Hi, I’m Caitlin, and I’ve never done anything like this before…
I am afraid of a lot of things. Social media, for one. Also change. But here I am, showing up for my inner child, doing things that terrify me. About a year ago, a dear friend—one of a few people privy to my clandestine writing habit—coaxed me into submitting a “Readers Write” to The Sun magazine. She has always had a sixth sense for knowing what’s best for me, so I took her advice, but it felt a lot like walking down the street naked.
Now I can’t put my pen down. I think maybe I am writing a memoir, but then a poem accosts me, or a fictional storyline materializes from a murky dream. I share my musings with fellow writers in A Writing Room, walking out my front door naked again and again. Little by little, my fear dissipates. Maybe nakedness is okay. Maybe it’s more than okay, even exhilarating.
What is Bare?
Bare is a place for me to share bits and pieces of my writing while my memoir percolates. It is a foil to my perfectionist inner critic, who would like me to go back to stashing my poetry in secret drawers and spending an entire hour editing one sentence.
My Substack newsletter is a semi-monthly invitation for you to read a batch of words I have thrown together—words I may or may not feel ready to publish. It is an invitation for me to publish before I’m ready.
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