As someone who’s always played the role of “behind the writer,” Substack has given me a gift that is difficult not to gobble up. Readers interacting meaningfully with my writing feeds a need from a very young part inside me: people want to talk about something I am interested in?! I could swim in that goodness all day.
But I am also aware of the importance of pacing. Even now, as I’m typing this, my daughter, who is almost 15 months old, is engaging in a habit that seems to keep cropping up: if I put too much food in front of her, within a few minutes, she starts wildly flinging it across the room with her hands. Only to then look at me and say “more.” But if I remove the majority of her food and only offer small, hand-sized portions to choose from, she relaxes and is able to feed herself without working into a frenzy.
All this to say, you’re wise to remind us that slow and steady is the only way through the gauntlet of being a writer and writing in the age of internet chaos. Without that steadiness and care of self, I’m convinced we’ll lose access to the writers who nourish us the most.
It’s funny to me that Substack, even when I first joined not too long ago, felt like an “escape” from the IG and the pressure to produce content incessantly. But now I am just hyper aware of the “slowness” in my slow writing 😅. Thanks for being real here. I love following along.
This is very important to me and something I think about often: “We need to be vigilant about how our message is being shaped by our medium, and watch for signs that that shaping is changing our voice beyond our recognition.” 🔥🙌
I feel I'm SO susceptible to being shaped, which has led me to basically swear off almost all social media. There are many pros and cons to this approach. Since I really want to be on Substack, I'm doing it with a certain hypervigilance. I'm glad this sentence resonated, and encouraged that others are thinking about it too!
I love what you’ve written. I think that awareness is really wise. I noticed it earlier this year, as I am more online now, when I realized I had an instagram voice that was leaking over into my writing of fiction. Which was preventing me from being brutal and honest, since IG is obviously more friendly, conversational, and cutesy than fiction usually is haha. Thankfully I noticed it 😩
I really appreciate the honesty and frankness of your consideration here. It brings up a lot of questions for me which I hadn’t even considered, mostly I suppose because I’m holding this whole Substack thing very loosely. I’m not sure whether that’s a good approach or not but your essay makes me realize that’s what I’m doing. I’m grateful for this moment on Substack; I don’t take it for granted and I don’t count it lasting, or at least it won’t remain as it is. A few months before joining Substack, I let go of a lifelong dream of being a writer. I write now, true, but I let go of *being a writer* as part of my identity. I think that may be part of it. If there’s a threshold I’m hungry to reach it’s that I want people to connect via my Substack, I want people to feel less alone, and I want those connections to spill into the real world.
It sounds like you have struck a great balance by loosely holding your Substack. And I love the idea of the connections here "spilling into the real world." It's not something I expect from the internet, but I am starting to experience it and it's pretty cool.
Will everyone please become a paid subscriber here so that Rae can get her checkmark the world needs this please for the sake of the world also she deserves it her writing is the best the world has ever seen the Pulitzers said it yesterday if you didn’t See it go check the Pulitzer prizes said Rae wins for most deserving of getting a freaking checkmark ASAP those aren’t my words those are the words of the Pulitzer people
I am here for the capital E essays if that helps. Monthly sounds pretty good! Daily seems waaaay too little too often for considered writing and reading
I started my Substack earlier this year, and this is the first time I am exploring my love for reading and writing. Prior to this, I had been working on creating a blog; I bought a domain and started building a website. It was taking the time away from writing, though.
Then I came across Substack. It was a game changer because I could focus on writing and what I wanted to write about. However, it's not easy to figure out a niche, and I often struggle with balancing what I want to write about versus what my subscribers are interested in.
I have to agree with you on the platform "demands". Working a full-time job, maintaining a social life, finding time for my other hobbies/creative outlets, and adulting (yes, I am a millennial, what gave it away? lol) with a partner and two silly goofballs (my dogs), while maintaining a writing practice has been demanding, yet I WANT to do it. I find joy in it and appreciate the platform's emphasis on consistency. Currently, I am finding the expectations from Notes to be a bit overwhelming. However, I want to grow my subscriber list, so I am figuring out how to engage with Notes, office hours, etc.
