I shook my head. Should I know? I’d been writing for well over a decade, but writing is a career where you never stop learning, which is why I’d paid money for mentoring!

She went on to explain and suddenly I had a word for something I’d been doing for years.

“A container” holds your story, but how?

The situation that holds your story

My daughter really likes like tins. She collects them and then places tiny scenes inside to sell in art galleries. Each scene is very different. A busy workshop. A broken down robot in a dystopian world. A Mad Hatter’s tea party.

The scenes are always contained within the boundaries of the beautiful tin she’s found.

Last Christmas, she made me Santa’s Workshop inside a snowflake tin.

Like my daughter’s tiny tins, a story container is the situation which holds your story. It carries it.

You might weave around all over the place in your story. You might jump back into your childhood memories. Detour around to a movie you saw last week. You might sink inside your head, expressing all your worries and anxieties in a stream-of-consciousness rant.

Inside the container, you can create anything. But it’s all nicely carried by the situation you start and end in.

A situation isn’t a story on its own

Many new writers make the mistake of thinking a situation IS the story. But most situations are only interesting to the writer.

Consider these situations:

• You went on vacation to Italy and ate a really great meal with some locals.

• You broke your leg and had to go to hospital.

• Your parent passed away.

These are situations we might want to write about. But on their own, they don’t make a good STORY. Most readers will think, “Okay, that’s sad/cool/awful, but why should I care?”

That sounds harsh. But in a world flooded with information and AI slop, it’s reality. Readers don’t care about your situations. They care about your story!

What’s the difference?

The Situation is what happened.

The Story is the emotional journey readers stay for.

Vivian Gornick has a whole book on this if you’re interested called The Situation and the Story.

The story, says Gornick, is "the emotional experience that preoccupies the writer: the insight, the wisdom, the thing one has come to say."

What situations make good containers?

This week, I had the very first vacation I’ve ever had with my sisters and my mother.

We went to a resort town in New Zealand called Hanmer Springs. It’s a beautiful little town, surrounded by mountains. The trees, being Autumn right now, are dressed in sunset tones. Small piles of orange and red leaves decorating the paths beneath them. The only reason anyone ever goes to Hanmer is the hot pools. So of course, we spent three days floating around, enjoying the natural springs.

It’s a nice place, but why am I telling you about this?

Well, what if the weekend away was my story container? Let’s use it as an example:

I could start with the scene—my sisters, mother, and I in the hot pools in Hanmer.

Then, I could write about sibling relationships, about why we’d never all been away together before. I could write about not being raised by my mother. About postnatal depression and the impact of childhood trauma on parenting.

I could write about the journey of raising my own daughters with no model of what it meant to “mother”.

I could, and have, written about all of those things in various ways before. But this would be a different story because it would have a different container.

Our vacation to the hot pools would give a particular color and texture to the story. Changes it’s shape and tone.

It doesn’t need to be dramatic

Your container can be any situation at all. It doesn’t have to be dramatic or special.

It might be an exciting event in your life. I lived through a large earthquake a few years ago and that situation could certainly hold a few stories.

But it can also be as mundane as doing your errands.

An argument with your partner, a night out at a bar with friends, a ride in a rickshaw — any single scene. Any situation.

Literally ANY situation, big or small, can be a container.

It’s the grounding action that frames your story. It’s the WHO, WHERE, WHAT. It helps your readers know where they are and who they’re with. The situation gives them a window into your life as the narrator. It lets them get to know you.

You’re probably already doing it in your writing. Now you have the word to describe it too.

Now go fill your interesting tins with lots of powerful stories!

Want to share a story you’ve written?

Comment the link below and let’s support each other’s efforts to learn and share our stories. (No AI writing please—this is a place for human stories and craft).

If you’re feeling stuck, remember there are resources to help:

Five Step Prompt to Story Guide and Personal Essay Course

Subscribe now

Of course, paid subscribers can access the Creative Nonfiction Academy Lessons for less than a coffee per month.

Here’s the Archive to take a peek. Everything from Dialogue to Lawsuits in there!

This is from the Lawsuits lesson:

You are responsible for your memoir, not your publisher. Don’t expect them to protect you or take any kind of responsibility.

There are two main ways people can approach you legally:

1. Libel--they can say what you wrote is untrue and damaging.

2. Defamation--they can say what you wrote was hurtful and untrue.

Knowing that, how can you protect yourself?

(Find out in the lesson!)

Happy writing,

Kelly

Full glitter suit and a feather boa kind of dramatic.

A lot of us writers aren’t happy about the changes, but they’ve happened so we need to change too.

That’s why I’m reconsidering what I can offer on Because You Write.

Can you help?

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Lots of you have been friends here for many years, but if you’re new, hi. I’m Kelly Eden, a writer from New Zealand.

I’ve been a nonfiction writer for over 18 years, selling my stories online and to editors. It’s how I’ve made my living.

I’ve written all sorts! From informational articles about kids picking their noses, to personal essays about ageing. My articles have been read by millions of people (yes, that feels cool and so amazing!)

And in 2019, I was able to make writing my full-time career.

But now, it’s not.

Not like it was anyway. I still had a commissioned piece and an interview this week for a magazine. But it’s not my main job anymore.

In fact, most of my writer colleagues are no longer relying on writing as their main income.

It was hard to let my dream career go. I grieved big time.

But what’s next?

Like me, you probably still want to keep writing, otherwise you wouldn’t be here!

How can we still share what we know with the world?

What do we need to flex our creative muscles and enjoy the incredible craft of writing?

I’ve been reviewing what I offer to nonfiction writers.

Three resources and two Personal Essay Courses

The advanced essay course is a live one and I haven’t run it in over two years.

Would you do me a favor?

Would you take a look at the resources or essay courses and let me know (in comments or an email)…

• what you think you’d find useful and what you wouldn’t.

• If I repackaged the personal essay courses into one—introductory to advanced and all self-run rather than live, would that be better?

• Is there any other types of resources you’d like to see?

  Fiction? Nonfiction? Writing Prompts? A Substack guide?

  A nonfiction book proposal guide?
  An option to get feedback on your writing?

  Something else?

I want to keep encouraging writers to do this thing we love. Writing is important.

Thanks for helping me do that!

Kelly

Then sending that writing out into the world—would I have eyeballs left by the end of it?

Launch plans, ARC teams, social media strategies, audiobooks, translations, ISBNs, wide distribution, royalties….

None of it made any sense.

Like I said, being new sucks.

If you’re new to nonfiction writing, hi! I can help. I’ve been around a while and I’m not into “get rich quick” fake schemes. Just realistic, practical advice on how to navigate this writing thing.

If you’re launching into fiction, we can learn together.

But first, a small request and a warning:

Subscribe now

Let’s have a quick chat about subscriptions.

A warning for fellow writers turning on subscriptions.

People can subscribe to your newsletter and pay you, yay! They’ll sometimes just do this out of the goodness of their hearts to support writers. I love those readers so much.

But subscribers can also contest the payment with their bank and when they do it costs you around $15. You have to give a refund AND pay a fine.

Hmm.

Why would readers do this? Two reasons usually.

1. They accidentally subscribed.

2. They subscribed for a year and when it auto-renewed they got a shock. “Huh! What? I didn’t subscribe to that! I’ve been scammed!”

   (No, they subscribed, but they’ve forgotten.)

They scurry off to the bank and lodge a fraud claim. Sigh.

This has happened several times to me and to many other writers that I know. This is the reality of Substack. You’ve been warned.

A short note to subscribers of Substack newsletters

If you subscribe to a newsletter, set a reminder for just before the renewal date so you don’t get a shock. It’s much easier, and more fair on the writer, to cancel before renewal.

Then they won’t go into debt from $15 fines, stare into empty fridges listening to their stomachs grumble, be forced to eat all the canned emergency supplies, and eventually have to beg their cat to share a few biscuits. (You know how cruel cats can be when it comes to food).

Thank you! Writers around the world and their stomachs appreciate it.

Making a Plan Before You Publish

Now for the meat of today’s chat.

There’s nothing worse than spending hours of your time creating beautiful prose and then hitting publish and getting…

crickets. Not a single view. Not a single sale. Not one blip on the dashboard.

Whether you’re writing the next BookTok fantasy novel sensation or a post on Substack about tinfoil hat origami, you need a plan before you hit publish.

Get out your coloured pencils and notebook…

“How will I get eyeballs on my work?”

1. Finding my audience

You all know the importance of building an audience, but it’s easier said than done, right?

First, you need to know where your ideal audience is.

• Are the people who will read your work on Instagram?

• Are they here on Substack?

• Are they at your local gardening club?

• Who are you aiming to talk to?

This is where research is so very important.

When I decided I wanted to write a romance novel, I knew my readers probably weren’t on Substack, but there is a large romance community on Instagram (bookstagram) and Tiktok (Booktok). There are also a lot on Facebook.

I wasn’t a huge user of any of those platforms, but I picked one (Instagram) and gave it a go.

Getting out there and engaging with your audience is really the only way to get seen in this crazy information-overloaded world. And it can be surprisingly fun.

2. How does this audience find new work to read?

Great! You’ve found your audience and now you need step 2—helping them find you.

Check out how they’re discovering other writers.

• Are they finding them from quippy, insightful Notes or Threads?

• Is certain content pulling them in? Short posts, long posts, reels, video?

• What are other writers doing that seems to be working with this audience?

• Are there other ways this audience engages? Groups, ARC teams, Giveaways?

This can take a while. Patience is key. You’ve put in the work to create something great, so take time figuring out how to present it to the audience you’ve found.

On Instagram, I learnt that carousels (a series of visual posts), building an ARC team who review your book, and engaging in “Stuff Your Kindle” giveaways, were the most effective ways to engage the romance reader audience. They all took me time to learn how to do, but it paid off.

2100 people downloaded my novel in the first month. That’s 4200 eyeballs on my work!

In Summary

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with promoting your work so take it step by step.

Step 1—find your audience.

Step 2—discover how they like to engage with writers.

That’s all. Let me know how you go and what stage you’re at with promoting your work.

If we lift each other up as writers, we all do better.

I’m off to learn about translating my work into Portuguese now for Brazilian romance readers! Wish me luck.

Kelly xx

If you’re posting one-off pieces, or writing stories in Notes your writing can get lost in the void.

