Welcome to the Storyletter Meet & Greet. Please introduce yourself, your Substack, and your current project! You don’t have to be a writer to participate.
After a short intro, let us know what you’ve learned about yourself from writing publicly. Or, alternatively, what is something you wish you knew when you started? Then, try to respond to another member’s comment to keep the discussion going and meet someone new.
Here’s my intro and answer as an example:
Hello, I’m Winston. I live in Utah. I served 12 years in the military. I have a miniature schnauzer named Vinnie. I started a publishing company in order to learn the ropes and help others in the process. I’ve dedicated my Substack to platforming independent writers and creators. I’m currently working on my first collection of short fiction and poetry for a 2023 release.
I’ve learned so much since joining Substack, not only as a writer, but as a person. It’s always a great experience meeting and interacting with each of you. If I had to choose only one thing, it’d be that I’ve discovered how best to activate my drive to write fiction. I don’t enjoy sitting on projects too long. I like to craft something for a bit, then hit publish when I think it’s ready. The perk of this has been an iterative process that has now helped me finish projects I wouldn’t have otherwise completed. It can be messy, as first and second drafts generally are, but if that’s what it takes, then I’ll have to lean into it to make it work.
Can’t wait to meet you, and hear what you’ve learned! ~ WM
I've been learning how to serially or sequentially share my sketchbooks and artist books. I'm experimenting with sharing my paintings here too. I've discovered that I enjoy sharing my sketchbooks and artist books on Substack because they're more accessible than these same works are in galleries or museums. I love working with galleries and museums - but here on Substack it's so immediate, so full of details, so intimate... I think I'm becoming addicted 😁
Hello Winston -- thanks for hosting this great space for fellow writers and fiction lovers. I'm Dan and I live in Carmel on California's central coast. I grew up on a steady drip of fantasy and sci-fi -- it didn’t matter if it was a book, comic, movie, magazine or video game (even Zork!). Like most people, life gets in the way sometimes, but I’ve always kept journals of notes and ideas. Over the past few years I’ve finally started using those journals to write my stories. I'm currently in the final stages of editing the first novel of a gothic urban fantasy duology that's set in coastal California and have also finished the first draft of another fantasy story that I'm bursting at the seams to start editing. However, along the way, I've written dozens of smaller stories ranging from shorts to novellas that I am going to start publishing on my Substack, detect magic.
I've been on Substack as a reader for more than a year now and enjoy its quiet simplicity, but I was also watching how fiction writers and readers were engaging with it. Let's just say this - last week I launched detect magic and I now wish I would've jumped in long ago. I'm still working out the details but it was a relief to hit publish on my first one shot story. Sometimes it's hard to quiet the voices in our heads constantly talking to us - imposter syndrome anyone? So that's what I've learned. Just go for it. No better way to hone you're writing than to put it out there.
Thanks again to you for this community space and to Substack for making it all so simple for us.
Hey - I'm Cameron! Nice to meet everyone. I write fantasy/sci-fi fiction, commentary and reviews for my newsletter Verse. I started writing my substack about six months ago and it's been the best decision I've made. I love the community of writers and discovering new newsletters and I find it really motivating to keep writing and publishing my own work.
At the moment I'm focusing my commentary on transmedia storytelling because that's my background of research. Then I'm writing a series of fantasy short stories that collect different perspectives to tell the story of The Great Fire. Like a lot of people, I've learned to be happy with my work and just get it out there - which is very refreshing.
I'm still figuring out the best way to release my newsletter. At the moment it's twice a week with commentary on Tuesdays and fiction on Thursdays but I'm worried it's too frequent... Some interesting chat here about frequent/infrequent posts! At first I thought the more the merrier but now that I've found so many great newsletters I'm thinking of alternating weeks for fiction and commentary so that it's not too much for readers. But we'll see!
Hello everyone! I’m Shaina and I write Kindling, a horror/speculative fiction/banned book newsletter.