I definitely agree that Substack strips away a lot of the non-writing work of writing online, like maintaining your own blog etc. I am also very grateful for that!
And yeah...when I really want to feel like I'm drowning in overwhelm, and when I'm just really dying to shout and hustle to break through the crowd...I attend Substack office hours 😂
Consistency is definitely something that is welcome on Substack. And how do I understand you wanting to do so much but having so little time to do it. But my desire to keep writing articles on Substack only increases with each like and with each subscriber.
There must be such a thing as "enough" though, right? That's what I want to feel - like I'm doing enough. It's an internal project more than anything, but the incentives on the internet (including Substack, and especially Notes) certainly don't help.
Yes, I understand what you are talking about. As for Substack, I can say that here, without an audience from other platforms, starting from scratch is almost unrealistic. It will take several years to reach 1,000 subscribers. Too little activity in all categories, except for the "Politics" category. Therefore, I think it’s worth focusing on other social networks and redirecting paid content directly to Substack. Notes is a dead section.
Substack is certainly the best home I've found for my writing. Sometimes I write when I've accumulated enough material to want to put it down. Better, I write when two ideas collide in my brain and spark a new insight, but I can't make those things happen to order. While I do write to find out what I'm thinking, and journal for that purpose, I'm not convinced that anyone would want to read my stream of consciousness. So, I find the pressure to perform by generating paid subscriptions through posting frequently and sharing my thoughts on Notes to be antithetical how I approach my writing. Notes have generated a bunch of paid subscriptions but paid by me, not to me! And, yes, I'll be adding this one.
I'm fortunate enough not to need to be paid for my writing. But it would be nice to generate enough paid subscriptions to cover what I'm spending supporting other writers who do need the money!
Hi John! I love your comment that Notes generated a bunch of paid subscriptions...paid by you 😂. That's wonderful! It sounds like your relationship with writing on Substack is ideal. I do think the money part complicates the matter!
I don't have a clear answer to any of your questions, but do have some revelations (and a mental shift!) I came to this past weekend around my identity and future:
I wanna pursue writing, like, forreal.
In a future piece (or two) I plan dive into my journey of fighting to be able to write... And SO much has shifted about my life and the perspectives I have for it after my mom died.
But though I still feel a bit wobbly figuring out the "official" way I plan to show up on Substack (how often? Weekly? Bi-weekly? What am I writing weekly? Monthly? Bi-weekly? Etc.), I--personally--at this moment in my life have let go of all inhibitions around writing and showing up to write. I wanna take 3 months fully showing up how I want as a writer (after my last week-long break this week), and after MONTHS (years, if we're being technical) I'm finally... FINALLY giving myself permission to do so!
And Substack really feels like the perfect place to do so. I'm so grateful for this community. I have some amazingly lovely hype people who are loving my work and writing, I have my first paid subscriber and it's someone I admire and I got her and I am not even "polished" yet... Like I have so many screenshots on my vision board from all the lovely people who're in my community!
I someday want to be able to sustain myself as a writer (who doesn't?!) and I'm currently in a place where I believe it's possible and am fiercely advocating for it...
And doing it my way.
Right now, that's by having fun, caring about my community and this whole ecosystem (I've developed a new perspective and intention around Notes that helps me show up more on it and share and comments with more ease), and *listening* to what I need and honoring it (like the 2-week break I'm finishing up. It's like when I announced I was taking a break from public posting, my brain got the memo too and I've come up with so many drafts and pieces I'm not fleshing out and scheduling).
Like I said, post-mom life has been a bit jarring but I never wanted to stop writing, so people are on the journey with me and are so kind about it. I'm grateful to be someplace where I can figure out how I wanna navigate my newsletter in real time and still receive praise and support. Me taking my break came from just having nothing else to write... I stepped back to heal and observe life more and hopefully I can "batch" some pieces to help me find a stride for consistency, because no matter what, this platform is too important to me to just churn out forced BS because I announced in my about page that I post two times a week.