You want readers to be able to find your work and subscribe to it. When you set up your Substack newsletter properly, you get a pretty website like this:

Everything organised into one page. Easy to navigate. Easy to share.

But figuring out how to do that isn’t easy. Even I had to hunt around a bit when researching for this piece.

I set mine up years ago when Substack was new. Things are a lot more complex here now. No wonder everyone is feeling confused!

Here’s how to start:

1. Go to your Dashboard (see it down on the left hand side there?)

   

2. In your Dashboard, click on the arrow under your profile picture and go to settings. (See it on the right drop down menu?)

3. In settings you should see your account followed by a box labelled Publications. There is an option to “Create another Publication”. Click on that.

4. It will ask you to choose a URL. Using the title of your Substack newsletter is best. For example, mine is becauseyouwrite.substack.

   This is where you might want to spend some time considering the name of your Substack. I have a post on that here. You can always change the name later.

   

   5. Substack will run you through a few options to import an email list, add subscribers, or recommend other substacks. You can always skip all of these.

6. Then you’ll be taken to a page where you can start posting, sharing, or turning on subscriptions.

   

   7. In Settings (see it on the left side there?) you can edit your publication’s name and details. I have another post about some of the things you might want to consider, such as your email welcome letter.

   

Take it one step at a time. A publication doesn’t have to be created in one day!

You can perfect yours little by little, tinkering with it as you go.

The main thing is picking a name and getting a post up.

Have fun!! And feel free to ask questions or comment with your new Substack publications. I’d love to take a look.

If you’re wanting to learn how to express yourself better in your creative nonfiction, check out my 43 CNF lessons. It’s like a masters in Creative Writing for the cost of a coffee.

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

As we head into 2026, growth on Substack might be your focus. Let’s help you with that today in a manageable, realistic way without silly growth hacks or magic-bullets-to-a-million-followers promises.

We’re not about that here on BYW.

If you have growth ideas that have worked for you, why not share them in the comments? When we lift each other up, we all improve.

My current focus is an Indie Publishing experiment that I’ll be sharing with you soon. Saying that, growth is important for a lot of reasons. You might want to:

• build a large enough audience to create a decent income from writing

• share your ideas more widely

• reach more potential clients for your business or services

• just meet more friends who are into the same quirky topics as you

I like my little corner of the internet with people who write, but if growth was my 2026 focus, this is what I’d do:

1) Publish a fine steak of a piece every week.

I’d think about what my readers want to know or need right now. And then make sure it’s high-quality.

You don’t need to be educational. Contrary to popular belief, success isn’t all about teaching something. (Why do the gurus always insist on us all being the same?)

People also read for entertainment. For beauty. For a laugh.

Edutainment does do well on any social media platform. Youtube I’m looking at you. Most people love to be educated while they’re entertained, but it’s not for every creator.

What readers want are pieces that value their time.

No-one turns up for spam in a can. Make your writing tasty and they’ll come back for more.

2) Format for the scroll

Most people are reading on their phones. You likely are right now.

Huge blocks of text are hard going on a narrow screen and we humans avoid pain when we can. Reading on our phones is something we do between tasks, filling in time, and we want it to be enjoyable and easy.

That’s why format matters:

• use headings.

• allow for white space.

• change sentence length.

• use bullet points (if it suits your message).

• don’t be afraid of the paragraph—not everything has to be in one sentence fragments, but be purposeful with how you do it.

3) Get friendly in notes

If I was focused on growth, I’d post a note every day. Maybe a few times a day.

Notes are like the Story function on Instagram. They let your readers have an more close up, casual view of you and your personality.

Be friendly and informal. “Conversational” is the word my editors always like to throw around. The aim in Notes is to start a conversation. But do it with a genuine intent to talk to people, not just for numbers.

Readers can usually tell when your motivations are off.

4) Share off-platform

Get the word out that you’re here and writing interesting things. Depending on your topic, you can share your Substack on Medium, LinkedIn, or other social media.

It doesn’t have to be extra work either. Reposting is gold. Less work for you and more eyes on your writing.

Go on a wild Copy and Paste frenzy!

Link to your Substack at the end of a Medium or Linkedin post or share it in the comments section. Make a linktree or share your newsletter link in your bios.

There are lots of ways to share off platform.

5) Engage like your life depends on it.

Okay, that’s extreme. Don’t do that. But do engage with as many comments as you can. I try to engage with every single comment on my posts even though it takes me a while sometimes and I miss a few (sorry!)

But actually have conversations with readers, not just “thanks for reading”. They’ve given you the honor of showing interest in something you wrote. Be interested in them too.

6) Fix your bits

(Feel free to use naughty subtitles too)

The little bits matter:

• your welcome page

• titles

• “call to subscribe”

• profile pic

• email headers

Polished them all up and make them effective. Play around and have fun. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Readers want to know you’re good company and titles, welcome pages etc., are one way to show that.

Unless you are serious and intelligent and want to show that. Go ahead and crack out the thesaurus.

7) Test it out

Use the title tester function. It’s brilliant.

Learn about titles too and what makes a good one. It’s quite an art that no-one ever really masters, but there are strategies that work more than others.

Numbers in titles is one thing that works often (although I hate that it does—so boring). We all want to use creative arty titles, full of alliteration and clever puns, but they rarely draw attention. Readers tend to get confused.

Such a shame. (Do it anyway if you want to!)

Subscribe now

If you’re trying to get more readers, which I know many of you are, I hope something in that list helps.

I’ll chat more about my Indie Pubishing Experiment soon.

If you want to help out, my ebook is available to preorder and preorders make a huge difference. You can find it here. Or share it with a romance reader you know!

Happy Holidays,

Kelly

Lori Gottlieb stirred up more than a little controversy when she subtitled her book “The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough.”

Relationships are one thing, but settling in your writing can stir controversy, too.

Inner controversy mostly. If you’ve ever found yourself searching for the elusive ‘Perfection’ in your writing, you’ll know what I mean.

But “Is my writing good enough?” is a terrible question. We really need to ask another one…

Trying to create perfect writing drains your confidence

I have to admit, I cried over my imperfect writing the other day. I’m attempting to edit a romance novel and my perfectionism kicked in.

“What if it’s just bad writing?” I complained to my 19-year-old daughter who is also a writer. “What if they all hate it?”

Her answer?

“You’re setting a really bad example for me right now, mum. If you can’t be confident with your writing, how am I meant to be?”

Kids are a great reality check.

I pulled on my big-girl pants, stopped feeling sorry for myself, and edited another chapter.

Us writers are notoriously unconfident in our abilities. We’re like nervous daters, always worried our kissing skills aren’t quite up to scratch.

Far too many of us are perfectionist and our own biggest critics. We want to be masters-of-writing and we know we fall short. I know I fall short, even after almost two decades doing this job.

But writing (like kissing, I guess) is something you NEVER master. Not really.

Yes — you could be better.
Yes — someone else is better.
Yes — you could write more often, more beautifully, more clearly, more expressively, more, more, more….

But thinking like that doesn’t encourage us to do better.

It’s DE-motivating.

If you want to get motivated with writing, you’ve got to do one thing:

Lower your standards with Mr. Good Enough.

I don’t mean publish low-standard work. You don’t commit to the first guy/girl you find in the pub. Well, sometimes you do, but…

How about instead, get fun and flirty with a bad draft? Get nose-to-nose with what my writer friend Sandi Parsons calls DIRTY DRAFTS.

A dirty draft is a first draft that needs a ton of cleaning up later on. Time for some literary mud-wrestling. You can pull out the editing mop later.

Perfectionism and comparison steal our confidence and motivation.

They make us procrastinate.

Freeze us up.

Send us spiraling into self doubt and editing that same piece of writing over and over, never publishing anything.

A better approach may be to let go and enjoy the process of writing. You can be serious about your writing and still have fun with it.

A trick to get writing

I’ll let you in on a conversation I have with myself almost every time I sit down to write:

“I’m going to write one sentence in this draft before I go on social media.”

“Well, now that’s done and I’m here typing, I guess I could write one more. It’s not that hard, after all, to write a sentence. I don’t have to publish this. No-one’s making me.”

“If I write for a few minutes and it’s complete garbage, so what? I’ve wasted such a small portion of my day. I could waste the same amount of time — if not more — browsing Instagram or replying to people on Substack.”

“And if I write today, then at least I’ve written something. You never know, maybe some of it, one line perhaps, might be usable?”

One of the biggest hurdles we face as writers is getting that first word on the page.

Blank pages suck!

They torment us. They scream in their white silence, “You will never write anything ever again, and if you do, it will be terrible!”

That’s our challenge as writers. Our first challenge, at least. Get something, anything, on that blank page.

Breaking-the-page-in is the hardest and most important thing you can do.

But Kelly! I can’t seem to write anything! I’ve got writer’s block.

I hear you and I’m going to tell you what a writing coach told me early on in my career during a 10-minute writing session:

Just keep your hand moving, even if you write: “blah, blah, this is awful and I don’t know what to write.” Just keep going. Eventually, something will come.

Begets is a great word

Writing begets writing. Just like sleep begets sleep. When you get enough of it, more comes. It brings about more of itself. It’s a habit.

When you write 250 words, 250 more pop into your head. That’s how I accidentally wrote 1000-4000 or more words a day during November a couple of years ago and ended up finishing a 50K word novel.

You need to unstop that stopper in your mind and let the words trickle out, even if it’s slow and rusty-looking at the start.

So, I challenge you to an 8-minute writing task.

I never do writing tasks or prompts people give me online. I’m so lazy. Most of us are. But I dare you to do this one. Double dare you.

Give it 8 minutes of your time.

‘Is my writing good enough’ is a terrible question, so here are two better ones:

• What have you got to lose if you don’t achieve your writing goals?

• What have you got to lose if you do?

These questions reveal your fears. Let me know in the comments what you discover.

Now set a timer. Open a blank page or grab a pen. On your mark. Get set. Go!

Other things to try:

• Free writing first thing every morning. Don’t worry about whether it’s “good” or not.

• Writing in a different genre than you usually do. Try a lyric essay, a short story, or research a topic you’ve never written about before.

• Using a free template from me and see what it inspires.

See the archive here of CNF lessons—from writing OpEds to structuring personal essays to pitching your work to editors. There’s a lot in there!

I know how valuable it is to have an extra set of eyes on your work. I always grab at least four beta readers before I send my work off to editors.