Honestly I’ve had a range of emotions since writing publicly. Until 8 months ago, I had never shared my fiction with anyone. Now I’ve written a handful of short stories and dozens of long form articles for mostly strangers! I’ve felt utter despair, embarrassment, elation, and most of all, realized that this is really the world I want to be in. Not Substack in particular, but in the writer/reader community. It’s made me work hard, take myself more seriously, and humbled me. I’ve loved it!
Hi, I'm Jacquie. I live on a farm in the Hudson Valley with a small herd of horses and an Australian Shepherd named Maisie. My main project is a historical fiction trilogy set in the 5th c. BCE among Scythian steppe nomads. The first volume, Of Wind and Wolves, is up on my Substack, and I'm currently revising Book 2. I have a mild obsession with ancient history, but I occasionally branch out into other genres, and am pushing myself to try more short fiction. Substack has been great for pushing me outside my comfort zone and opening my work up to some helpful feedback.
I'm Redd, I mainly write science fiction fantasy short stories and 'novellas' at https://reddoscarwrites.substack.com . I have been writing for almost 5 years but only in the last year started writing short stories. A whole different game to novels I've found. My current project is using a load of writing prompts that I found over the last 6 months and writing standalone short stories. The idea is to push myself into new genres and topics at speed.
I've learned to be happy with publishing my work when it is good enough. Or in other words I do not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. I could tinker away forever and never share anything. A twice a week schedule on Substack has helped me to 'get stuff out the door'. This fast paced method of writing has taught me how to generate, gestate, and build an idea very quickly. I love the blank page now.
I wish I knew how to leverage social media better to find the right audience for my work. Still learning and trying things in that regard.
Main thing I've learned since joining Substack is that most of the time and effort from doing social media over the last decade-or-so has been largely wasted. Met some good people, but it was all very ephemeral, and didn't really lead to anything useful. Whereas the (almost) 2 years I've spent writing on Substack have felt productive and purposeful.
Talking of which - I write serialised, weekly fiction that I send out on Fridays. Current project is a long-running science fiction crime thriller anthology called Tales from the Triverse. On Mondays I send out writing tips/insights.
It’s so interesting how many different people are saying similar things about their experience on Substack. It’s especially striking, to me, how many have found that writing in this space is re-igniting their passion or else maintaining the flame. That gives me a lot of hope!
One thing about Substack that I am learning is that it moves at a (wonderfully, blessedly) slow pace compared to other social media platforms. I am so excited to spend the next few days looking through everyone’s Substacks who has introduced themselves here.
Thank you so much for this meet and greet. What a wonderful idea.
Hello, I’m Priya. I started on Substack a month ago and I talk about late blooming, midlife, and my attempt to finish my first novel, a fairy tale. Writing in isolation vs writing within a community (Substack) has helped anchor my writing, making it more real and me, accountable.
I’m Matt. I mostly write science fiction and horror through a queer lens. I also love a good rambling essay about Star Wars. Beyond writing, I’ve got a cat called Gizmo and an unhealthy obsession with collecting Star Wars memorabilia.
I’ve learned so much since starting my Substack but for me, the biggest thing has been the confidence. The confidence to share my work with out worrying if it’s ‘ready’ or not. The confidence to engage with others on here and foster wonderful relationships. The confidence to share my passions with my fledgling community.
My current project is a science fiction universe that’s equal parts Star Wars/Star Trek/Hellraiser/Welsh mythology with just a dash of 90s Disney for good measure. I’m releasing a mixture of short stories and ‘lore’ on my Substack in the lead up to (hopefully) self publishing a novel later this year.
Hi, I am Alistair. I live in Florida. I have been a civil rights lawyer for almost 12 years and began the process of stopping the practice of law a while ago. I had reached a personal kairos and decided to change my life. I picked up my writing after too many years away and the poetry has flowed out of me ever since.