All I know is that I'm TIRED of placing all these rules and narratives in my head about how things HAVE to be or how I HAVE to show up and I've never given myself permission to just play and see what happens.
Set an allotted amount of time to just experiment and explore intentionally and have fun... and see what happens!
So that's what I'm planning to do for at least 3 months (not sure when, but pretty sure VERY soon!).
Wow Cierra, firstly congratulations on making that shift to writing "forreal," and being able to say it out loud--I totally had that same moment, and it was also after YEARS of telling myself I didn't want to try and write for my job because it would "ruin writing for me," and various other excuses like that. So...huge step!
It also sounds like you are going in with a super healthy relationship to the work, especially knowing that taking actual time off feeds the writing. How many times have I found that I take time off and then come back and pound out the best writing of my life? Yet someone I still feel like I'm "wasting" time if I'm not writing. Sigh, so much to unlearn.
Really looking forward to following your journey at Losing Orbit!
"Post-Mom Life" was my operative phrase for 2022! 😊 I'm still in "Phase 1," as my mom is still alive. "Phase 2," after she's shuffled off her mortal coil, will start eventually, but when is anyone's guess at this point.
Ahaha, I love that it's an operative and has its phases! I've been saying "Life After" and just "post-mom" but the operative angle? *chef's kiss*
And oh, so true. I always heard about people saying a death catches you off-guard no matter what, and it REALLY does! Even if you're literally waiting for it and know it's coming like... within a few hours, it's like "HMMM? Excuse me?! They've passed??"
Thank you for this discussion, Rae. I’m struggling to find my cadence, or meet it, and I promised myself when I started Armchair Rebel that I would keep going, and not let the perfect be the enemy of good. I find ‘streaks’ very demotivating, but your metaphor of one page at a time building up is exactly what I hope for, apart from a magical recovery of full health and an ability to go deep in command to produce a brilliant essay each week and be respected and beloved...
Great post, thank you Rae. One of the things I really appreciate about Substack is finding writers like you who are honest about these human tangles and who inspire me to stay true to The Writing rather than chasing the likes. The likes feel so good though... 😉 I had to get off Notes because it was sucking me in and I don't have the will power. Part of my journey here since I landed in Jan has been redoubling my devotion to words and to making offerings, and letting the rest go as best I can. A constant work in progress, but a transferable skill I think! 🙏🏻
“But even if I’m not posting daily, then I’m definitely feeling bad daily about not posting daily.” Haha love this!
Honestly, I have yet to experience any conflict on this platform between being myself/doing what I want and the demands of the platform itself. I feel it actually supports and rewards people who truly do their own thing and on their own terms, regardless of how it lands.
Wow, this is exactly how I’ve been feeling lately. I just started my page a few months ago and finding that balance has been a little difficult. It’s so nice to know that someone else feels the same! Thank you so much for sharing!
Love the comments. I made a commitment to publish one piece a week. I have nearly given up because I am so slow. Thanks for the validation that it’s OK to be a slow writer.
This is so relatable. I want the orange checkmark, to climb the leaderboards. But I also want to keep ease in it all. And to work at a leisurely pace. For me that means aiming for weekly, but allowing myself to skip a week whenever I want. Still, I do feel pressure to also have threads and all the other paid things. And I’m still figuring out how much of that I want to do.
I understand your desire to do well without it being so onerous. I want the same thing. I want to always be able to take a break and rest if things get hard.
Thanks for writing this! I think a lot of us echo your thoughts and experiences. One of the things I’ve been thinking about is how much of writing as a profession has nothing to do with writing, but with marketing, promotion, social media engagement, etc. There’s a constant battle to get your work in front of people who will subscribe and share (and maybe even pay!), and all that takes away from the actual writing. The thing I love most about Substack is that I can find great writers who are writing about whatever topic suits them, even if it’s not commercially viable. I can also write about what suits me, which often means shedding light on issues and subcultures that are often ignored. But I still need to build a platform for those essays to matter. To post in Notes and on external social channels and hope that someone sees that, clicks my name, reads my work, enjoys it, hits subscribe, and reads it again.