This week, I want to share how I do that.

If you don’t want to read the newsletter, skip down to the bottom to see how you can connect with me to read your work.

What are Beta readers?

It’s important to be clear about this before you hire a Beta reader.

Beta readers are not going to edit your work.

They are passionate readers who give you feedback on what your story is like from a reader’s point of view. They might cover:

• Plot holes

• Character inconsistencies and if they found them relatable

• How enjoyable it was

• Parts that dragged and parts they loved

• How they found your writing style.

Their feedback ranges from a few comments to a formal report.

A couple of years ago, I used Beta readers for the first time as a bit of an experiment.

Here’s how it went:

I hired five readers from Fiverr.

It’s a good idea to test readers out with your first three chapters. This way you get a feel for the readers you find most helpful, and it’s more affordable.

With a little searching, I found affordable readers, ranging from $50USD to just $10USD.

I tested out a selection of readers: from experienced to brand new with no reviews.

I also had three unpaid beta readers.

I found these easily on a Facebook beta readers and critique partner groups. Goodreads also has a beta reader group.

There are thousands of people in these groups, and I got the impression many of them are also writers.

What’s my verdict?

I loved the beta reader experience. It’s definitely a useful exercise to do between self-editing and professional editing — if you’re going to pay for a professional editor.

But I did learn a few things:

• Make sure your beta readers read and enjoy your genre.
  I mentioned in the Facebook beta group that my story was a romance, but one of the free readers who offered to take a look had never read a category romance. The feedback she left was very detailed, most of it useful, but she gave some irrelevant suggestions because she wasn’t familiar with the genre.

• Ask questions and be specific about what you want.
  I prefer the readers to focus on the story overall, not the grammar and formatting. They aren’t editors. Giving my readers questions helped me with areas of the story I wasn’t sure about, and meant they weren’t wasting their time.

• It can hurt to get feedback.
  I’m used to critique — I’ve been doing this writer-thing for over 13 years now — but it still stings when someone doesn’t like an aspect of your story. You need to be willing to take a breath, step back, and consider their point of view. They won’t always be right, but often they are. Remember, if one reader doesn’t like something, it might just be their personal preference. Perhaps they couldn’t relate to your main character? But if a few readers say the same thing, they probably have a point worth considering.

• The paid beta readers were the best overall because they gave reports and read in a short time frame — usually 2–3 days. My favorites were actually the cheap readers with no reviews. I picked them because they loved romance and it ended up being a good call.

• Get them to do a sample read first (5–15K words). Then decide who you want to read your full manuscript.

• Beta readers who are also writers can be helpful in a different way.
  Some of my beta readers were also writers. Their feedback was useful in a different way and they made more suggestions for changes than the others did.

Now, here’s what I always do

I always use beta readers now. When I have three chapters, I send them off to my beta readers to make sure I’m on track. Then when I’m done, I send the manuscript off to my favourite readers.

I enjoy the paid readers from Fiverr most because of their short time frames and detailed reports. But I also use a critique partner I met online, because she’s a writer too and makes great suggestions for changes. I read her work and she reads mine.

The readers picked up tiny inconsistencies or missing parts I hadn’t noticed. They bought into the characters as real people and noticed anything that didn’t fit their personalities.

“I don’t think she’d do that…”

“They’ve only kissed once in three days?”

“How did he know she was new to town?”

It’s amazing to hear direct feedback from the people who would buy your book.

You can feel like you’re writing in a void, especially with something as lengthy as a novel. Responses to your writing are a great reminder of who you’re doing all this for.

Your audience changes depending on what you write. It’s important to think about and get to know them. Beta readers are one way to do that.

Subscribe now

So how can I help? I’m taking a break before I start my next project, and I’m keen to read!

I’ve set up a cheap Beta Read gig for BYW for fiction or nonfiction. Grab it if it’s helpful and let’s get your story on track!

1. Think inside the box

Pretend for a minute that you work for Lego. (Play along with me. I promise it relates to writing).

You want to create a new design for release in Spring. But you keep reverting to old designs: another Star Wars set?

How do you force your brain to be more creative?

Let’s limit your block color palette. What could you create using only yellow, orange and red blocks?

• This is inside-the-box thinking — thinking with limits.

What would you create?

A new safari-themed set? A flock of birds? The pyramids of Eygpt? Mars Colony?

Why it works: Dodging mental shortcuts

We use mental shortcuts when we’re making decisions or thinking up solutions. These shortcuts make life easier for us in general.

Imagine having to problem-solve over every single decision we face in a day!

“Will I open the door with my left hand, or my right, or perhaps I should use my elbow to avoid germs?”

Mental shortcuts allow us to make choices and take action more quickly.

BUT when we want to be creative and think up new ideas or approaches, these short cuts get in the way.

Jacob Goldenberg, co-author of Inside the Box, says thinking outside-the-box and unrestrained brainstorming are ineffective strategies when we’re trying to be creative.

“Using these approaches (outside-the-box thinking) you will most likely end up with fewer ideas and they will be less creative, and with lower value.”

He says, instead, we need to limit our choices and work within parameters.

Try writing within limits

This is why a niche, a prompt, or writing guidelines can be useful. It limits us.

If we say “I can write about anything”, our brains experience choice overload.

Try a writing prompt for 8 minutes and see what it inspires. Here’s one to give a go:

• What’s one topic you wish you knew more about?

2. Wonder and Awe Technique

“I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night. Let me think. Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I’m not the same, the next question is ‘Who in the world am I?’ Ah, that’s the great puzzle!”― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

My kids and I love Carroll’s classic story because it makes us wonder about the world. It turns everything familiar upside down and makes it all look a little strange.

Sometimes we need to do that to notice how amazing our world is — and how strange for that matter!

There are plenty of people on Substack pointing out our wonder-filled world. (Katrina Paulson over at Curious Adventure is one of them.)

Let your kid brain take over for a while.

Wonder about things. Throw off your sensible shoes and allow yourself a little freedom to think in an odd way.

Here are some wonderings to try writing about:

• What would change in the world if we legally had to stop work every 15 minutes for a cup of tea and a chat?

• If your cat could talk, what would be its philosophy on the source of happiness or the concept of free will?

Awe, wonder, and silliness spark creativity. Be Alice for a day and try wondering.

3. Create new dependencies

“A lot of the time, looking for a new dependency gives you a creative idea,” — Rom Schrift.

• What if you combined the concepts of time and fragrance to create an air freshener that changed scent every 10 minutes?

• What about combining writing and gambling to create an article determined by the roll of a die?

Marketing professor Rom Schrift, calls this building a matrix of characteristics of two unrelated products to create new dependencies — I know, crazy terminology.

Explain yourself, Schrift!

“A lot of the time, looking for a new dependency gives you a creative idea,” Schrift says.

When you take two ideas — like writing and gambling — that usually have nothing to do with each other, and combine them, you see new possibilities.

You start to think about creative ways to combine them.

Your brain can’t fall back on the same old thing. It’s never seen this combination before.

You’re forced to create something new.

Combining ideas to be more creative

Let’s try one. Productivity combined with cats (yes, more cats)

• Is there a way they could depend on each other?

• Can your cat somehow help you become more productive?

• They have a feeding schedule, they need attention, you feel calm when you pat them. Could these aspects of cat ownership be linked to productivity?

What can you come up with?

What about writing?

Start simply. What was the last book you read? Can you combine that topic with the niche you usually write in?

• I recently finished a book about Ice-Skaters.

• On Substack, I write about writing.

I could combine the two in an article using an analogy about how skaters build their skills and choreograph their performance for an audience and how writers do the same.

To Sum Up

Creative Nonfiction Lessons Quick Link

I was going to give you a formal summary, you know the one where I recap the ideas, perhaps with bullet points like this:

• apply limits to force yourself to be creative.

• wonder about the world with the fascination of a child.

• combine two non-related items or ideas to form new dependencies.

But that wouldn’t be very creative. So let’s talk about bananas instead.

You know those times you feel like drawing with bananas? Don’t tell me you’ve never felt like that. It’s okay, I’ve got you covered:

Many of you have been asking: “How do you find your readers?”

Let’s discuss that today with 5 Keys to Audience Growth (scroll down if you want to get straight into it.)

But First:

AI slop ~ the most important writing trait ~ change ~ shifting ground ~ glimpse of hope

I have to be honest, I’ve been struggling to write my Substack this year. Why?

Because I run a newsletter based around encouraging writers, meanwhile AI slop eats up more and more space on the internet, squeezing real writers out.

Linda Caroll wrote a fantastic piece on popular Substacks using AI and how to spot AI as a reader this week, which I highly recommend, so I won’t cover the same things.

What I want us to consider is how we respond as writers.

It’s hard to stand here, cheering you on, encouraging you to spend hours developing your beautiful writing skills, when so many ‘writers’ are punching in prompts, churning out slop, and claiming the spotlight.

In that environment, it’s hard to know how to serve writers best. Things have changed since I started Because You Write six years ago.

Of course, change is normal and expected in writing.

I often talk about how flexibility is one of our most valuable traits as writers.

After almost 17 years in this industry, I’ve seen several major changes.

The biggest shift was when magazines went from print to digital. As a magazine writer that was huge for me, but also exciting. Switching to digital magazines was like gutting an old 1950s house, tearing down the dated wallpaper, and doing a full modern refit. It brought life back to magazines and came with a lot more opportunities for writers.

But now, the writing world isn’t just being redecorated. The ground has shifted entirely.

I have some experience with the ground shifting.

Back in 2010 and 2011, I lived through a major earthquake. Many, in fact. That’s the thing people don’t think about with major earthquakes. There’s never just the one.

The first large quake was a magnitude 7.1, centered right near the small rural town where I lived.

I braced the doorway cradling my 6-week old in my arms, watching the floor in the hallway turn to liquid. Rolling like someone violently shaking out the carpet. No-one died, but people’s homes and businesses were destroyed.

Then almost 6 months later, a large aftershock hit. This time a magnitude 6.3, but in the middle of Christchurch, right under the high-rises in the busy city center.

The damage was devastating. 185 people lost their lives. 115 from just one building collapsing. Almost 7,000 others were majorly injured.

Compared to other large quakes around the world, we’re lucky in New Zealand. Our buildings are generally a high standard. We live on fault lines and have built with that in mind, but it’s hard to describe the impact it had on those of us who lived through it.

