A Short Description For The Dime

**Listen to this article read by the author**

When you start one of these Substacks there’s a section that asks for a short description. Basically a logline for what the publication is. if you don’t know this or if it feels off, the substack has the equivalent of an identity crisis.

The Dime is at a party and some schmuck comes up to it and asks, “So, who are you?” and The Dime’s hands get clammy and it sticks it’s pointer finger in its collar, stretches it out a little, and then mumbles some nonsense that makes the schmuck nod his head in appeasement and walk away forgetting that the entire encounter ever happened.

The current short description for The Dime is:

“Minting dime pieces weekly - who knows, a 2024 dime could be worth a lot one day”.

I mean it is what I’m doing and if it was already something that people knew, it might be a cute tongue in cheek nod to what it’s about. Is it fun? Kind of. Is it the right tone? Sort of. But if you had no idea what this was and you happened to stumble upon this and wanted to know what it was about would you?

No. You’d be like, what the fuck is a Dime piece?

The dreaded log-lining of a work is a natural and inevitable part of any creative process, and not just for the receiver. It’s a pretty good litmus for how well the creator knows their own work. Can you say what you’re doing in a single line in a way that makes me want to know more.

The reality is I’m using this ‘minting dime’s‘ joke there because I don’t know what else to say. It allows me to avoid actually going deeper because now I’m satisfied with a clever, practically empty nugget of fools gold.

But I’m not actually satisfied.

So I’m now on a mission to log line the Dime.

I could go tried and true and just say that I’m writing stories and sharing observations and maybe craft some clever way of saying that, but it feels thin.

I could say something about exploring this and that and discovering that and the other, but if I use either of those two words I know I’m practically saying nothing and may as well just say I’m minting Dimes.

I’m looking for something that says something about not just what I’m doing but who I am.

If you step into this world this is what you might feel, this is **what you might find.

I want the dime to be a portal into something special and for this to be the way in.

One of the things that prevents this line from arising is the fear of specificity, the fear of being put in a box.

If I tell you I’m an artist will you expect me to paint something?

If I tell you I’m a poet will you expect my words to rhyme?

If I tell you I’m a creator will you expect to see me on social hocking likes and shares?

Someone will!

The thing about a log line or short description, and the reason I’m hesitant to just slap one on is that it doesn’t just summarize what a thing is, it directs it.

It reminds you what you’re doing and informs what it becomes.

I’m looking for a little story that says what I’m doing and reminds me who I am in a way that makes me make more stuff in the way I want to make it.

Wait, actually, that’s not bad:

Telling stories to remind myself who I am—that’s pretty good just by itself—but ok…in a way that makes me make more things in the way I make them in order to become the person I’m here to become.

Okay, a little wordy, for sure, but I am.

One thing that came to me this week while I was driving and thinking about what this wants to become; I imagined some kid, a teenager like ninety years in the future stumbling across some dime and getting a nice little whiff of what it was like to be a person back in the 20‘s. There might be something there.

I was looking through my notes for some inspiration and found this nugget:

All I want is to

do work that I love doing

with other people

and help others do the same.

It’s a little dry, but I like the sentiment. Here’s another:

My only job is to love my people and love my craft.

If I do those two things, what could go wrong?

I like it, but where do the Baltimore Ravens fit into the equation?

What I really want is to turn the Dime into a thing I can’t live without, and I think finding this line is a good start to making that happen.

Anyway, no rush on this, but my goal is to have this inked by the end of the year. I’ll take a detour or two, you know me, but come January, we’ll be minting a fresh 2025 Dime.

I’ll leave you with a question that I found in my notes as I was looking for the answer:

“What do you need in your life right now in order to feel like you have enough?”

In the spirit of the short description, share your answer in the comments in a single sentence.

Here’s mine in six words:

A short description for the Dime.