I’m also finding that a lot of readers in my life don’t use Substack or know what it is. They don’t have the app, they don’t care to discover publications, or use Notes, or otherwise feel compelled to interact publicly. I think there’s a lot of writers talking to other writers here, which is wonderful, but unsustainable. To echo some other commenters -- keeping up with reading and writing and still working a job that pays the bills is a lot. Plus, some of the joyful parts of reading get lost when we read with a part of our mind wondering if this is a post we should engage with, and if engaging will be authentic or self-promotional. It’s still the best place I’ve found to write, but I don’t think it democratizes the process for writers or connects readers (who aren’t writers) with content the way it purports to.
Every time I find an author who writes about something they are interested in, I get excited, it energizes me so much. It's not hard to find them, it's so easy, it's amazing. And you're absolutely right, there's no time for everything: working, writing articles, and reading them. And also, the authors you are interested in may not be few, and they publish their articles quite often. That said, I really love Substack, it's given me so much, and I've found so many great authors.
As someone who’s always played the role of “behind the writer,” Substack has given me a gift that is difficult not to gobble up. Readers interacting meaningfully with my writing feeds a need from a very young part inside me: people want to talk about something I am interested in?! I could swim in that goodness all day.
But I am also aware of the importance of pacing. Even now, as I’m typing this, my daughter, who is almost 15 months old, is engaging in a habit that seems to keep cropping up: if I put too much food in front of her, within a few minutes, she starts wildly flinging it across the room with her hands. Only to then look at me and say “more.” But if I remove the majority of her food and only offer small, hand-sized portions to choose from, she relaxes and is able to feed herself without working into a frenzy.
All this to say, you’re wise to remind us that slow and steady is the only way through the gauntlet of being a writer and writing in the age of internet chaos. Without that steadiness and care of self, I’m convinced we’ll lose access to the writers who nourish us the most.
Haha I have never taken such wise lessons from my son's food-throwing tendencies...so good.
Oof, what a good word. “Steadiness and care of self”, I love that.
Me too.
What a sweet and funny story with your daughter, more! And you are absolutely right, the slow and steady way is effective now.
Hahaha more
It’s funny to me that Substack, even when I first joined not too long ago, felt like an “escape” from the IG and the pressure to produce content incessantly. But now I am just hyper aware of the “slowness” in my slow writing 😅. Thanks for being real here. I love following along.
I knowww, I feel like kind of a wet blanket complainer but the internet just makes me feel so slow.
This is very important to me and something I think about often: “We need to be vigilant about how our message is being shaped by our medium, and watch for signs that that shaping is changing our voice beyond our recognition.” 🔥🙌
I feel I'm SO susceptible to being shaped, which has led me to basically swear off almost all social media. There are many pros and cons to this approach. Since I really want to be on Substack, I'm doing it with a certain hypervigilance. I'm glad this sentence resonated, and encouraged that others are thinking about it too!
I love what you’ve written. I think that awareness is really wise. I noticed it earlier this year, as I am more online now, when I realized I had an instagram voice that was leaking over into my writing of fiction. Which was preventing me from being brutal and honest, since IG is obviously more friendly, conversational, and cutesy than fiction usually is haha. Thankfully I noticed it 😩
Yes, I absolutely agree with you. I often think about it, too.
I really appreciate the honesty and frankness of your consideration here. It brings up a lot of questions for me which I hadn’t even considered, mostly I suppose because I’m holding this whole Substack thing very loosely. I’m not sure whether that’s a good approach or not but your essay makes me realize that’s what I’m doing. I’m grateful for this moment on Substack; I don’t take it for granted and I don’t count it lasting, or at least it won’t remain as it is. A few months before joining Substack, I let go of a lifelong dream of being a writer. I write now, true, but I let go of *being a writer* as part of my identity. I think that may be part of it. If there’s a threshold I’m hungry to reach it’s that I want people to connect via my Substack, I want people to feel less alone, and I want those connections to spill into the real world.