The city is recovering. In some ways, far better than before. But you never forget one thing: the ground isn’t as secure as you thought.

There’s no guarantee it will stay in place forever.

Generative AI feels like that earthquake for the writing world.

So how do we respond? How do we move forward when many of us have lost our source of income or our hope of building one.

I’m still working that out.

In the last few months though, I’ve had some glimpses of hope.

In a romance writers group I joined online, I heard about writers making $250,000+ a year from their self-published work. Others making a living with audiobooks and finding loyal readers.

I know real writers doing well here on Substack, too. They put the work in, hours of research and quality writing, and it’s paying their bills.

I know others who write as a hobby, finding wonderful communities of readers and growing their readership daily. Readers who care about supporting real writers.

My favourite glimpse of hope is at home. My husband has recently discovered comedy writing and watching him write for the love of it, finding joy in writing, delights me.

So, I’m still here.

I want to stand with you and not give up on this most beautiful craft. Writing is about connection. Connecting to our thoughts, our memories, our history, each other.

Let’s keep exploring ways to connect to our readers.

5 Keys to Understanding Audience Growth

First off, we need to be patient. Audience growth is like…nope can’t think of a fun analogy…I’m just going to give you a visual I made instead.

Most audiences, on any platform, grow in a similar way. There’s a lag stage where you feel like nothing is happening.

For. A. Really. Long. Time.

I call it “Desperation Alley” because it feels like that sometimes (but it can be exciting and pretty fun.)

When you’ve got a tiny audience, you have freedom!

1. What can you do in Desperation Alley?

You’re free to play, so get to it!

When no one’s watching, it’s a great time to get creative and find your jam.

When you’ve got a few thousand eyes on your work, you’re not going to feel as unrestricted as you do right now.

Party up.

Be Yourself.

Aim to produce pieces that rock your audience’s socks off!

2. When the red carpet hits

Different people hit the “red carpet” phase at different speeds.
It’s your exponential growth phase. Fast and heady. This stage of audience growth is quite the rush.

Overnight, one piece—usually not the one you expected—will just take off.

Momentum builds, like that time your dad made you sled down the hill and you picked up speed until you flipped over and ate snow. Just me? Okay.

Before you know it, you’re adding new readers daily. Hourly. Minutely (I know that’s not the word, but it should be, right!).

You can’t force this stage. There’s no “secret sauce.”

But there are things you can do to nudge yourself towards it. Here are some:

• Write pieces that people feel both entertained and educated by. The “Edutainment” combo is a powerful beast. Readers love to share fun pieces that also taught them something.

• Ten great pieces are better than one perfect piece.

  You know the good-old Pareto principle? 20% of what we do creates 80% of the benefits.

  In writing, often 2 in 10 of your articles will do well. I find that idea takes all the pressure off. I can write eight flops and it’s no big deal. Another success is just around the corner.

• Improve your audience awareness. Get to know your readers, even if you only have two of them. What do they seem to like from you? What doesn’t seem to be working? Be prepared to drop something that isn’t resonating with readers. No point selling fur coats if the people want bikinis.

3. The writer’s dream

We all imagine once we get success it will continue ad infinitum.

The pings of “New Subscriber” notifications: the soundtrack of our new famous lives.

Sadly, it’s rarely the case.

4. Reality Check phase

There usually comes a point where the stream of new readers flattens out.

You gain some. You lose some. A balancing out happens. By this stage, perhaps our egos need a balancing out?

But it’s fine. You still have a truck load of loyal readers.

What to do in this stage? Take care of your readers. Be good to them.

Keep your quality high and remember, growth isn’t everything. A loyal reader who’s been with you for years is far more special than 100 new readers who barely open your emails.

I’ve had readers at Because You Write who’ve stuck with me since 2019. That feels like a huge internet hug every time I think about it.

5. The Sinking Ship phase

We all hope to avoid this phase, but especially when you write on a platform, like Substack or Medium, Twitter/X or Facebook, there comes a time for certain common happenings:

• You get bored or lose interest in the platform/topic/social media in general.

• Your life moves on and fills up with other things. A new job, family, etc.

• The platform declines.

But it’s totally okay. It feels sad, but you can jump from a sinking ship without guilt. Even if you’ve been building your audience there for years, there’s no obligation to continue.

If the platform declines and you want to shift your audience, you usually can. It’s often easier than you might expect. Many writers have recently shifted their audiences from Medium to Substack for example.

And if you’ve moved on, that’s okay too.

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I hope understanding the common stages of audience building helps you see where you want to head.

I’d love to hear which stage you’re at in the comments.

If you’ve found something has been working and you want to share with everyone, please do that in the comments too!

Until next time,

Kelly xx

If you’d like to access the Creative Nonfiction Lessons and grow your skills, check them out. I spent a year building the course and learnt a lot. I hope you do too. Enjoy!

I lived in a very small town. The kind of farming village they use as a setting for a romance novel. The herd of cows eye you up as you walk past them to the main street, the shops are 150 years old, tiny and musty smelling, and all the shopkeepers know your name. There’s always someone running a Bake Sale fundraiser at a fold out table in the grocery store carpark and you can’t get around the store without a catch-up with at least eight people.

And then a handsome stranger walks in and…

Okay, no. In real life, no handsome stranger walked into my village store, just elderly farmers. But those elderly farmers and their wives started telling me they were reading my newspaper column.

And then I felt the pressure. People were actually reading what I was writing in the privacy of my bedroom.

The ideas froze up. Pretty soon I was missing deadlines. Then I quit.

I couldn’t handle it at that stage in my writing career.

Quick access to the Creative Nonfiction archive

As I found out, writing a regular column or Substack newsletter can be a fun idea, but as your audience numbers grow, it can feel like a lot of pressure.

Most of us have other jobs. Families. Sometimes even a second side-hustle as well as Substack. What felt like a fun little project when your audience was 0, now feels like another commitment on your already full plate.

And not even one that makes much (if any) money.

An email popped into my inbox today from , a psychologist and couples therapist who writes the fantastic “Cheaper than Divorce” Substack.

He polled his subscribers asking if they’d mind if he wrote a little less frequently than the weekly posts he’d promised. I’m guessing he didn’t want to disappoint or upset any of his readers.

Perhaps you’re feeling the same.

You know what the poll results say so far? 67% chose “I’ll read whatever, whenever”.

Whatever, whenever.

I subscribed to John because I read one of his posts and enjoyed it. I didn’t subscribe because I expect him to be like my daily newspaper, delivering on a schedule.

It’s the same for your readers. They signed up because they like you and what you had to say once. Honestly, most of our subscribers probably delete the majority of our emails and just read the occasional one that catches their eye.

Check your open rates and you’ll see that. Typically, open rates are under 50%.

That’s not a bad thing. It’s a helpful reality check to alleviate pressure.

People are busy. They’re not keeping track of your newsletter and how often you post.

Some writers will tell you there’s a “Growth Strategy” to follow on Substack. They’ve cracked the numbers. Write X number of notes per day at regular intervals and X number of full posts per week and you too can have “success” here!

To me, that stinks as much as the cow paddocks in the village.

Who’s making these rules?

You don’t have to post a note every day. You don’t have to post a newsletter every week. No-one’s keeping track. There’s no pressure here. Do what works for you.

If you’ve got a growth strategy and the energy, go for it. I’ll cheer you on.

If you just want to write “whatever, whenever”, know that your readers won’t care. Will they forget you? Perhaps. But they’ll remember and appreciate you again when you send a well-written, thought provoking piece of writing their way.

Far better to post something carefully crafted and valuable once a month, than pump out hurried pieces twice a week.

Would love to hear your thoughts on what’s been working/not working for you.

Let’s have a conversation.

Kelly

If you’re taking the Creative Nonfiction Lessons, here’s the quick access link.

Check out Defining Creative Nonfiction if you’re curious to know more.

I have a very popular story over on Medium I want to share with you. It’s called “My Life is Very Ordinary But it Still Sells.”

5,700 people have read that story.

281 of them commented.

Why?

Because most of us are pretty ordinary. We’re not celebrities or royals.

We haven’t rescued penguins or sailed solo around the globe.

We live ordinary, sometimes slightly boring (talking about myself here), lives and we want to know that still matters.

SPOILER: It does!

So today, let’s chat about ordinary lives compared to writing “viral” content.

In my experience, they’re can be one and the same. But I’d love to hear your experiences, too. Share in the comments your thoughts on viral content vs. sharing ordinary lives.

This is a longer one, and I share some tough parts of my story today, so grab a coffee and get comfy.

“My stories never go viral.”

I hear this a lot from writers. It’s the ultimate, right? To go viral—Wow! How great would that feel!

Okay, yes. I’m not going to tell you it’s awful. I’ve “gone viral” several times with my writing and it feels pretty great for a day or two. That’s about how long a viral article lasts.

But it’s also a mixed bag, because…

those catchy viruses are all about situation and luck:

• A catchy title.

• Being in the right place at the right time.

• Coughing up the right topic.

• Getting spread around by a pushy algorithm or because of controversy.

You can learn to write better titles. You can research topics that MIGHT be popular. You can be more controversial (if that’s your thing).

But do you know what a viral article doesn’t mean?

It doesn’t mean you’re a good writer. It also doesn’t mean you’re connecting with your audience.

I see terribly written viral articles every day. Some use AI. Some stories even go viral because they’re bad.

(As warned recently, engaging with terrible writing only helps it get shared more).

So…Here’s the good news.

A viral article (or lack of one) has nothing to do with how good a writer you are.

“How do I know I’m any good?”

Throwing the tough questions at me! That’s okay—I’ve got you.

Let’s start with this:

“Am I a good writer?” is a hard question to answer. We can ALWAYS improve. We can always get better.

Also, what some people enjoy reading, others hate. Nora Ephron was a famous writer who many people would consider good at what she did. I like some of her movies, but personally, I couldn’t get through even one of her books. It wasn’t my thing at all. (Sorry if you love her!)

So can we agree to throw the “Am I good?” question away? It’s not useful.

Try this one instead: “Does my writing connect with my readers?”

And if you want to sell stories: “Do editors like my writing?”

It’s all about the feedback loop.

If you have eight readers, are any of them telling you they enjoyed or related to your story? Great! You’re doing well.