I have always made perfectionism a convenient excuse for my procrastination with many things, writing included, so I resolved to stop that and started a substack called "Delight in the Attempt" a little more than a year ago now. Since then I have been ruthlessly publishing my poetry and proems and other little bits since then.
My writing tends toward mysticism, a fancy way for saying I am using my poetry to grapple with my fundamental questions and ideas about myself and my relationship with understanding reality. Poems as self-organizing systems are fertile ground for my explorations.
Starting here on substack I have learned to give up my perfectionism and procrastination. It has been freeing. It has also been freeing to have almost no one read my stuff. This has helped my ego to have a more right relationship with reality. I have discovered amazing writers and ideas on here too that have enriched my life and I have met new people as a result of that, for which I am super grateful.
In the end, I am happy to be here, throwing specks of dust into the air to see what I can make of them.
Hello, Winston and everyone! I've been writing fiction for a while, and recently - a few years ago - decided to actually put some work into it and see what happened. Since then, I've written three books (which all sucked) and one that might actually be good enough to publish, if it survives editing.
My Substack (https://wednesdayafternoon.substack.com/) is still barely born, as far as Substacks go, and has been alive for a month and a half. It features some flash fiction work and lessons I've learned about improving my own writing - things that weren't covered in the How To Write books I studied over the past few years. I'd like to keep expanding on that, and eventually build a community of writers interested in improving their own work and providing feedback to others, as well.
The biggest thing I've learned so far on Substack is that publishing my own fiction isn't as scary as I thought. There might be a mistake here and there, but I'm still learning, and so is everybody else. The most important thing is to keep writing, and keep posting, and keep honing my craft. The more I learn, the more I can help others, and more interesting my stories will be.
I'm Leigh, a writer of (mostly) horror short stories that are often set in the past. Probably the main thing I've learned is that there's more of an audience for my fairly niche stories than I thought. I don't have a large following or anything, but it's nice to know at least someone reads what I write. As a reader, I've also started to suspect that my slowness as a writer might not be as much a detriment as I thought. I follow a bunch of fiction Substacks and find it difficult to keep up with the ones that publish frequently, especially the serials. I like to believe my stories come as an unexpected but welcome surprise to my readers. :-)
I'm a US professional writer in Europe for over 20 years now. All of the book reviews, history, literature and culture in my stack (https://christopherdeliso.substack.com/) go, in one way or another, towards inspiring my work-in-progress, a series of detective stories (now halfway complete) taking place in Greece and its near abroad.
One thing I've learned that pleasantly surprised me about the Substack experience so far is how it has opened totally new and unexpected doors in print media (of all things.... newspapers) based on my newsletter research. Projects I pursued just out of a love of literature turned out to be interesting to others, for example, a newspaper in Ireland that published my work.
Hi there! I'm Lori (https://beyondforzora.substack.com), and one thing I've learned is that my short story (In Ruins) turned into a novella and is now actually closer to a novel. It's a little over 47k words, so I'm just shy of the 50k "requirement". I'm going to start the publishing process via AmazonKDP, and I just can't believe I've actually written a book! Plus, while writing this one I got an idea for my next story... so it's time to get started on that as well!
I'm Victor David, once upon a time from the states, now living in central Mexico. Three street dogs and some fruit trees.
I started Substack about 6 months ago and have been publishing my fiction weekly. My intention was simply to have a collection of my work in one place. I have a lot of influences because I love to read. People have said my work is my own genre, and I can relate to that.
The absolute best thing that has happened since I joined Substack is that I've been motivated to write. I was kind of stuck for a while, but I find lots of inspiration among the stacks. And for that I'm grateful. Good community.
I'm Reena and I write https://arrivalsanddepartures.substack.com/ on substack where I typically publish a poem and a photo(s) I've created usually with a pondering alongside about life, philosophy, and my own journey. I've been wandering into short shorties and essays as well but poetry is my first love. The most important thing I have learned and loved from being on Subtack for over 2 years now is that there is a whole universe of thoughtful people out there who want to have open, respectful and meaningful conversations, who like me have also tired of the hysteria, the selective outrage and ideological hissy fits of the social-media-verse. It's been wonderfully enriching and I hope it stays that way.