It sounds like you have struck a great balance by loosely holding your Substack. And I love the idea of the connections here "spilling into the real world." It's not something I expect from the internet, but I am starting to experience it and it's pretty cool.
Will everyone please become a paid subscriber here so that Rae can get her checkmark the world needs this please for the sake of the world also she deserves it her writing is the best the world has ever seen the Pulitzers said it yesterday if you didn’t See it go check the Pulitzer prizes said Rae wins for most deserving of getting a freaking checkmark ASAP those aren’t my words those are the words of the Pulitzer people
I did my part. Let's get this done, people.
<3
New life goal: find a friend like Alex Dobrenko 😊
Ya truly, he is an incredible friend
I am here for the capital E essays if that helps. Monthly sounds pretty good! Daily seems waaaay too little too often for considered writing and reading
Thanks for the encouragement, Tess! And yes, daily seems...crazy
Thank you for the honesty, Rae.
I started my Substack earlier this year, and this is the first time I am exploring my love for reading and writing. Prior to this, I had been working on creating a blog; I bought a domain and started building a website. It was taking the time away from writing, though.
Then I came across Substack. It was a game changer because I could focus on writing and what I wanted to write about. However, it's not easy to figure out a niche, and I often struggle with balancing what I want to write about versus what my subscribers are interested in.
I have to agree with you on the platform "demands". Working a full-time job, maintaining a social life, finding time for my other hobbies/creative outlets, and adulting (yes, I am a millennial, what gave it away? lol) with a partner and two silly goofballs (my dogs), while maintaining a writing practice has been demanding, yet I WANT to do it. I find joy in it and appreciate the platform's emphasis on consistency. Currently, I am finding the expectations from Notes to be a bit overwhelming. However, I want to grow my subscriber list, so I am figuring out how to engage with Notes, office hours, etc.
I definitely agree that Substack strips away a lot of the non-writing work of writing online, like maintaining your own blog etc. I am also very grateful for that!
And yeah...when I really want to feel like I'm drowning in overwhelm, and when I'm just really dying to shout and hustle to break through the crowd...I attend Substack office hours 😂
Hahaha! Good to know. I'll hear this if and when I see you attend the office hours
Consistency is definitely something that is welcome on Substack. And how do I understand you wanting to do so much but having so little time to do it. But my desire to keep writing articles on Substack only increases with each like and with each subscriber.
There must be such a thing as "enough" though, right? That's what I want to feel - like I'm doing enough. It's an internal project more than anything, but the incentives on the internet (including Substack, and especially Notes) certainly don't help.
Yes, I understand what you are talking about. As for Substack, I can say that here, without an audience from other platforms, starting from scratch is almost unrealistic. It will take several years to reach 1,000 subscribers. Too little activity in all categories, except for the "Politics" category. Therefore, I think it’s worth focusing on other social networks and redirecting paid content directly to Substack. Notes is a dead section.
Substack is certainly the best home I've found for my writing. Sometimes I write when I've accumulated enough material to want to put it down. Better, I write when two ideas collide in my brain and spark a new insight, but I can't make those things happen to order. While I do write to find out what I'm thinking, and journal for that purpose, I'm not convinced that anyone would want to read my stream of consciousness. So, I find the pressure to perform by generating paid subscriptions through posting frequently and sharing my thoughts on Notes to be antithetical how I approach my writing. Notes have generated a bunch of paid subscriptions but paid by me, not to me! And, yes, I'll be adding this one.
I'm fortunate enough not to need to be paid for my writing. But it would be nice to generate enough paid subscriptions to cover what I'm spending supporting other writers who do need the money!
Hi John! I love your comment that Notes generated a bunch of paid subscriptions...paid by you 😂. That's wonderful! It sounds like your relationship with writing on Substack is ideal. I do think the money part complicates the matter!