Now, how can you connect even better? That’s the question to ask yourself.

If you want to sell your stories, are editors or clients buying? How can you sell more?

Those questions are far more helpful than “Why aren’t I viral?” and “Am I good?”

Now, about those ordinary stories.

“We’ll pay you $350usd for it.”

My first reaction was “fantastic!”

My second was shock. Why would anyone want to hear about my boring life? Let alone pay good money for it. But, over a decade later, they still do.

As a writing coach, I’ve found this is a common sticking point for new writers. They think they have nothing interesting to offer.

Only the best and the brightest

For a long time, I believed life had to be exceptional to be worthwhile.

It was probably an unsurprising conclusion for a young person to make considering my peer group was full of exceptional people. Three were successful musicians by age 16: topping charts and landing recording deals. Another two were athletes preparing for international competitions. Several ran marathons around the world. One became a consultant to the UN.

We were prepped by the adults around us to think big. “You’ll change the world,” they told us.

I tried. I really did. I excelled at university, but I wasn’t like my exceptional friends. By the time I was 23 — married, substitute teaching, and planning a family — I realised I might be fairly ordinary.

A daisy rather than some exotic bloom.

For me, that meant unworthy and I couldn’t stand it.

And then something happened that made me crave an ordinary life.

Losing my ordinary life

I dreamed of being a writer but, like many new writers, I worried I had nothing important to say. I didn’t have dramatic stories of deep sea dives and mysterious discoveries. No Antarctic adventures or secret investigations in the jungle.

In fact, when I started taking writing seriously in my late 20s, I was sick and mostly bedridden.

My health had taken a sharp turn at the end of my short, unremarkable teaching career. Now, all I could do was wait and see if I’d get a normal life back.

Every day, I spent as much time as I could with my 2-year-old daughter, but often I could only manage minutes at a time. My husband became her main parent and I watched from a distance, sleeping most of the day, writing when I could, and drinking my food — a chocolate flavoured vitamin-filled shake designed to sustain me without further damaging my inflamed gut.

Writing my future on a doctor’s note pad

My doctor eventually delivered a Crohn’s disease diagnosis.

Exhausted from the long drive to the hospital, I sat in his tiny office and fixated on his clasped hands, as if his interlaced fingers held the clues to my future: a fortune teller hiding visions in his palms.

“What does that mean? Will I get better?” I asked.

Life at that point was barely life at all. The heavy medication regime left me immunocompromised. Even catching a cold could and had sent me to the ER.

“It’s hard to say. Crohn’s is lifelong — there’s no cure — but it’s different for everyone.”

“How bad is mine?”

“Severe.”

I threw out the idea of changing the world. All I wanted now was something close to normal. A nice ordinary life where I got to raise my child, and maybe do some meaningful work.

A walk with her mom turned into a best seller

I was left with the question: Can writers have unexceptional lives and still get paid?Did I have anything worthy to share with the world when my world had become so small and unremarkable?

There’s the obvious solution: Write about other people with interesting lives.

I love to interview or research people with fantastic stories to tell, strong opinions to share. But I’d fallen in love with the personal essay and, with AI content being widely used, writing demands more personal input than ever before anyway, even if it’s an informational piece.

We want stories that can’t be written by a robot.

Celebrity and noncelebrity memoirs continue to be popular. But, encouragingly for us, the chart toppers aren’t necessarily about exciting lives.

Voted #1 Best Memoir of the Past 50 Years, Vivian Gornick’s beautiful work Fierce Attachments is about going on walks with her mother.

It’s not an unusual story like Educated or Spare. She isn’t a troubled princess. She didn’t live in a cult-like family who forced her to work on scrapyards.

Gornick went on walks around the block, talking with her mom.

So ordinary.

But like she says in her writing craft book, it’s not the situation that matters, it’s the story. Fierce Attachments is about the mother daughter bond, and the struggle for independence.

Memoir’s like Gornick’s remind us that life is still valid if you’re living an unexceptional one. It’s the details that make our lives special. The common, ordinary moments.

The small situations are where we dig down deep and find our stories.

Selling my boring life

Some writers tap into click-bait “confessional” tales to sell their stories, but you need to be wary of the tell-all. Personal storytelling isn’t about confessing your deepest darkest moments —or the hot affair you had with your boss.

As a writer, you need to guard your heart (especially at the start of your writing career).

The relatable stories do just as well, if not better, than racy confessionals.

I’ve made my living predominately from personal essays for 15 years even though my life is far from exciting or racy. Slowly recovering, and eventually getting Crohn’s Disease into remission, allowed me the space and time to discover the stories within any situation.

Often our inner lives (and other people’s inner lives) are far more interesting and relatable to readers and editors than what we do. If you can find the inner conflict in a situation — whether that’s climbing Mt Everest or making dinner for your kids — then you have a potentially sellable story.

Finding the hidden story

Inner conflict is where we find the emotion for our stories, and emotional connection is what readers really care about. It’s what editors want to buy.

I’ve sold stories about:

• being a helicopter parent,

• a pregnancy scare after 40,

• and going to the doctor for a mammogram.

• I’ve even sold essays about friendship in adulthood

• and worrying about weight gain in menopause.

All fairly ordinary things. Things many of us could write about.

There’s a lot of story in what other everyday people think about and worry about too. If you don’t want to share your own story, look at common fears, joys, curiosities, and preoccupations.

If you are sharing your story, remember it’s just a lens to talk about a bigger issue: an example of something your readers are also wrestling over.

• A fear of screwing up the kids

• Worries about health and finances

• Current events that are confusing, interesting, or puzzling.

• Navigating the sometimes lonely world of friendship as an adult

• Facing change, ageing, new life stages, unexpected surprises…

Don’t worry if your life is boring or unexceptional. There’s still a lot of story hiding in those everyday situations.

Some might go viral. Some of them might even change the world.

What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear.

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I’ve been thinking about AI a lot lately and the future of writing. I’m sure you have too. Some of you, I know, have fully embraced it. Others use it to help their writing or refuse to use it at all.

I’m not here to judge you.

This isn’t a piece about whether or not we should embrace AI.

It’s a reflection on our place, as human writers, in an AI world.

I don’t know about you, but as someone who’s been in this career for over 16 years, I’m certainly feeling the changes. More so than in 2020 when all the magazines I wrote for shut their doors.

I’ve lost a few gigs to AI now.

(For that reason, I try not to use AI generated images, but I grabbed this one back in 2023 for a story, so because I already have it—might as well use it.)

AI is changing the game and I keep thinking back to those old lamplighters and all the times the workplace has transformed with technological change.

I’m feeling a little sad about the direction I see writing going.

It’s possible, the type of career I’ve built—copywriting and writing stories for magazines and online publications—won’t be there 5 years from now.

Or it might be.

But I have to admit…

there’s no point paying a guy to light the street lamps when electricity can do the job in seconds.

AI is an efficient tool and I’m more than happy to hand some writing jobs over to AI.

If we want something left for us human creators, though — and I really do — we have to change how we look at our writing careers.

Some human writers are more replaceable than others. It’s time to choose which kind we are.

Stepping down from the ladder

I wonder what it was like for Domenico Basso when he realized he’d be stepping down from his ladder and losing his lamp-lighting job? Basso was one of the final lamplighters still working in the US in the 1940s.

Was he sad or relieved to move onto another type of work? Did he go on to do something different in street-lamp management? A desk-job flipping switches, maybe?

AI proves more and more capable of doing what we do. Our proofreading, news reporting, and copywriting jobs are easy-peasy lemon squeezy.

I’ve done all three in my career and I’m not sad to see some of it go.

I paid my oldest daughter to finish one of my worst copywriting jobs.

Two-thousand mindless blurbs about preschool supplies? There are only so many ways you can make a toy rake sound fun without losing your mind.

ChatGPT wasn’t around when I (and my daughter) did that job, but if it had been it would have done a perfectly fine job in a fraction of the time. I tested it just to see:

"Introduce your little ones to the joys of gardening with our adorable wooden toy rake! Perfectly sized for small hands, this durable tool will help your preschooler develop fine motor skills and a love of the great outdoors. Use it to rake leaves, cultivate soil, or create sandcastles at the beach. Order now and watch your child’s imagination grow along with your garden!”

Yip. Almost exactly the kind of thing we wrote. My client would have saved quite a bit of money if ChatGPT had been around then.

I’m happy to step down from that particular ladder and write more creatively.

Did we bury the muse?

Over the years, raw creativity often gets shoved aside in the face of shiny efficiency and economy. They charge on in with their business suits and their briefcases of strategic plans and take up all the space.

Creativity, in her dream-like movements and quirky outfits shuffles to the back.

Formula writing is quicker. It’s maximum profit in minimum time.

You don’t have to think deeply to write a listicle. It’s faster and cheaper to use a standard formula to create a screenplay. A sweet met-cute and you know the rest…

It’s safer to write a generic song. One study found lyrics of popular songs have become increasingly simple over time and “simpler songs entering the charts were more successful, reaching higher chart positions.”

Creativity is slow, weird, and not always popular (at least at first).

Picasso had plenty of critics for trying something different. Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” was too long to be a single, according to EMI chief Roy Featherstone.

We’ve bought into the play-it-safe mantra because it’s worked. (Or perhaps, more accurately, the publishers, producers, editors, and record labels have bought into a play it safe mantra.)

If we wanted to eat, writers had to cater to those generic, same-same tastes that paid the bills.

None of that risky experimentation business. Eww.

But it doesn’t work now. AI rocks at generic content.

The time for generic is over

We’ve gotten away with it until now, but the write-by-numbers days are, well, numbered.

AI has learnt our boring formulas and standard tricks. It knows how to strategic-plan the heck out of this writing thing.

I think it’s good for us, actually.

If we’re really honest with ourselves, we’re all sick of dull, formulaic writing. Songs are all sounding the same. (One study proved that as music genres become more popular, they also become more generic.)

Movies are predictable too. (My hubby and I play “guess the ending” watching thrillers — we’re usually right.)

When was the last time something mainstream surprised you?

Don’t you think it’s time for a revival? A renaissance. Maybe the roaring art-revolution of the 20s we were hoping for in 2020 but didn’t get?

It’s time for us writers — the screenwriters, lyricists, novelists, and bloggers — to get weird.

A search for humanity

I’m always on the hunt for creative, original writers.