I'm John. I live in Utah where I work as a sports journalist and an author. My main genres as an author are science fiction and horror. I have published five novels and three short stories since 2018. My latest story, Hollow Planet, is a new release this week.
My primary substack, Strange New Worlds, (https://newworlds.substack.com) is devoted to sharing original short fiction and poetry. I also write Behind the Pages articles exploring the characters and settings of my published fiction. Additionally, I write Folklore Friday articles exploring topics related to folklore, mythology and urban legends. I'm also working on a secondary substack, the Indie Life, (https://indielife.substack.com) that I intend to be a resource to indie authors trying to market their books.
Substack has been an eye-opening experience since I joined and actively became involved on the platform. One key thing I've learned is that my fellow writers can be a source of strength and encouragement in the writing journey. The feedback I've received has given me the confidence to push my boundaries and experiment with my craft. I've grown as a writer along the way.
Hi Winston. Substack has provided me with the incontrovertible and quantifiable evidence for what was once a mere flickering intuition: that I write niche, but that little nook is warm enough and has the potential to be full of delightful furry creatures. 🐭
Greetings! My name's Jake, I'm currently based out of Connecticut, and I am a, shall we say, "triple threat." I'm a filmmaker by trade with a knack for making music and writing fiction and nonfiction. My work on Substack amounts to a single, sprawling project: 365 Infantry.
It is a speculative fiction magazine set in a distant future of sprawling dystopias, hellfire deserts, of hot-rodding, hog-riding wolven warrior. We publish free quarterly issues of 5 stories, each a part of a larger narrative within the world, plus a barrage of paid content and merchandise. The series is equal parts Mad Max, Blade Runner, and Heavy Metal (Magazine, Movie, Music and all).
Working on it has been daunting, and exciting, but the one thing making it happen on Substack has taught me is this: just keep doing it.
The stories I tell are incredibly singular. They are a blend of New Wave speculative fiction, hardboiled prose, pulp action, and dozens of other influences. And having worked on this series for almost two years now (having spent eight months developing it before launch), writing it for Substack has taught me to never let up. Deliver your work on time, polish it to the best of your ability, and don't get hung up on the tiny minutiae. There's an audience out there waiting for what you do, and you have to make it happen for them by hook or by crook.
Hello, I am Scoot. I write Catholic Things at my main substack, the Peasant Times-Dispatch. I want to write fiction and I have a lot of fiction living in my head. I write Fiction things at my second substack, Gibberish (gibberish.substack.com). I've written and am publishing in once-a-week installments my story I am calling Sandbox Earth. The last installment will publish at the end of April, only 3 installments left, they publish on Saturdays. The first installment is here: https://gibberish.substack.com/p/sandbox-earth-ep-1 .
Sandbox Earth started as an idea I discussed with my Dad more than 10 years ago. It has lived in my head ever since, and it serves as a prequel for a larger Sci-fi Universe I am writing and would like to write more about. The premise is an inversion of the classic sci-fi trope of humanity rising to the stars in peace and unity as a planet--what if we took our petty Earthbound fights and supercharged them with the promise of untold alien technology?
Here's a quick (unpolished) pitch for Sandbox Earth:
When an alien spaceship appears in orbit, people are amazed and terrified--when a second ship arrives, wonder turns into disbelief. When the two ships fight a battle against each other, oblivious to humanity--disbelief turns into a race, and humanity climbs over each other to salvage what they can from the alien ships!
