Wonderful post, Amanda! Thank you for the shout-out. I love thinking of a custom poem as an everyday need. I'm only doing it once every season or two, so I think I need to step things up. 😅 But down to earth - I love that you strike a balance between writing for ourselves and writing for readers. This rings true for me, and your experience in marketing provides practical suggestions for how to do it. This post deserves a wide audience - least of all for the nest of crackpots you herd into a paragraph, where I am honored to appear. The rest of it is full of good sense.
Amanda this is gold! Thank you so much for this clarifying essay. It offers an excellent guideline with great suggestions I can utilize immediately. I'm looking forward to the next one.
Great insight ! I’ve been working on my lead magnet for my new publication Give A Sh*t - I have a few in mind so been struggling to refine my ideas. This has been very useful thank you 🙏
I like your description of movement between your writing cocoon and the lives of readers. It reminds me of something I read recently about play—how when children (and adults) play they are practicing then transition, back and forth, between threat and safety. Practice that familiarized their nervous system with that transition, helps them find their way back to safety whenever they experience threat.
I have trouble hanging onto myself—my values, my voice—through the ups and downs of a writing life. Your image helped me see that it’s a transition that is not well practiced for me. I enter readers lives and become distracted, enthralled by everyone else’s things, and when I do turn back toward my cocoon I can’t find it—it can take me months!
I like the idea that their might be ways to practice that movement—on a small scale (maybe a daily practice?), apart from marketing strategy—to familiarize myself with the many pathways back to my writing cocoon and the nurturing of my own voice.
You always have such insightful comments to share, Shaina. :) I have experienced this exact same phenomenon—getting so lost in my observing of others’ work that I lose track of where I am inside. It’s honestly a reason I didn’t have much hope before I threw my hands up a few years ago. Because I knew (KNEW!!) my inner safety and connection mattered more than anything else. Full stop. I think each of us has to decipher what that consideration looks like and when we are ready for it. I also think the “screw everyone else” season of writing is so fruitful and important especially for folks with backgrounds like us — it’s a journey in self belonging and also just PURE DELIGHT that we all deserve.
As an aside, I’m soon launching a newsletter for my personal writing (shhhh) and a big BIG reason I’ve avoided this is precisely because of my track record with losing track of myself in the pursuit of “building a thing for the people.” But I’m going slowly, remaining clear and feeling a lot of clarity around the fact that nurturing both doesn’t mean abandoning one or the other. I wasn’t ready for that until just recently.
So, all that to say, I think you have such wonderful inner connections that you’ll know when the timing is right to dip a toe in and consider the reader experience and how you want to relate to it. 🧡
I am struggling with the lead magnet idea in my context - can't quite think what it would be for me. Not entirely sure I need one but it's bothering me that I can't think of one, regardless.
This is the kind of thing that I'd bat around with one of my small groups of writer friend-colleagues, though none of them are on Substack so they wouldn't have feedback. But maybe a small chat session with other newsletter writers whose work resonates with yours would be helpful?
Noha, I so appreciate this question. It’s part of the reason I included a poll in this essay because I wasn’t sure if/how people struggled with the concept. I also think coming up gift ideas is very fun, so hang with me here. 😂
Do you mind if I reshare your comment as a Note and add in some of my first reactions for both you and Nia?
I've been struggling with the subject of moving from solitary writing to socially-connected promotion in my life for years and also very recently when writing an article for Medium (which was rejected! my first outright Medium rejection! ouch!).
My article likened the mental zone of composing writing to the cell of an anchoress. An anchoress, in case you don't know, was a nun who was walled up for life and they were very common in the Middle Ages with the best-known being Julian of Norwich.
Anyhow, your words on the cocoon and the bracing, necessary transition into the public sphere (which, these days, is the internet mostly) were brilliant, Amanda. This manoeuvre is a skill (let's not call it a problem or a conflict!) that writers of all kinds (and perhaps creatives of all kinds) need to solve.
P.S. Sorry about the tortuous style with many parentheses, my lunch is ready!!
Thank you so much for how you’ve framed this dilemma — that it IS a skill to join the public sphere with your writing. What a great reframe even for me! That it’s something that may not come naturally. I always lean back into trusting the sincerity of the writer in how they promote or share about their writing. That sincerity will win every time; I do believe that.
Also, your piece sounds great — maybe even too good for a guest piece. :)
Great post. Before setting up my substack I had a real debate with myself about whether I was doing it from an ego-perspective ... if I'm writing for myself, why do I feel the need to share etc etc. I've reconciled that sharing doesn't = ego, and whilst I'm writing for myself I'm sharing for others who probably are going through / feeling / thinking how I am.
Your reflection on the writer-reader connection beautifully captures the delicate balance we navigate. Embracing both craft and audience is a powerful duality.
Wonderful post, Amanda! Thank you for the shout-out. I love thinking of a custom poem as an everyday need. I'm only doing it once every season or two, so I think I need to step things up. 😅 But down to earth - I love that you strike a balance between writing for ourselves and writing for readers. This rings true for me, and your experience in marketing provides practical suggestions for how to do it. This post deserves a wide audience - least of all for the nest of crackpots you herd into a paragraph, where I am honored to appear. The rest of it is full of good sense.
