As I near a year of publishing on Substack, I wonder what it is that motivated me to keep writing past my usual slump on other platforms. There’s an invigorating energy emanating from the service, and I’m like a surfer paddling to gain enough momentum to ride the wave. Or, more likely, I’ve conquered some doubts about what I want to do and the coincidental timing of finding a platform I like has created a perfect storm of opportunity.
Either way, we are out here together battling the choppy surf, or relaxing our feet in the sand (you can tell I just got back from vacation). I’m curious, what do you find to be the largest boon to your experience on Substack? And what is hampering your ability to break out of a rut? Maybe we can share knowledge or brainstorm a fix. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts! ~ WM
Before joining the Storyletter I was hesitant to join substack. I have been posting blogs for the past few years, mainly lore entries for the CORE, but since we have gotten to collaborate a bit more, you've inspired me to begin growing here.
I'm still figuring out how the formatting works here and but I'm sure with more practice I'll get the hang of it. But for sure, what I want is to collaborate, contribute, and continue to watch the Storyletter expand along with the CORE!
You’re doing a spectacular job on this platform, Winston. I enjoy this community you’re building and I think you’re doing a great job curating the content and being innovative in the way you’re developing the area you’ve carved out for yourself.
I personally prefer the app, because I’m finding it easy to use, and logging into it has become a new daily routine for me, whereas I didn’t go to the website except maybe once a week before I learned about the app. The app makes it really easy to like and comment on posts. And I enjoy the quality and thoughtfulness of the posts members of the community are contributing to your substack.
The email delivery issue I was having seems to have been resolved. I use gmail and it was simply a matter of teaching Google to not mark incoming emails from Substack as advertising. I did this by moving these emails out of the advertising folder and putting them back into the Inbox. Now I’m getting all the emails from both Substack and the Storyletter.
I'm glad to hear you're feeling enthusiastic about your first year!
For myself, what I most like about the platform is that I don't have to do the heavy lifting of creating/transferring email lists, etc. That stuff happens organically and I can just publish and send to subscribers seamlessly. That was something I never mastered with the blog/contact form on my website, for example. Scheduling posts in advance is also really handy for me.
I like that it seems to be a relatively welcoming, open community that, from what I've seen in my (admittedly limited exposure), refrains from a lot of the unpleasantness out there on the rest of the internet and social media.
And, of course, I'm exposed to so many different writers and styles of writing here that I otherwise probably wouldn't encounter if I just waited for people to find my website or blog elsewhere. You never know what interesting things you might find when you step a little outside your everyday boundaries. Substack makes that a lot easier.
My least favorite thing is the lack of exposure on the wider site for fiction writers. The Leaderboard concept straight up sucks, and those tags are less than worthless. I wish there was a better way to organize and search fiction, especially serialized works. Fictionistas is great, but it's not ideal.
Also, I'd like to be able to customize my newsletter a little more.
But, those are pretty small quibbles. Mostly my "rut" is just due to the lack of people interested in my weird writing, which is fine and totally expected. Overall, I think it's going alright so far, considering I have pretty low expectations ;-)
Before joining the Storyletter I was hesitant to join substack. I have been posting blogs for the past few years, mainly lore entries for the CORE, but since we have gotten to collaborate a bit more, you've inspired me to begin growing here.
I'm still figuring out how the formatting works here and but I'm sure with more practice I'll get the hang of it. But for sure, what I want is to collaborate, contribute, and continue to watch the Storyletter expand along with the CORE!
You’re doing a spectacular job on this platform, Winston. I enjoy this community you’re building and I think you’re doing a great job curating the content and being innovative in the way you’re developing the area you’ve carved out for yourself.
I personally prefer the app, because I’m finding it easy to use, and logging into it has become a new daily routine for me, whereas I didn’t go to the website except maybe once a week before I learned about the app. The app makes it really easy to like and comment on posts. And I enjoy the quality and thoughtfulness of the posts members of the community are contributing to your substack.
The email delivery issue I was having seems to have been resolved. I use gmail and it was simply a matter of teaching Google to not mark incoming emails from Substack as advertising. I did this by moving these emails out of the advertising folder and putting them back into the Inbox. Now I’m getting all the emails from both Substack and the Storyletter.
I'm glad to hear you're feeling enthusiastic about your first year!
For myself, what I most like about the platform is that I don't have to do the heavy lifting of creating/transferring email lists, etc. That stuff happens organically and I can just publish and send to subscribers seamlessly. That was something I never mastered with the blog/contact form on my website, for example. Scheduling posts in advance is also really handy for me.
I like that it seems to be a relatively welcoming, open community that, from what I've seen in my (admittedly limited exposure), refrains from a lot of the unpleasantness out there on the rest of the internet and social media.
And, of course, I'm exposed to so many different writers and styles of writing here that I otherwise probably wouldn't encounter if I just waited for people to find my website or blog elsewhere. You never know what interesting things you might find when you step a little outside your everyday boundaries. Substack makes that a lot easier.
My least favorite thing is the lack of exposure on the wider site for fiction writers. The Leaderboard concept straight up sucks, and those tags are less than worthless. I wish there was a better way to organize and search fiction, especially serialized works. Fictionistas is great, but it's not ideal.
Also, I'd like to be able to customize my newsletter a little more.
But, those are pretty small quibbles. Mostly my "rut" is just due to the lack of people interested in my weird writing, which is fine and totally expected. Overall, I think it's going alright so far, considering I have pretty low expectations ;-)
Love the miniature Schnauzer pic.