Sharpen Your Tools
Why working harder does not always mean moving forward
Last week, I said it was time to go home. That didn’t mean abandoning Substack, pulling everything down, and running screaming toward another platform where I could rebuild the same scattered structure under a different logo. But the shock made me realize I needed to stop confusing everywhere with growth.
The deeper work of Authortunities already had a home in our NeighborHub community. The conversations, workshops, coaching, tools, opportunities, and peer support were already there. The lights were on. The door was open. Once I recognized that, the next question became obvious.
What do we do when we get home?
We tend the place. We walk through our rooms and notice what has accumulated. We see what is scattered, neglected, broken, redundant, or no longer supporting the life we are trying to build. Then we enter the workshop and inspect our tools.
That brings us to our August theme, Sharpen Your Tools, and our Tarot archetype for the month: The Hermit.
The Hermit is often treated as a symbol of solitude and introspection, but this is not withdrawal simply for the sake of being alone. The Hermit steps away from noise to deepen mastery. This is not the Fake Muse telling us to become small in a misguided attempt to protect ourselves.
The Fake Muse tries to convince us to withdraw and hide. The Hermit chooses to withdraw and prepare.
Last week, my Fake Muse wanted me to leave Substack immediately. The advice arrived as a grain of truth wrapped in bubble wrap. Yes, rented platforms can change without our consent. Yes, systems can misread us. Yes, building an entire creative life on someone else’s property makes us vulnerable.
But the Fake Muse took those truths and tried to nudge me directly to panic. The Hermit asks better questions.
What is actually wrong? What needs protection? What should remain? What has become scattered? What deserves our undivided attention?
Creative people rarely suffer from a lack of tools. We have notebooks, apps, courses, templates, platforms, pens, podcasts, and more promising to make the work easier. If anything, we have too many tools.
When something feels difficult, our first impulse is often to add another one. There’s always room (we think) for one more platform or productivity method. Surely we just need another strategy or subscription (that we will absolutely remember to cancel before the free trial ends).
Acquiring something new feels like progress. It gives us a fresh beginning without asking us to examine what has grown dull, neglected, or fragmented. Sometimes we genuinely need a better tool, but we can also get so busy using our tools we forget what we were building in the first place. Other times we can get so busy building something that we forget to maintain the tools we use.
A dull blade can still cut. We just have to press harder, work longer, and accept a messier result.
That’s creative friction. We are still producing, but our computer keeps stalling because we have neglected its updates. We are still submitting, but we no longer know where half our work has gone because we weren’t keeping track. We are still showing up online, but our attention is divided across so many platforms that none of them feels like home.
We are working. We are simply pressing harder than we should have to.
That is what I want us to Recognize this week.
Our creative struggles don’t mean we are failures, lack commitment, or aren’t working hard enough. Sometimes the tools carrying our work simply need attention.
Our culture rewards visible output. We celebrate finished manuscripts, launches, publications, acceptances, announcements, and new projects. We don’t really celebrate the week we spent in our pajamas organizing contracts or improving a system.
Pausing can feel suspiciously like falling behind. The unhelpful belief is that if we are not actively producing, we are not making meaningful progress. So we keep moving for the sake of movement, collecting proof that we were busy without getting any closer to where we meant to go. Refinement is part of the process.
Our tools are more than what we use to put down words on the page. Our craft is a tool. Our attention is a tool. Our confidence, judgment, professional knowledge, audience relationships, and community are all tools. Even rest and nutrition are tools because exhausted creators rarely make their best artistic or professional decisions while hangry.
Each of these can become dull or depleted. Craft becomes dull when we fall into creative ruts and repeat only what we already know. Our attention becomes dull when it is divided among too many demands. Our visibility becomes fragmented when every platform requires a separate version of us. Ownership becomes vulnerability when we sign agreements we don’t understand.
Sharpening begins with noticing where the friction lives.
This week, here on Substack, our work is to Recognize our unhelpful patterns.
In the NeighborHub, we will Reimagine what might become possible if we stopped collecting tools and began mastering the ones already in our hands. When the 2027 Authortunities Almanac planner launches, we can Build that practice together by inventorying what we have, choosing one tool to strengthen, and creating a sustainable way to tend it.
Then we will celebrate the evidence of who we are Becoming.
Becoming may look like a stronger chapter, a cleaner submission system, a contract we finally understand, a price we are no longer ashamed to name, or a platform we consciously release. These changes may look small from the outside, but they will be evidence that we are living and working more intentionally.
The Hermit carries one lantern. It’s not meant to illuminate the entire road. It just gives us enough light for the next deliberate step.
Last week, we chose to come home. This month, we begin tending the workshop inside that home. Before we reach for something new, let’s identify what needs sharpening.
Where are we pressing harder because one of our tools has grown dull?
🔥 · Space & Time No. 153: August 2026 available in Ebook · Standard Print · Large Print · Dyslexia-Friendly Print!
📅· The Authortunities Calendar is updated!
🎙️· This week on Reading Space & Time, we will be sharing stories and poems from the August issue No. 153, namely namely “The Ogre” by Kathryn Ptacek, “Pickleblood’s Saga” by Kris Schokrowsky, “Unfiltered” by Brian U. Garrison, and “Enterprise One” by Callum Borthwick.