The Side View

A private letter to subscribers about what happens between the published pages

The Side View is a private letter to subscribers that accompanies Fieldnotes from a Watcher. Featuring behind-the-scenes creative process, sources of inspiration, and guest writer interviews, The Side View is where I share with readers what happens between the published pages.

The Side View is a monthly collection of bite-sized stories that move, delight, and provoke. Readers who sign up for a free subscription enjoy first-year access to the letter. Readers who support the journal with a paid subscription or one-time contribution retain full access beyond the first year.

Previews of the all issues of The Side View are cataloged below.

Partner with me in the beautiful work of storytelling through a paid monthly subscription or one-time contribution, and get full access to The Side View.

“Trust the Reader”

The job of written words is not to fully capture the felt experience, but to create and hold space for one to feel and interpret freely within its bounds.

Fieldnotes from a WatcherRuika Lin

Where You Play, You Belong

Made-up games despite no play structures, a true village where villagers young and old lived frugally by default but all participated, freedom even amid constraints.

Fieldnotes from a WatcherRuika Lin

The “Non-Disaster” Year of the Horse

In a heartfelt turn of events, my mother started off her “non-disaster” Year of the Horse playing with her grandson, laughing, and cooking, a stark contrast to just a year ago, when she was grieving heavily.

Fieldnotes from a WatcherRuika Lin

The Calm Between Storms

Our time here is so unfathomably brief, mysteriously random, and therefore, infinitely precious.

Fieldnotes from a WatcherRuika Lin

Make Something Beautiful

Whenever I encounter something that makes me exclaim, “That is so beautiful,” I’m anchored by our long-standing desire to appreciate beauty, and to make things more beautiful than they need to be. This desire is so essential that it might have been “something people want” all along.

Fieldnotes from a WatcherRuika Lin

“Feel the Fear... and Do It Anyway”

One cannot wait for inspiration to spark and for fear to disappear enough to build something from zero to one. It may start action, but rarely sustains it. The only thing that can sustain action is action itself.

Fieldnotes from a WatcherRuika Lin

A Note On The Lives of a Cell

Lewis Thomas’ book The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher published in 1974 directly inspired the name of Fieldnotes from a Watcher, and has been one of my favorite nonfiction essay collections for over two decades.

Fieldnotes from a WatcherRuika Lin