I Was Ghosted by the Algorithm. Then I Got Loud.

Oh hey, this is me again, S.J. Frederick — mildly chaotic, highly caffeinated.

(And yes, the photo is still larger than life.)

After getting unceremoniously ignored by job boards, social media posts, and even my own inbox, I realized something: I wasn’t invisible. I just needed to make noise in a different way.

The Ghosting

There’s a very specific flavor of pain when you pour your soul into a cover letter, tailor your resume within an inch of its life, hit “Submit,” and… crickets. Not even the courtesy of a rejection email.

Ghosted. By bots. By companies. By a system that feels allergic to eye contact and human decency.

At first, I took it personally. Maybe I was irrelevant. Maybe my skills were out of date. Maybe my career had been one long accident and now I’d finally run out of luck.

But then I remembered: I’m still here. I still have something to say.

The Loudness

I returned to my dusty Google Docs and creaky old notebooks. I found half-finished stories, strange little poems, fragments of fictional worlds and characters who were practically begging me to come back and finish what I’d started.

So I did.

But louder this time. Bolder.

I started submitting to challenges again. I wrote for Vocal. I joined writer forums. I posted microfiction on Instagram. I said things out loud that once felt too fragile to speak.

Like:

"I want to be a real writer."

Or:

"Maybe I already am."

Volume Up

The more I wrote, the more I wanted to keep writing.

It turns out creativity is not a finite resource. It’s a muscle. It gets stronger the more you use it—and weaker when you ignore it.

Now I write daily. Even if it’s garbage. Even if no one reads it. Even if the algorithm never picks it up.

Because what matters isn’t the views. It’s the voice. Mine.

What I’m Writing

Expect the unexpected.

One day it’s a surreal tale about a suburban woman who finds a portal in her washing machine.

The next, it’s a tragic love story between an android and a time traveler who can’t stay in one place long enough to say goodbye.

I blend reality and fantasy, love and loss, magic and mischief. I’m into “romantacy,” time-warped humor, and characters who are broken but trying.

Also, yes, I’m still working on that chicken who can speak Latin. Don’t judge.

If you’re reading this, thank you for being here. I’m not whispering anymore. I’m here to write, loudly.