AI can’t write like humorist Jenny Lawson. I never thought I’d be reading about someone trying to find tiny condoms for her dogs’ paws. I love her oddball text conversations with her sister and her re-writing of truisms.

AI would never write something like this:

“The World is Your Oyster… it’s tough to get into and it will cut you if you don’t use the right knife. Also, it’s slimier than expected, but sometimes you get jewelry.” Jenny Lawson, Broken (In the Best Possible Way)

AI can’t give us the gorgeousness of a personal essay like Lisa Selin Davis’s story about finding her name-twin.

AI can’t tell me what you think — you, as an individual.

I want to know how my fellow humans interpret the world and how they deal with challenges. Not in the generic “This is how to deal with X” way AI gives me.

I want specifics. I want to hear Nell Beram’s views on marriage and Clive Thompson’s thoughts on our use of punctuation (or pretty much anything).

I want to feel what others feel in clear, crisp form and beautiful prose. Or just have a good laugh with someone like Jack Tuck and his “I’ve Quit Writing Personal Essays about Quitting Things: A Personal Essay.”

AI, no matter how good it is, can’t surprise, move, and delight me in the unique ways humans can.

Humans acting like humans

If we can embrace our quirks, our vulnerabilities, our humanness, maybe we’ll transform the creative forms we’ve gotten used to? Maybe we’ll design our own anti-formula formats.

Maybe AI is what we needed to push us out of the creator rut–to be challenged to experiment again like they did in the psychedelic 60s and 70s? (With or without the drugs, this time.)

Maybe to have a place among the robots, we need to stop acting like robots.

No more: “10 Side Hustles to Make $1000 Overnight”

Ditch the: “How to Drink More Water and Be More Productive”

Fully human. Off our devices (at least sometimes). Interacting with humans. Immersed in nature. Moving, experiencing, living, buying condoms for our dogs’ paws–things we do best.

What do you do best?

I saw a documentary years ago where a guy shocked me by explaining what we’ll do once the robots take our jobs (He thought it was a good thing).

“We’ll do what humans do best,” he said, “surf the internet.”

I sat staring at the screen, open-mouthed.

He was so convinced we were useless. Humans were better kept in cages than in the workplace, like Hamsters? Spinning in our wheels and scrolling on our phones.

I don’t think that’s what we do best. Good writers have taught me that. One of the things humans do best is connect. Connection is in our design. We connect at a heart level with inspiring music, powerful stories, and very human successes and mistakes.

When you connect ideas, connect experiences, and connect to each other, readers notice and appreciate it.

It might be time to step off the ladder, but while there are human readers, there’s still a space for human writers.

What do you make of it all?

Wanting to explore your Creative Nonfiction skills? Paid subscribers access 43 CNF lessons for $45 p/yr

Both Rick and Benjamin are successful writers with their own strong writing voices—they’ve published books and many articles. But they’ve found a way to tap into the voices of their clients and help others share their ideas with the world.

I asked them to talk with us about what it takes to be a ghostwriter and what they wished they’d known before starting out.

Hearing their very different journeys, it’s clear there’s more than one path into a Creative Nonfiction writing career.

Benjamin Sledge’s ghostwriting journey emerged after proving his own creative nonfiction skills: viral essays, literary awards for his memoir, and a writing competition win.

“Initially, I did a lot of developmental editing,” he says, “but some manuscripts were, well, pretty terrible. That led to conversations about writing entire books or manuscripts from scratch.”

Rick Martinez always considered himself a writer, but it took the world shutting down during COVID for him to realize his true passion was ghostwriting and he wishes he’d started sooner.

“For a long time, I held back,” says Rick, “wondering if I was "good enough." But when the opportunity came, I rose to the occasion. If you love writing, you can do the same.”

Here are Benjamin and Rick sharing their experiences:

Getting Started in Ghostwriting

Read more

A blank page to write. Hit publish and email out to subscribers. Easy-peasy.

Now, it’s a steeper learning curve for writers.

Many of the changes are great. DMs I’m not so sure was a good move.

There’s a lot to learn and I’ve seen the confusion in notes and in the comments. Today I’ll address a few of the common sticking points.

What I’m not going to do ‘cause it’s gross and annoying

I’m never going to give you some perfect formula for being successful here. Or anywhere for that matter. We all get sick of that style of posting. I read one yesterday, not really realizing what it was until I’d already read most of it.

The first third looked useful. Then it turned vague.

What do you think the final third was about?

You guessed it. “Join my Masterclass for Substack Success. How to grow to over 4K subscribers in just X months!”

Ugh.

No-one can promise you success no matter how much money you throw at them.

Some tips certainly help. There are good growth strategies out there—like engaging in Notes. But a lot of it comes down to you.

They don’t know…

• the popularity of the niche you pick.

• how you’ll connect with your audience.

• your writing style.

• whether you bring an audience here from other places like Instagram.

  and, honestly, there’s a bit of luck involved.

I know that’s not super encouraging, but I actually hope it puts the control back in your hands.

Instead of investing in someone else’s multi-marketing scheme, you can invest in yourself. Learning to use the platform. Getting better at headlines, formatting, writing, picking topics…

All good things you can learn for FREE. You know what you need to learn.

And we can help each other, too at BYW. The best way to do that is by asking questions. If you have a question and we find the answer together, it helps everyone improve.

With that said, here are some of the questions you’ve been asking this week:

4 things I’ve noticed writers getting confused by on Substack:

1) Can you make money here or is Medium better?

Which writing casino do I play in? It does feel a bit like that, doesn’t it.

On the surface, Medium and Substack are similar. A platform to write whatever—your favourite eggplant recipe or the latest neuroscience research. Or that time you deep fried a turkey at Uncle Bob’s and it exploded…

But you can’t think of Medium and Substack in quite the same way when it comes to payouts.

It’s possible on Medium to publish one essay, immediately go viral, and get a big payout. Hold up. I’m not saying it’s common. But it’s possible.

It’s also possible to publish 1000 articles there and get a miniscule trickle of coins in your monthly payout. Like a cheap slot machine in the back of a shady bar.

There are ways to win more often on Medium—writing quality articles with great headings certainly helps—but payouts are based on reads, not audience size.

A writer with 100K followers can still have a $2.05 flop.

On the flipside, a writer with 3 followers can have one-hit-wonder earning $2K in a week.

Substack isn’t like that. It’s a long game based on connecting with your audience. Less like a casino and more like placing your hat out for donations after doing street theatre.

Some writers may never earn much. Some don’t even put out a hat.

Others gather a solid paid subscriber base and can quit their day jobs. I’ll be interviewing on of our BYW family whose done very well on Substack in the next couple of weeks.

There are also ways to earn with affiliate payments, sponsors, or by selling products and services. (Just please—for all our sake—don’t sell How to Succeed on Substack Masterclasses.)

2) What’s the difference between Notes and Posts?

Lets switch to a food metaphor—it’s nearing lunchtime here in New Zealand. Imagine a post is your protein-based meal. It’s generally longer, more substantial, and can be emailed out to the readers who subscribe to you directly.

Posts are your tasty newsletters.

Notes you can think of as your snacks. They’re the “Tweets” (when that was a thing). People who “Follow” and “Subscribe” to you might see your Notes. They also might not.

Posts are a dinner party with invited guests, but snacky Notes can be shared more widely, and might be shared with people outside of your subscriber list.

This is important to understand because it makes them a good way to find new readers. A viral note can bring in a whole crowd of brand new friends to your newsletter party.

Let’s get into some specifics.

How often?? Because they’re not being emailed out, you can send out as many Notes as you like. Up to you how many. Consistent note making gives you more chances for a viral note, but there are no rules.

I wouldn’t recommend sending out a ton of Posts. You’ll flood your subscribers inbox and they won’t thank you for it. Anywhere between 2 a week to 1 per month seems to work well.

How long?? I have noticed some people write post-length notes. I can’t tell you yet if that’s an effective strategy or not. Time will tell. Experiment with different types of notes and see what works for you.

I can tell you one thing.

You need to do more than restack if you want to attract readers.

Use your own ideas. Be original and personal. Share your expertise. Share notes that make other people want to restack you! Go check out Notes (under your home page) and see what’s working for other people and get inspired.

3) What’s with Followers vs Subscribers?

There are two options for readers. They can follow you, where they’ll see your notes in their home page feed. Or they can subscribe to you, where they’ll see your notes in their feed AND get any posts you send out.

There are suggestions of people to follow in your home page feed.

Or you can click on someone’s profile.

Next to “Subscribe” and “Message” there are three dots. Under the drop down menu, you can Follow them, like one of our amazing BYW writers who I’ve enjoyed chatting to this week.

I already follow Rebecca so now the dropdown says “Unfollow”.

You can also block, mute, and report people which can be handy. Ultimately, you want your followers to turn into subscribers. (Which is where good notes come in!)

4) To have a publication or not?

You don’t have to have a publication. It is possible for people to subscribe directly to you, which might be a good option if you write on a wide range of topics or if you haven’t settled on a niche yet.

Why would we need to create a publication at all?

Well, unless you’re a celebrity, it’s more likely people will subscribe to a topic they want to read regularly.

Let’s take Lucy and her publication as an example:

Lucy posts about single mothering in her publication. Her description and title make it very clear what we’ll be getting if we subscribe. Readers find that appealing—knowing what they’re getting.

It’s about valuing our readers time and part of that can be done through creating a clearly defined publication.

Again, there are no rules. Everyone has different goals and motivation behind writing on Substack, so do what works for you.

Subscribe now

That’s all for today. As always, the comments are open to everyone, so ask anything else you need and I’ll try to get to as many as I can.

Happy writing!

Kelly

Bet you weren’t expecting that combination today. It’s a useful one for writing, I promise. Stick with me and I’ll explain.

But first…

Navigating Substack

I know a lot of you are trying to navigate Substack right now and I’m working on another post to help.

Can you help me? I’ve been here forever, so I need to know—What are the things tripping you up or feeling difficult to figure out?

Feel free to add any Substack questions into the comments and I’ll do my best to find answers for you.

Those Creeping Doubts—Am I a good writer?

I notice something when I run writing courses or mentor people. They start out feeling pretty confident, then the more they learn, the more they freeze up.

They start to ask, “Is my writing terrible?”

Often they’ll say to me, “Maybe I’m just kidding myself about this writing thing.”

