Phil W. Bayles

Or: How I Learned That WordPress Has Changed A Lot Since 2019.

Recently I realised that if I’m ever going to get serious about this whole “being a writer” thing, I first have to actually get comfortable calling myself a writer. It turns out, the best way to feel comfortable calling yourself a writer is to actually do some bloody writing.

“Leap,” as Julia Cameron likes to remind me, “and the net will appear.”

So I’ve been churning out short stories and poems just as fast as I can over the last few weeks. I’ve even submitted a few of them to some writing competitions. The others — the ones I like less or can’t find a home for — I might end up posting here.

I also went and bought a web domain with my name on it. I figured having a nice, shiny website with my name on it where people can find my writing or get in touch with me might be a good idea.

If you were already subscribed to my Substack, then you should keep getting updates just like you always did. If this is new to you, then welcome! I do hope you stick around. There’s even a thing you can fill out just below this to make sure you’ll always get updates:

What will I share here? A mix of stuff, really: the stories and poems I mentioned above, yes, but also some more random stuff. Odes to pop culture I really like. Little moans about how difficult writing can be. Random shite that would otherwise take up space in my head.

The new tagline for this site is “Serious ideas from a silly man,” which I think is pretty appropriate. I spend a lot of time writing about pretty serious stuff — death, regret, fatherhood, capitalism — but because it’s hard to look at those things head-on, I tend to look at them through the lens of taxi-driving psychopomps, pun-spouting zombies or orangutans with typewriters.

(Yes, I have written stories about all of those.)

I’m also going to try and do these a bit more frequently. Since the good writers borrow and the great ones steal, I should probably mention that I’ve been inspired by John Scalzi, a sci-fi writer I greatly admire who also has a pretty great website.

There will probably be some teething issues here. For some reason the site keeps crashing on me at inopportune moments. Also, in the six years since I last regularly used WordPress, the back end has become completely unrecognisable to me. Please be patient while I get my bearings.

It feels nice to have a website all my own; a little like owning my first house after spending most of my life renting. Sure, it means I’m on the hook if anything breaks, but I can also decorate the place however I like and not worry too much about what the neighbours are doing.

You should come over some time. We’ll talk, we’ll laugh, we’ll put on some music and open a bottle of wine… it’ll be great.