===
My biggest lesson writing on substack has been how to try to write a full story on a tight word budget. I've been challenging myself at Gibberish to write 250 word crunches and other writing exercises every week (I'm taking a break due to real life things but i'll be back to it in no time). It's helped me see that snappy cliffhangers are fun but not what a STORY is made of. So i've started orienting my work at Gibberish towards honing the art of story telling. Because everything we write is a story and should tell a story, and that requires more than cliffhangers--it requires CLOSURE. development. Depth of characters, quality prose. It's not easy. Cliffhangers are cheap and fun. Providing payoff is hard.
Looking forward to meeting others and seeing what lessons have been learned!
Hi Winston. This is a great post. I'm new to Substack and thus far have learned that it's difficult to get new subscribers. :) But I've enjoyed the process very much.
I've been learning how to serially or sequentially share my sketchbooks and artist books. I'm experimenting with sharing my paintings here too. I've discovered that I enjoy sharing my sketchbooks and artist books on Substack because they're more accessible than these same works are in galleries or museums. I love working with galleries and museums - but here on Substack it's so immediate, so full of details, so intimate... I think I'm becoming addicted 😁
Hello Winston -- thanks for hosting this great space for fellow writers and fiction lovers. I'm Dan and I live in Carmel on California's central coast. I grew up on a steady drip of fantasy and sci-fi -- it didn’t matter if it was a book, comic, movie, magazine or video game (even Zork!). Like most people, life gets in the way sometimes, but I’ve always kept journals of notes and ideas. Over the past few years I’ve finally started using those journals to write my stories. I'm currently in the final stages of editing the first novel of a gothic urban fantasy duology that's set in coastal California and have also finished the first draft of another fantasy story that I'm bursting at the seams to start editing. However, along the way, I've written dozens of smaller stories ranging from shorts to novellas that I am going to start publishing on my Substack, detect magic.
I've been on Substack as a reader for more than a year now and enjoy its quiet simplicity, but I was also watching how fiction writers and readers were engaging with it. Let's just say this - last week I launched detect magic and I now wish I would've jumped in long ago. I'm still working out the details but it was a relief to hit publish on my first one shot story. Sometimes it's hard to quiet the voices in our heads constantly talking to us - imposter syndrome anyone? So that's what I've learned. Just go for it. No better way to hone you're writing than to put it out there.
Thanks again to you for this community space and to Substack for making it all so simple for us.
Hey - I'm Cameron! Nice to meet everyone. I write fantasy/sci-fi fiction, commentary and reviews for my newsletter Verse. I started writing my substack about six months ago and it's been the best decision I've made. I love the community of writers and discovering new newsletters and I find it really motivating to keep writing and publishing my own work.
At the moment I'm focusing my commentary on transmedia storytelling because that's my background of research. Then I'm writing a series of fantasy short stories that collect different perspectives to tell the story of The Great Fire. Like a lot of people, I've learned to be happy with my work and just get it out there - which is very refreshing.
I'm still figuring out the best way to release my newsletter. At the moment it's twice a week with commentary on Tuesdays and fiction on Thursdays but I'm worried it's too frequent... Some interesting chat here about frequent/infrequent posts! At first I thought the more the merrier but now that I've found so many great newsletters I'm thinking of alternating weeks for fiction and commentary so that it's not too much for readers. But we'll see!
Hello everyone! I’m Shaina and I write Kindling, a horror/speculative fiction/banned book newsletter.
Honestly I’ve had a range of emotions since writing publicly. Until 8 months ago, I had never shared my fiction with anyone. Now I’ve written a handful of short stories and dozens of long form articles for mostly strangers! I’ve felt utter despair, embarrassment, elation, and most of all, realized that this is really the world I want to be in. Not Substack in particular, but in the writer/reader community. It’s made me work hard, take myself more seriously, and humbled me. I’ve loved it!
Hi, I'm Jacquie. I live on a farm in the Hudson Valley with a small herd of horses and an Australian Shepherd named Maisie. My main project is a historical fiction trilogy set in the 5th c. BCE among Scythian steppe nomads. The first volume, Of Wind and Wolves, is up on my Substack, and I'm currently revising Book 2. I have a mild obsession with ancient history, but I occasionally branch out into other genres, and am pushing myself to try more short fiction. Substack has been great for pushing me outside my comfort zone and opening my work up to some helpful feedback.