Ever experienced that?

It’s the Dunning -Kruger Effect. You’ve likely heard of it.

It’s nothing to do with intelligence, like some people think it is. It’s actually how we feel at each stage of learning something new.

Recently, I experienced it learning to play the bass guitar.

• Me after my first week: “This is so easy! I’m so talented!”

  (Tells everyone I’m learning bass and imagine I make it look as easy as this guy).

  

• After my 3rd week: “This is actually pretty complicated.”

• A month into lessons: “I sound like absolute rubbish. I’ll never get it.”

  (Takes a break from learning bass)

Lets apply it to your writing journey.

Where are you on the continuum?

That “I don’t know anything” part? It also gets called the Valley of Despair.

Which is where The Never Ending Story comes in.

Sorry if you’re not a 90s kid and have no idea what I’m talking about. But seriously, its the best movie!

The Valley of Writing Despair

The despair stage reminds me of that scene in Never Ending Story with the Oracle.

Atreyu has to pass between two humongous statues with laser eyes to continue on his journey.

He’s not the first one to try. Piles of fallen heroes in suits of armor are scattered about.

Pride and doubt stopped them from passing through and they all got zapped.

Such a great movie. (Did I mention that already?)

In terms of writing, the pride and confidence we feel when we’re just starting out can come crashing down when we realize we have so much more to learn.

That our writing, perhaps, isn’t as great as we thought.

We start to doubt we’ll ever get better.

And ZAP. We quit.

How to get past the oracle

If pride and doubt stop us in our tracks, then humility and curiosity keep us moving forward.

Humility like: “I know I have a lot to learn.”

Curiosity like: “I want to keep trying and see what happens.”

Some models of the Dunning-Kruger effect say we need 10,000 hours of practice to move back up to maximum confidence and competence.

10,000 hours!

If you write for 2 hours a day, that’s 5,000 days. Almost 14 years of writing every single day.

Not just writing either. Learning to write better and applying what you learn.

I’ve been a professional writer for over 16 years, but I know I haven’t practiced every single day. Still a lot to learn.

Unfreeze and take a step

If you find yourself frozen under the oracles, intimidated and despairing, take a step.

It doesn’t have to be a big step.

One sentence will do.

So what if you’re writing has a long way to go? Trust that you’ll get there. You just need to keep moving forward.

Substack is a great place to practice. As are Medium, Jotter, Vocal, LinkedIn. Whatever suits you best.

Or…

Your journal that no-one ever reads. That’s a great place to practice, too.

Where are you at?

Are you confident or staring up at the oracle?

If you managed to move past the Valley of Despair, what tips can you share?

Let’s talk about it.

Which means more time indoors writing and less time painting the house. (Ugh, renovating a character home is such a big job!)

I’ve LOVED all the interaction this week on Substack.

Your wonderful creative publications are so varied and fantastic to read.

Every morning I sit with my coffee and enjoy a bunch of them.

Talking coffee…

One of you brilliantly suggested the phrase “Because You Write…” could have any number of images associated with it and this week, I think this one fits best.

Because You Write….you drink too much coffee and say things only other writers get.

I know many of you are working hard to get a handle on this platform, so we will talk all things Substack more in the coming weeks.

Feel free to send your Substack questions (and any writing questions) my way. Just hit reply or pop it in the comments.

This week’s I’m starting a series “Life of a Writer” with a writing question from Hannah, one of our BYW family. Thanks Hannah!

“What is your process of publishing and how did you get to where you are?”

First, I’m assuming Hannah considers me successful as a writer, so let’s talk about success.

Success is a funny thing. A lot of writers dream of overnight success.

“If only I could get a viral story!” “If only I could land an agent and a publishing deal!”

You know what? Not me.

I Will Never Wish You Overnight Success

That sounds like a nasty thing to say. Why wouldn’t I want you to be successful?

Of course I want success for you with your writing.

Bathtubs full of money success. Fame and Pulitzer Prize success.

But I want it to come slowly.

I’ve seen several brand new writers find overnight success. Their story blows up. Thousands of views and comments flood their notifications. It’s raining money.

Quit their job.

Change their lives.

Buy a house.

Suddenly “famous”!

Great, right?

But you know what I’ve seen happen next?

The inevitable ‘dip’ happens. Because that’s the writing world.

There are quiet months. Quiet years. Platforms tank. The algorithm changes. Your biggest client moves on.

Overnight success writer? They thought it was going to stay golden forever. Suddenly their notifications echo like an empty barrel in a dry well. They desperately dig deeper. Write faster. Work harder.

Dig until their fingers bleed.

They don’t know that you just need to ride it out, adapt, use your backup stores, wait for the rain. Find a new place to slowly dig your well.

Every single overnight success I’ve ever come across? The ones with talent. The ones who had a lot of potential. The brightest and the best.

No longer writing.

That’s why I want something different for you. I want slow success.

How did you get to where you are?

For those of you who don’t know, I have been a working writer for over 16 years.

I’m mostly a “Magazine writer”.

But the range of my work has been fairly wide.

• Ghostwriting for blogs and nonfiction books.

• Writing children’s fiction for English language learners.

• Copywriting for businesses, government organizations, and academics.

• Editing and coaching nonfiction and fiction writers.

• Recording audiobooks and voice-overs.

• Book coaching and developmental editing.

• And many, many health, parenting, and lifestyle articles for print and online magazines.

I started off writing for a local newspaper and New Zealand parenting magazines. One or two stories a month. Extra pocket money while I raised my babies.

Now my work is published internationally—Insider, Yahoo!Life, Mamamia Australia…

How did you choose what kind of writing to do?

Ever tried following GPS without putting in a destination? Of course not.

You need to know where you’re going.

It’s the same with writing. Most of us aren’t clear when we start out. I certainly wasn’t.

I wanted to be a children’s writer.

Then I wanted to be a “serious” novelist. You know, the literary kind with a Pulitzer slapped on my cover page.

Yeah, lol. I know.

I made some semi-successful attempts to achieve those goals. But it never fit well with my lifestyle or my personality. In the end, all those hours writing poetic prose on my lonesome became frustrating.

I actually enjoy writing shorter pieces.

I LIKE working with editors. I LIKE getting paid every 1K words or so.

I stuffed the 80,000 word unfinished manuscript in a red-lidded box deep in my wardrobe and embraced my new GPS destination.

My goal became:

Write articles and get paid for them.

Eventually, my magazine work of “3 Ways to Entertain Your Toddler on a Rainy Day” expanded.

I started writing essays.

What’s the deal with being an essayist?

“The essayist must be content in his self-imposed role of second-class citizen. A writer who has his sights trained on the Nobel Prize or other earthly triumphs had best write a novel, a poem, or a play, and leave the essayist to ramble about, content with living a free life and enjoying the satisfactions of a somewhat undisciplined existence.”

— E.B. White

Isn’t that a great quote?!

Recently, I’ve drifted closer to the title of “essayist” than writer.

It wasn’t intentional. I just fell in love with creative nonfiction over the years.

In terms of financial gain, this is both good and bad. For me, essays have had some of the biggest payouts, but other types of writing—such as copywriting and service pieces—provide much more consistent work.

If consistent work is what you’re looking for, develop your journalistic and ghostwriting skills.

• interviewing

• researching

• pitching editors with ideas/finding clients

• following trends to jump on new story ideas

• writing about a niche topic: beauty, tech, politics, fishing, wine

If creativity and self-expression is what you’re craving—you’ll probably fall in love with creative nonfiction too.

Why not both?

I’ve always done both. Service pieces support my time writing essays.

If you long for that Nobel Prize, write a great book or a become an investigative journalist. But I’m assuming for most of us here, creative expression, and perhaps payment for what we do, is enough.

What does Slow Success look like?

To me, success is being paid for my writing. Full stop.

But success is also some of those lovely moments where no money is exchanged. Viral pieces are exciting, but some of my favorite successes have been quiet ones.

• Getting an interview published in a book. (I’m in Atlas Obscura!)

• Becoming a staff writer for a print magazine.

• Winning small writing contests and being asked to be on the judging panel for others.

• Being contacted to read my story on two podcasts and having the hosts discuss it.

• When a reader sends you an email or comment saying how much a piece meant to them.

Overnight success is a fireworks display that burns out quickly.

Slow success is the soft lamplight by your bed: reliable, comforting, useful.

That’s the kind of success I wish for you.

Happy writing!

Kelly xx

There’s been a boost in BYW paid subscribers lately. Thank you!

Paid subscriptions are for those of you who want to support this newsletter and access bonus writing lessons and the subscriber Q&A chat.

The 42 locked lessons were created as part of a Creative Nonfiction course and are much more in depth than the usual weekly newsletters.

Here’s the list of archives. (Check it out! CNF is so much more than you think!)

If you want some extra something something to browse and learn—or just really feel like being supportive of this community—you can switch to a paid subscription for a month or a year here:

But first…

(because we have a lot of new people) I want to share what BYW is about.

This is a supportive writing community and I’m certainly not the only one here with experience or knowledge to share.

Always feel free to share in the comments—that way we learn together.

Yes, even the new writers. If you’re wondering about/struggling with something, it’s likely someone else is too. And if you’ve learnt something cool, let us know!

Ask. Share. Learn. Encourage.

Writers are not competitors (even if it feels like that at times). What we ARE competing with is YouTube, social media, and Netflix.

Writing is the introverted cousin sitting in the corner at a loud media party.

We all have more fun when we bunch up and dance with our sparkliest essays.

That’s what we’re doing here. Learning where and how we can make our writing dance.

Sometimes that means talking about Substack or Jotter or Medium. Sometimes it means talking about how to write better personal essays or what a service piece is.

We can talk about making money if we want, but in an honest, realistic way.

I hope you’re here Because You Write. That’s why I am.

Now, on with the Substack tricks.

5 Simple Changes to Make Your Substack Better

Last week, I gave the BYW home page a mini-makeover.

(I love the colours.)

From last week’s newsletter response, many of you are creating your own Substacks.

I wanted to share some simple tweaks you can do to make it look more professional and appealing.

If you haven’t started one yet, check out last week’s letter:

3 Things To Avoid When Starting on Substack.

1. Update Your Logo

I jumped onto Canva (for free) and made a custom square image 256 x 256 pixels.

A free picture of a pen and the initials of BYW and dah-dah! New logo.