Loved hearing your thoughts on this!
I don't have a clear answer to any of your questions, but do have some revelations (and a mental shift!) I came to this past weekend around my identity and future:
I wanna pursue writing, like, forreal.
In a future piece (or two) I plan dive into my journey of fighting to be able to write... And SO much has shifted about my life and the perspectives I have for it after my mom died.
But though I still feel a bit wobbly figuring out the "official" way I plan to show up on Substack (how often? Weekly? Bi-weekly? What am I writing weekly? Monthly? Bi-weekly? Etc.), I--personally--at this moment in my life have let go of all inhibitions around writing and showing up to write. I wanna take 3 months fully showing up how I want as a writer (after my last week-long break this week), and after MONTHS (years, if we're being technical) I'm finally... FINALLY giving myself permission to do so!
And Substack really feels like the perfect place to do so. I'm so grateful for this community. I have some amazingly lovely hype people who are loving my work and writing, I have my first paid subscriber and it's someone I admire and I got her and I am not even "polished" yet... Like I have so many screenshots on my vision board from all the lovely people who're in my community!
I someday want to be able to sustain myself as a writer (who doesn't?!) and I'm currently in a place where I believe it's possible and am fiercely advocating for it...
And doing it my way.
Right now, that's by having fun, caring about my community and this whole ecosystem (I've developed a new perspective and intention around Notes that helps me show up more on it and share and comments with more ease), and *listening* to what I need and honoring it (like the 2-week break I'm finishing up. It's like when I announced I was taking a break from public posting, my brain got the memo too and I've come up with so many drafts and pieces I'm not fleshing out and scheduling).
Like I said, post-mom life has been a bit jarring but I never wanted to stop writing, so people are on the journey with me and are so kind about it. I'm grateful to be someplace where I can figure out how I wanna navigate my newsletter in real time and still receive praise and support. Me taking my break came from just having nothing else to write... I stepped back to heal and observe life more and hopefully I can "batch" some pieces to help me find a stride for consistency, because no matter what, this platform is too important to me to just churn out forced BS because I announced in my about page that I post two times a week.
All I know is that I'm TIRED of placing all these rules and narratives in my head about how things HAVE to be or how I HAVE to show up and I've never given myself permission to just play and see what happens.
Set an allotted amount of time to just experiment and explore intentionally and have fun... and see what happens!
So that's what I'm planning to do for at least 3 months (not sure when, but pretty sure VERY soon!).
Wow Cierra, firstly congratulations on making that shift to writing "forreal," and being able to say it out loud--I totally had that same moment, and it was also after YEARS of telling myself I didn't want to try and write for my job because it would "ruin writing for me," and various other excuses like that. So...huge step!
It also sounds like you are going in with a super healthy relationship to the work, especially knowing that taking actual time off feeds the writing. How many times have I found that I take time off and then come back and pound out the best writing of my life? Yet someone I still feel like I'm "wasting" time if I'm not writing. Sigh, so much to unlearn.
Really looking forward to following your journey at Losing Orbit!
Thank you, Rae!
I'm hoping this momentum and clarity sticks! I'm so glad we both made it over the threshold of excuses and made-up rules holding us back.
SO much to rewire, including the idea that breaks just can't happen!! We must WRITE! I get that completely! Haha.
We've got this! I'm of course looking forward to continue reading your work, Rae!
"Post-Mom Life" was my operative phrase for 2022! 😊 I'm still in "Phase 1," as my mom is still alive. "Phase 2," after she's shuffled off her mortal coil, will start eventually, but when is anyone's guess at this point.
Ahaha, I love that it's an operative and has its phases! I've been saying "Life After" and just "post-mom" but the operative angle? *chef's kiss*
And oh, so true. I always heard about people saying a death catches you off-guard no matter what, and it REALLY does! Even if you're literally waiting for it and know it's coming like... within a few hours, it's like "HMMM? Excuse me?! They've passed??"
Life is such a wild ride.