Greetings!
I'm Redd, I mainly write science fiction fantasy short stories and 'novellas' at https://reddoscarwrites.substack.com . I have been writing for almost 5 years but only in the last year started writing short stories. A whole different game to novels I've found. My current project is using a load of writing prompts that I found over the last 6 months and writing standalone short stories. The idea is to push myself into new genres and topics at speed.
I've learned to be happy with publishing my work when it is good enough. Or in other words I do not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. I could tinker away forever and never share anything. A twice a week schedule on Substack has helped me to 'get stuff out the door'. This fast paced method of writing has taught me how to generate, gestate, and build an idea very quickly. I love the blank page now.
I wish I knew how to leverage social media better to find the right audience for my work. Still learning and trying things in that regard.
Main thing I've learned since joining Substack is that most of the time and effort from doing social media over the last decade-or-so has been largely wasted. Met some good people, but it was all very ephemeral, and didn't really lead to anything useful. Whereas the (almost) 2 years I've spent writing on Substack have felt productive and purposeful.
Talking of which - I write serialised, weekly fiction that I send out on Fridays. Current project is a long-running science fiction crime thriller anthology called Tales from the Triverse. On Mondays I send out writing tips/insights.
It’s so interesting how many different people are saying similar things about their experience on Substack. It’s especially striking, to me, how many have found that writing in this space is re-igniting their passion or else maintaining the flame. That gives me a lot of hope!
One thing about Substack that I am learning is that it moves at a (wonderfully, blessedly) slow pace compared to other social media platforms. I am so excited to spend the next few days looking through everyone’s Substacks who has introduced themselves here.
Thank you so much for this meet and greet. What a wonderful idea.
Hello, I’m Priya. I started on Substack a month ago and I talk about late blooming, midlife, and my attempt to finish my first novel, a fairy tale. Writing in isolation vs writing within a community (Substack) has helped anchor my writing, making it more real and me, accountable.
Hello all!
I’m Matt. I mostly write science fiction and horror through a queer lens. I also love a good rambling essay about Star Wars. Beyond writing, I’ve got a cat called Gizmo and an unhealthy obsession with collecting Star Wars memorabilia.
I’ve learned so much since starting my Substack but for me, the biggest thing has been the confidence. The confidence to share my work with out worrying if it’s ‘ready’ or not. The confidence to engage with others on here and foster wonderful relationships. The confidence to share my passions with my fledgling community.
My current project is a science fiction universe that’s equal parts Star Wars/Star Trek/Hellraiser/Welsh mythology with just a dash of 90s Disney for good measure. I’m releasing a mixture of short stories and ‘lore’ on my Substack in the lead up to (hopefully) self publishing a novel later this year.
Hi, I am Alistair. I live in Florida. I have been a civil rights lawyer for almost 12 years and began the process of stopping the practice of law a while ago. I had reached a personal kairos and decided to change my life. I picked up my writing after too many years away and the poetry has flowed out of me ever since.
I have always made perfectionism a convenient excuse for my procrastination with many things, writing included, so I resolved to stop that and started a substack called "Delight in the Attempt" a little more than a year ago now. Since then I have been ruthlessly publishing my poetry and proems and other little bits since then.
My writing tends toward mysticism, a fancy way for saying I am using my poetry to grapple with my fundamental questions and ideas about myself and my relationship with understanding reality. Poems as self-organizing systems are fertile ground for my explorations.
Starting here on substack I have learned to give up my perfectionism and procrastination. It has been freeing. It has also been freeing to have almost no one read my stuff. This has helped my ego to have a more right relationship with reality. I have discovered amazing writers and ideas on here too that have enriched my life and I have met new people as a result of that, for which I am super grateful.