You can change it under your Dashboard, in Settings.

Check out some other Substack logos:

Culture Study —Anne Helen Peterson

Blocked and Reported—Jesse Singal

Bold Brush—Angela Agosto (an art Substack)

and this really cute one by Webworm with David Farrier

A lot of people use a pic of their face. That’s fine too. Just not quite as exciting.

2. Personalise Your Header

I didn’t even realise you could do this until I joined a Substack with a very pretty header. As soon as I saw it, I was like, “I want that!”

So back to Canva. (Needs to be at least 1344 x 256 pixels). Make your customised text box and pop in what appeals.

You can test them out as you make them in Settings under Branding.

Here are some other people’s headers:

DrawTogether with WendyMac

The Hyphen —Emma Gannon

The Grim Historian—Carlyn Beccia

Isn’t that one fantastic! (Carlyn is an illustrator. Slight advantage.)

3. Update You

Sadly, we can’t stay in a time-bubble. We age. Our profile pics don’t.

You can decide whether that matters. To me it did. I don’t want to jump on a Zoom call and scare you by looking completely different from what you’re expecting.

In this humongous size, the photo quality and colour look awful—don’t judge—but small it’s perfect. Light and bright and me at the age I actually am.

See what I mean about when it’s small!

I talked about profile pics in my writing group and my friend (who has a great Substack called Thrive, by the way) recommended updating every 6 months.

My last profile photo was done four years ago. Oops.

I think every couple of years would be fine. You don’t want to end up with a 20-year-old profile pic. It almost feels painful to update it then.

Remember to update it in your About and Welcome pages too (at least 600x 600 pixels).

4. Customise Your Skip Button

Mine says, “Let me sneak a peek first”. Very silly, I know.

I used to have “Let me read it first” but I got bored.

I’ve also seen “I’d rather poke my eyes out with rocks.”

Get creative. It’s in Settings under Welcome Page.

5. Check out who else is in your category

Did you know you can explore top publications by category and see how yours compares to other similar Substacks?

Here’s culture for example. Scroll down that page and you’ll see a whole list of categories. Everything from Tech to Education to Fiction.

Notice there’s no Writing category. Another reason not to write about writing. Why do I do it? Sigh. Learn from me and choose something more juicy.

Have fun and share your Substacks and Substack tips in the comments.

Kelly

Subscribe now

I know a lot of you have been thinking about trying Substack out. That’s a great idea. I was an early Substack user and it’s been a breath-of-fresh-air place to write.

With all the new features—video, notes, chat—it’s only getting better.

But first I want to discuss a trend that annoys me.

I don’t get annoyed easily—I’m a fairly “you do you” kind of person—but I hate seeing writers being misled.

I’ve been coming across several people lately who ‘write about writing’ while pushing their courses, products, paid newsletters. That’s fine. Obviously, I do that, too. This newsletter is called “Because You Write” after all.

It’s a certain type that annoy me. The ones who make big claims: “I’ve build a $50K writing business in 3 months!” Blah blah

And they insist you can too… but there’s a catch.

When you look at their body of work—it’s all the same.

They’ve never pitched an editor, published a book, written copy for clients.

All of their “writing” is a sales page.

They make bank from sales and marketing, not writing. They sell writers a promise—”Buy my product and you too can make thousands!”

Sure, they used words to do it. But will you be able to replicate their success?

Unlikely. At some point, the market becomes saturated with people selling "How to make money from writing”.

If you want to be an actual writer, there aren’t shortcuts. Making money as an actual writer is possible, but it’s challenging.

I’m sorry if that’s a downer to hear, but I don’t want to lie to you and tell you it’s easy.

I’m sure I’d make $ more if I did lie! But then I couldn’t face my rich self in the mirror.

If you’re into churning out AI copy to make a quick buck or writing the same marketing copy over and over, selling some fake promise—this isn’t the community for you.

I’m here for people who want to think on the page, write creatively, and find their own voice.

If that’s you, I’m so happy you’re here.

So, how do real writers engage on Substack and make money? Let’s take a look:

3 Things to Avoid On Substack

Going too broad

Many of the Substacks that top the charts are by famous people.

For the unfamous, the best Substacks are specific.

Not many people want to sign up to “Sally-Jo’s Substack” and have random flotsam and jetsam hit their inbox. Slosh a few splintered planks of poetry on shore, throw in a plastic bottle of prose, and you’ll lose readers quickly.

How can Sally-Jo succeed? She can find the topic that interests her. Her area of expertise. The hobby she obsesses over.

Think about what makes you unique.

“Growing Giant Vegetables” rather than “Gardening.”

“Obscure Musicals for Theatre Nerds” rather than “Theatre.”

“History of Space Travel” rather than “History.”

Some wonderful Substacks are broader but still focused and specific.

Curious Adventure is a great example of this. Katrina does deep dives into the latest scientific discoveries, like “Humans Can Learn Echolocation in Ten Weeks”.

The Grim Historian is another one. Human history, but told with Carlyn’s sharp wit and in depth research. Like “6 Corset Myths that Make Me Want to Smack Someone with a Rib.”

• And a tip from me—”Writing” isn’t a money making topic

Which brings us to:

Naming too creatively

You get a few seconds to convince someone to click on your newsletter. Don’t be like Sally-Jo. Even famous people need to be clear about the topic of their Substack.

Because You Write says exactly why you would sign up.

Here are other real Substacks with clear names:

• Story Club with George Sanders. (Analysing short stories)

• Film Daze (underrepresented voices in film)

• Draw Together with Wendy Mac (a drawing course)

• Gut Feelings with Professor Tim Spector (how food and mood interact)

• Kitchen Projects (recipes and the science behind yummy baked foods and treats)

Then again, the quirky Blackbird Spyplane — a popular Substack about style, travel and culture for “everyone who is cool”— laughs at everything I’ve just said.

If you can market it and bring the audience, then feel free to name outside the lines like a toddler with a box of crayons.

Not turning on paid subscriptions

Some of you have Substacks and haven’t turned on paid subscriptions. Maybe you feel a bit nervous about asking for money.

We all are. Money has a great way of making people sweat.

Go ahead and turn them on. It’s okay.

People will pay you (or not) if they want to. Some people will pay just to support you as a writer. The world seems nicer on those days.

You can offer things to your paid subscribers. Having a schedule, like one free newsletter a week and one paid one seems to work well.

You could offer paid subscribers:

• Exclusive chat

• Open comments to paid only

• Monthly Video content

• Longer and more in depth weekly content

• Access to archives

• The ability to pick your brain, get feedback, or ask questions

• Weekly art project ideas/prompts/science experiments

Look around at what others are offering and pick what you can stick to.

I initially offered feedback and a weekly in depth lesson in Creative Nonfiction to my paid subscribers. That worked well for 42 weeks but I found it hard to keep up with. My health fluctuates so, for me, weekly wasn’t sustainable.

Try something and change it if you find it’s not working for you. No amount of money is worth burning out for.

Have you started a Substack? Post it in the comments.

I need your help:
I’m considering adding a feature for my paid subscribers. Something around accountability—like weekly check ins or prompts to help you keep writing. Does that sound useful? Let me know.

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My kids have been in water all day. They surfed at the beach and now they’re making a ton of noise in the pool.

While they play, I’ve been thinking about writing and what skills I’m going to improve this year.

Each year, I like to make one aspect of writing a focus. A couple of years ago, it was Creative Nonfiction. This year, being part of Jotter’s Writing Council, it will likely be fiction.

But my main bread and butter will be personal essays.

Editors are still putting out call after call for them and they’re still doing well on Medium. With the introduction of AI, I think people just want to hear something genuine. Something with heart.

For four more days, my Introduction to Personal Essays course is 75% off.

Once you enroll, you have access forever—it’s a self-paced online course—so if you’d like to get in, head over to Thinkific where I host my course.

You also get feedback and support from me on your first personal essay (if you want it.)

Here’s Introduction to Personal Essays for $34.75 (usually $139).

For those of you who’ve started already, keep up the good work and remember to yell out if you need a hand.

Have a great holiday season.

Kelly xx

"Writers are at their best not when they tell people what to think, but when they provide a context within which others can think." (from How to Know a Person, by David Brooks)

Happy holidays!

It’s the time of year for playing and relaxing and I’ve been playing around with fiction again this week, writing romance.

Three chapters into my first draft, I made a creative decision.

I decided to switch the entire manuscript into present instead of past tense. I was inspired by the gorgeous novel Remarkably Bright Creatures which is told from the perspective of multiple characters—including an octopus— all in present tense.

It sounded like a good idea at the time. But it involved going back and laboriously adjusting everything. Changing every “said” to “says”. Every -ed to an -s.

I don’t know if I made the right call. (And hopefully the editor won’t ask for it all to be switched back into past tense.)

The point of view you choose for your story and the tense you write it in can change it completely.

Some stories fall flat until they’re switched into the urgency of present tense.

Others come alive when you give them a third person past-tense perspective, where you can step back and allow the setting to shine brighter.

Switch it up

Have you ever tried writing a short piece one way and then switching it into another?

You could give second person a go if you’re feeling really wild.

Second person is tricky but can also be incredibly impactful, like this one called Bordertown Synopsis by algae. Here’s how it starts:

When the sun goes down, small critters come out to play, feasting on your skin. You either stay at home watching young cousins play video games or go out to your culture’s grand traditional way of a birthday party, swaying to cumbias, corridos, and banda. The streets are always covered in a fine layer of dust and the vehicles behind you are stuck trying to see past your clouds of chaos.

Close and personal

If you’re thinking about writing your story in first person, Annie Mydla, managing editor of Winning Writers, has written a fantastic article on the pitfalls to avoid:

“Writing in first person is like the hard mode of "showing, not telling" due to the dominance of the character's point of view. Yes, it is the privilege of the first-person perspective that more telling feels okay compared to third person, but sometimes authors can take it too far. With unlimited access to the character's thoughts, authors are sometimes tempted to really make sure readers understand what's going on.”

—Annie Mydla, Is Your First-Person Narrator Hurting Your Story, Winning Writers

What’s your preferred perspective to write in?

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My Christmas writing gift for you:

Remember my Introduction to Personal Essays is 75% off at the moment. That makes it just $34.75. You can check it out here.

It was great to hear those of you who’ve started the course are enjoying it. I love getting those emails!