I do not plan or outline or concept any of these. I’m a chronic overthinker so I have to write and let the thoughts duel it out on the page. Maybe you’re the same.

To say I’m grateful you’re here would be a wild understatement.

I post daily essays, so instead of recommending specific ones, I just think you should subscribe and get them in your inbox. Directly, intimately, and with absolutely zero restrictions.

— Taylor Barnes.