In the end, I am happy to be here, throwing specks of dust into the air to see what I can make of them.
Hello, Winston and everyone! I've been writing fiction for a while, and recently - a few years ago - decided to actually put some work into it and see what happened. Since then, I've written three books (which all sucked) and one that might actually be good enough to publish, if it survives editing.
My Substack (https://wednesdayafternoon.substack.com/) is still barely born, as far as Substacks go, and has been alive for a month and a half. It features some flash fiction work and lessons I've learned about improving my own writing - things that weren't covered in the How To Write books I studied over the past few years. I'd like to keep expanding on that, and eventually build a community of writers interested in improving their own work and providing feedback to others, as well.
The biggest thing I've learned so far on Substack is that publishing my own fiction isn't as scary as I thought. There might be a mistake here and there, but I'm still learning, and so is everybody else. The most important thing is to keep writing, and keep posting, and keep honing my craft. The more I learn, the more I can help others, and more interesting my stories will be.
That's the hope, anyway!
Hello all,
I'm Leigh, a writer of (mostly) horror short stories that are often set in the past. Probably the main thing I've learned is that there's more of an audience for my fairly niche stories than I thought. I don't have a large following or anything, but it's nice to know at least someone reads what I write. As a reader, I've also started to suspect that my slowness as a writer might not be as much a detriment as I thought. I follow a bunch of fiction Substacks and find it difficult to keep up with the ones that publish frequently, especially the serials. I like to believe my stories come as an unexpected but welcome surprise to my readers. :-)
Cheers, Winston- For an intro:
I'm a US professional writer in Europe for over 20 years now. All of the book reviews, history, literature and culture in my stack (https://christopherdeliso.substack.com/) go, in one way or another, towards inspiring my work-in-progress, a series of detective stories (now halfway complete) taking place in Greece and its near abroad.
One thing I've learned that pleasantly surprised me about the Substack experience so far is how it has opened totally new and unexpected doors in print media (of all things.... newspapers) based on my newsletter research. Projects I pursued just out of a love of literature turned out to be interesting to others, for example, a newspaper in Ireland that published my work.
So, that's what I have for now!
Hi there! I'm Lori (https://beyondforzora.substack.com), and one thing I've learned is that my short story (In Ruins) turned into a novella and is now actually closer to a novel. It's a little over 47k words, so I'm just shy of the 50k "requirement". I'm going to start the publishing process via AmazonKDP, and I just can't believe I've actually written a book! Plus, while writing this one I got an idea for my next story... so it's time to get started on that as well!
Hello Everyone,
I'm Victor David, once upon a time from the states, now living in central Mexico. Three street dogs and some fruit trees.
I started Substack about 6 months ago and have been publishing my fiction weekly. My intention was simply to have a collection of my work in one place. I have a lot of influences because I love to read. People have said my work is my own genre, and I can relate to that.
The absolute best thing that has happened since I joined Substack is that I've been motivated to write. I was kind of stuck for a while, but I find lots of inspiration among the stacks. And for that I'm grateful. Good community.
I'm Reena and I write https://arrivalsanddepartures.substack.com/ on substack where I typically publish a poem and a photo(s) I've created usually with a pondering alongside about life, philosophy, and my own journey. I've been wandering into short shorties and essays as well but poetry is my first love. The most important thing I have learned and loved from being on Subtack for over 2 years now is that there is a whole universe of thoughtful people out there who want to have open, respectful and meaningful conversations, who like me have also tired of the hysteria, the selective outrage and ideological hissy fits of the social-media-verse. It's been wonderfully enriching and I hope it stays that way.
Hi Everyone!
I'm John. I live in Utah where I work as a sports journalist and an author. My main genres as an author are science fiction and horror. I have published five novels and three short stories since 2018. My latest story, Hollow Planet, is a new release this week.