Amanda this is gold! Thank you so much for this clarifying essay. It offers an excellent guideline with great suggestions I can utilize immediately. I'm looking forward to the next one.
Thank you, Donna! I’m so glad it’s helpful! Just wait for tomorrow. :)
Great insight ! I’ve been working on my lead magnet for my new publication Give A Sh*t - I have a few in mind so been struggling to refine my ideas. This has been very useful thank you 🙏
So glad to hear this! And thank you for reading. :)
I like your description of movement between your writing cocoon and the lives of readers. It reminds me of something I read recently about play—how when children (and adults) play they are practicing then transition, back and forth, between threat and safety. Practice that familiarized their nervous system with that transition, helps them find their way back to safety whenever they experience threat.
I have trouble hanging onto myself—my values, my voice—through the ups and downs of a writing life. Your image helped me see that it’s a transition that is not well practiced for me. I enter readers lives and become distracted, enthralled by everyone else’s things, and when I do turn back toward my cocoon I can’t find it—it can take me months!
I like the idea that their might be ways to practice that movement—on a small scale (maybe a daily practice?), apart from marketing strategy—to familiarize myself with the many pathways back to my writing cocoon and the nurturing of my own voice.
You always have such insightful comments to share, Shaina. :) I have experienced this exact same phenomenon—getting so lost in my observing of others’ work that I lose track of where I am inside. It’s honestly a reason I didn’t have much hope before I threw my hands up a few years ago. Because I knew (KNEW!!) my inner safety and connection mattered more than anything else. Full stop. I think each of us has to decipher what that consideration looks like and when we are ready for it. I also think the “screw everyone else” season of writing is so fruitful and important especially for folks with backgrounds like us — it’s a journey in self belonging and also just PURE DELIGHT that we all deserve.
As an aside, I’m soon launching a newsletter for my personal writing (shhhh) and a big BIG reason I’ve avoided this is precisely because of my track record with losing track of myself in the pursuit of “building a thing for the people.” But I’m going slowly, remaining clear and feeling a lot of clarity around the fact that nurturing both doesn’t mean abandoning one or the other. I wasn’t ready for that until just recently.
So, all that to say, I think you have such wonderful inner connections that you’ll know when the timing is right to dip a toe in and consider the reader experience and how you want to relate to it. 🧡
"My job is no longer to sell myself. It’s to cooperate with the mysterious accumulation of awareness around the message in my work." OOOOHHHHH!!!
I loved this line toooooooo
Yes, me too! such a great reframing.
I am struggling with the lead magnet idea in my context - can't quite think what it would be for me. Not entirely sure I need one but it's bothering me that I can't think of one, regardless.
That's one that slips from me, too.
This is the kind of thing that I'd bat around with one of my small groups of writer friend-colleagues, though none of them are on Substack so they wouldn't have feedback. But maybe a small chat session with other newsletter writers whose work resonates with yours would be helpful?
that makes sense...
Noha, I so appreciate this question. It’s part of the reason I included a poll in this essay because I wasn’t sure if/how people struggled with the concept. I also think coming up gift ideas is very fun, so hang with me here. 😂
Do you mind if I reshare your comment as a Note and add in some of my first reactions for both you and Nia?
I don’t mind at all. Have at it!
I've been struggling with the subject of moving from solitary writing to socially-connected promotion in my life for years and also very recently when writing an article for Medium (which was rejected! my first outright Medium rejection! ouch!).
My article likened the mental zone of composing writing to the cell of an anchoress. An anchoress, in case you don't know, was a nun who was walled up for life and they were very common in the Middle Ages with the best-known being Julian of Norwich.
Anyhow, your words on the cocoon and the bracing, necessary transition into the public sphere (which, these days, is the internet mostly) were brilliant, Amanda. This manoeuvre is a skill (let's not call it a problem or a conflict!) that writers of all kinds (and perhaps creatives of all kinds) need to solve.
P.S. Sorry about the tortuous style with many parentheses, my lunch is ready!!
Thank you so much for how you’ve framed this dilemma — that it IS a skill to join the public sphere with your writing. What a great reframe even for me! That it’s something that may not come naturally. I always lean back into trusting the sincerity of the writer in how they promote or share about their writing. That sincerity will win every time; I do believe that.
Also, your piece sounds great — maybe even too good for a guest piece. :)
Great post. Before setting up my substack I had a real debate with myself about whether I was doing it from an ego-perspective ... if I'm writing for myself, why do I feel the need to share etc etc. I've reconciled that sharing doesn't = ego, and whilst I'm writing for myself I'm sharing for others who probably are going through / feeling / thinking how I am.
Amanda,
Your reflection on the writer-reader connection beautifully captures the delicate balance we navigate. Embracing both craft and audience is a powerful duality.
Thanks for sharing these insights!