Thank you for this discussion, Rae. I’m struggling to find my cadence, or meet it, and I promised myself when I started Armchair Rebel that I would keep going, and not let the perfect be the enemy of good. I find ‘streaks’ very demotivating, but your metaphor of one page at a time building up is exactly what I hope for, apart from a magical recovery of full health and an ability to go deep in command to produce a brilliant essay each week and be respected and beloved...
Lol yes, just a few small, realistic goals...mine are similar :)
Great post, thank you Rae. One of the things I really appreciate about Substack is finding writers like you who are honest about these human tangles and who inspire me to stay true to The Writing rather than chasing the likes. The likes feel so good though... 😉 I had to get off Notes because it was sucking me in and I don't have the will power. Part of my journey here since I landed in Jan has been redoubling my devotion to words and to making offerings, and letting the rest go as best I can. A constant work in progress, but a transferable skill I think! 🙏🏻
And, oh god. Moments after saying I gave up Notes in the comment above I went on Notes to thank someone who'd shared my last article. Argh.
Hahaha I can SO relate.
“But even if I’m not posting daily, then I’m definitely feeling bad daily about not posting daily.” Haha love this!
Honestly, I have yet to experience any conflict on this platform between being myself/doing what I want and the demands of the platform itself. I feel it actually supports and rewards people who truly do their own thing and on their own terms, regardless of how it lands.
😀 Definitely a strong phrase. So true and so close to my heart.
You're right, Substacle is very author friendly, that's what gets me about it.
So true!
Wow, this is exactly how I’ve been feeling lately. I just started my page a few months ago and finding that balance has been a little difficult. It’s so nice to know that someone else feels the same! Thank you so much for sharing!
Love the comments. I made a commitment to publish one piece a week. I have nearly given up because I am so slow. Thanks for the validation that it’s OK to be a slow writer.
This is so relatable. I want the orange checkmark, to climb the leaderboards. But I also want to keep ease in it all. And to work at a leisurely pace. For me that means aiming for weekly, but allowing myself to skip a week whenever I want. Still, I do feel pressure to also have threads and all the other paid things. And I’m still figuring out how much of that I want to do.
I understand your desire to do well without it being so onerous. I want the same thing. I want to always be able to take a break and rest if things get hard.
Is there such a thing as leisurely ambition? Let's go for that 🤓
I’m here for leisurely ambition!
Anything is possible. 😀
Thanks for writing this! I think a lot of us echo your thoughts and experiences. One of the things I’ve been thinking about is how much of writing as a profession has nothing to do with writing, but with marketing, promotion, social media engagement, etc. There’s a constant battle to get your work in front of people who will subscribe and share (and maybe even pay!), and all that takes away from the actual writing. The thing I love most about Substack is that I can find great writers who are writing about whatever topic suits them, even if it’s not commercially viable. I can also write about what suits me, which often means shedding light on issues and subcultures that are often ignored. But I still need to build a platform for those essays to matter. To post in Notes and on external social channels and hope that someone sees that, clicks my name, reads my work, enjoys it, hits subscribe, and reads it again.
I’m also finding that a lot of readers in my life don’t use Substack or know what it is. They don’t have the app, they don’t care to discover publications, or use Notes, or otherwise feel compelled to interact publicly. I think there’s a lot of writers talking to other writers here, which is wonderful, but unsustainable. To echo some other commenters -- keeping up with reading and writing and still working a job that pays the bills is a lot. Plus, some of the joyful parts of reading get lost when we read with a part of our mind wondering if this is a post we should engage with, and if engaging will be authentic or self-promotional. It’s still the best place I’ve found to write, but I don’t think it democratizes the process for writers or connects readers (who aren’t writers) with content the way it purports to.
Every time I find an author who writes about something they are interested in, I get excited, it energizes me so much. It's not hard to find them, it's so easy, it's amazing. And you're absolutely right, there's no time for everything: working, writing articles, and reading them. And also, the authors you are interested in may not be few, and they publish their articles quite often. That said, I really love Substack, it's given me so much, and I've found so many great authors.