My primary substack, Strange New Worlds, (https://newworlds.substack.com) is devoted to sharing original short fiction and poetry. I also write Behind the Pages articles exploring the characters and settings of my published fiction. Additionally, I write Folklore Friday articles exploring topics related to folklore, mythology and urban legends. I'm also working on a secondary substack, the Indie Life, (https://indielife.substack.com) that I intend to be a resource to indie authors trying to market their books.
Substack has been an eye-opening experience since I joined and actively became involved on the platform. One key thing I've learned is that my fellow writers can be a source of strength and encouragement in the writing journey. The feedback I've received has given me the confidence to push my boundaries and experiment with my craft. I've grown as a writer along the way.
Hi Winston. Substack has provided me with the incontrovertible and quantifiable evidence for what was once a mere flickering intuition: that I write niche, but that little nook is warm enough and has the potential to be full of delightful furry creatures. 🐭
Greetings! My name's Jake, I'm currently based out of Connecticut, and I am a, shall we say, "triple threat." I'm a filmmaker by trade with a knack for making music and writing fiction and nonfiction. My work on Substack amounts to a single, sprawling project: 365 Infantry.
It is a speculative fiction magazine set in a distant future of sprawling dystopias, hellfire deserts, of hot-rodding, hog-riding wolven warrior. We publish free quarterly issues of 5 stories, each a part of a larger narrative within the world, plus a barrage of paid content and merchandise. The series is equal parts Mad Max, Blade Runner, and Heavy Metal (Magazine, Movie, Music and all).
Working on it has been daunting, and exciting, but the one thing making it happen on Substack has taught me is this: just keep doing it.
The stories I tell are incredibly singular. They are a blend of New Wave speculative fiction, hardboiled prose, pulp action, and dozens of other influences. And having worked on this series for almost two years now (having spent eight months developing it before launch), writing it for Substack has taught me to never let up. Deliver your work on time, polish it to the best of your ability, and don't get hung up on the tiny minutiae. There's an audience out there waiting for what you do, and you have to make it happen for them by hook or by crook.
Hello, I am Scoot. I write Catholic Things at my main substack, the Peasant Times-Dispatch. I want to write fiction and I have a lot of fiction living in my head. I write Fiction things at my second substack, Gibberish (gibberish.substack.com). I've written and am publishing in once-a-week installments my story I am calling Sandbox Earth. The last installment will publish at the end of April, only 3 installments left, they publish on Saturdays. The first installment is here: https://gibberish.substack.com/p/sandbox-earth-ep-1 .
Sandbox Earth started as an idea I discussed with my Dad more than 10 years ago. It has lived in my head ever since, and it serves as a prequel for a larger Sci-fi Universe I am writing and would like to write more about. The premise is an inversion of the classic sci-fi trope of humanity rising to the stars in peace and unity as a planet--what if we took our petty Earthbound fights and supercharged them with the promise of untold alien technology?
Here's a quick (unpolished) pitch for Sandbox Earth:
When an alien spaceship appears in orbit, people are amazed and terrified--when a second ship arrives, wonder turns into disbelief. When the two ships fight a battle against each other, oblivious to humanity--disbelief turns into a race, and humanity climbs over each other to salvage what they can from the alien ships!
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My biggest lesson writing on substack has been how to try to write a full story on a tight word budget. I've been challenging myself at Gibberish to write 250 word crunches and other writing exercises every week (I'm taking a break due to real life things but i'll be back to it in no time). It's helped me see that snappy cliffhangers are fun but not what a STORY is made of. So i've started orienting my work at Gibberish towards honing the art of story telling. Because everything we write is a story and should tell a story, and that requires more than cliffhangers--it requires CLOSURE. development. Depth of characters, quality prose. It's not easy. Cliffhangers are cheap and fun. Providing payoff is hard.
Looking forward to meeting others and seeing what lessons have been learned!
Hi Winston. This is a great post. I'm new to Substack and thus far have learned that it's difficult to get new subscribers. :) But I've enjoyed the process very much.