Love the idea of trying it by writing a letter a week! Maybe I need to write more letters to friends and myself. After reading The Correspondent I also feel like buying some cottony stationery and a good pen and working on my handwriting skills.
You make this goal to write on Substack so reachable. Can I commit to one piece a month? The first thing that came to mind is how the natural world has saved my soul in the last few months and will continue to do so in this lifetime. So glad to hear you had blast at the book festival.
This is all such good advice - it can be so easy to forget that you have to find the thing you actually want to write about (and how you want to write it) vs just following a formula that seems to “work” for others. I’m so conflicted about substack - it seems like an easy way to become visible as a writer, but I also fear it just adds to what is already really noisy and saturated (and worse, would be distracting from what I really want to do, which is write the books). What advice would you give to someone just starting out - focus on the most important thing, or think about all the writing as contributing to each other, or something else?
Focus on writing the most important thing! I think Substack is interesting and fun and I have discovered a lot of new writers here but I never let any of that get in the way of the most important thing for me, which is writing my books. I sat down decided how many posts I wanted to do and how that would fit in with working on my novels and I stick to that. I wouldn't worry about things being noisy; that's like saying there are too many books in the world already, why write another. Write if you wanna, baby! (I also don't know if it's necessarily "easy" to become visible on here, FWIW.)
Thanks so much, Jami! I hope you know how much your community appreciates all the time you spend with us <3. (and yes- sorry I know it's not easy to get an audience! I meant to at least feel like you're publishing something regularly vs working on a project that takes years and years of solo time)
This is perfect timing as I’m doing to finally launch my Substack this week! I’m really loving the platform and can wait to share on it! Also I’m grateful you said yes to the recording! I’m going to plan to attend live and a recording always makes me feel better! Thank you!!!
Yeah I'm sorry I didn't have that all figured out before I launched but I've never done this before. I'm glad people were willing to roll with me on it. And glad you'll be there! :)
Sigh. I can't get people to read what I write and publish occasionally (poetry, nonfiction), much less a weekly letter. Trying to build a following on Substack feels like a fool's errand these days.
For sure I make no promises!! These are just things that have worked for me. Also it took me many years to build an audience. But anyway I am going to link to one of your books below so people can check it out! Your stuff looks cool! https://akinogapress.com/books/healingwhereyouare
Love the idea of trying it by writing a letter a week! Maybe I need to write more letters to friends and myself. After reading The Correspondent I also feel like buying some cottony stationery and a good pen and working on my handwriting skills.
I mean that’s how I write these letters, I just think of them as writing a letter to a friend. (Even if I don’t know everyone who is receiving it!)
You make this goal to write on Substack so reachable. Can I commit to one piece a month? The first thing that came to mind is how the natural world has saved my soul in the last few months and will continue to do so in this lifetime. So glad to hear you had blast at the book festival.
This is all such good advice - it can be so easy to forget that you have to find the thing you actually want to write about (and how you want to write it) vs just following a formula that seems to “work” for others. I’m so conflicted about substack - it seems like an easy way to become visible as a writer, but I also fear it just adds to what is already really noisy and saturated (and worse, would be distracting from what I really want to do, which is write the books). What advice would you give to someone just starting out - focus on the most important thing, or think about all the writing as contributing to each other, or something else?
Focus on writing the most important thing! I think Substack is interesting and fun and I have discovered a lot of new writers here but I never let any of that get in the way of the most important thing for me, which is writing my books. I sat down decided how many posts I wanted to do and how that would fit in with working on my novels and I stick to that. I wouldn't worry about things being noisy; that's like saying there are too many books in the world already, why write another. Write if you wanna, baby! (I also don't know if it's necessarily "easy" to become visible on here, FWIW.)
Thanks so much, Jami! I hope you know how much your community appreciates all the time you spend with us <3. (and yes- sorry I know it's not easy to get an audience! I meant to at least feel like you're publishing something regularly vs working on a project that takes years and years of solo time)
This is perfect timing as I’m doing to finally launch my Substack this week! I’m really loving the platform and can wait to share on it! Also I’m grateful you said yes to the recording! I’m going to plan to attend live and a recording always makes me feel better! Thank you!!!
Yeah I'm sorry I didn't have that all figured out before I launched but I've never done this before. I'm glad people were willing to roll with me on it. And glad you'll be there! :)
Sigh. I can't get people to read what I write and publish occasionally (poetry, nonfiction), much less a weekly letter. Trying to build a following on Substack feels like a fool's errand these days.
For sure I make no promises!! These are just things that have worked for me. Also it took me many years to build an audience. But anyway I am going to link to one of your books below so people can check it out! Your stuff looks cool! https://akinogapress.com/books/healingwhereyouare
You are a writer’s writer, friend. Thank you.