Wow this is one of the things I've been wrestling with a lot lately. What is the point of my writing is no one else reads it/wants to read it? I keep trying to remind myself of when I used to write in high school. I wrote because and when I felt like it never intending anyone else to read what I'd written. And that was enough. There was less pressure. I wrote want I wanted without constraint or fear of what others might think. Yet now I constantly hear the questions - what if someone reads this? Is it too revealing? Is it in the right style for them to want to publish? Have I hit the mark? So I'm trying to focus now on just writing. If nothing else then for practice. But either way I need to keep reminding myself that the first person I'm often writing for is myself.
I think about artists who create their works not for buyers but for themselves. It's great if their work sells but that's not their motivation. Something moves them to create and, for the best of them, it's not the money they can make by selling them--though that's always a factor. It exists because they've put something of themselves into it.
I do both writing for money and for love now. Sometimes there are things I want to write about that don't easily shoehorn into my newsletter. Those I usually just write about on Facebook, which is where I did all my writing free for years. But I also write for money over at my newsletter, because, to be perfectly honest, I'm not very good at having a boss anymore. It could be argued that I now have 42 bosses, but so far I have avoided feeling obligated to make them happy with what I write about, only that I write at all.
The best of both worlds. I like that you don't feel obligated to make your paid readers happy, yet you DO keep them happy. There's a lesson in there somewhere!
I've been putting undue pressure on myself to stick to a self-imposed deadline that I set up when I started my newsletter in May 2021. I don't have paid subscribers, so there is NOT that pressure. I don't have subscribers complaining that the Happy Friday Links newsletter didn't go out at 10 a.m. on Friday like it did for many weeks. I have a little voice in the back of my head telling me all of this and I finally told that voice to "shut up" in yesterdays one day late links email. Now I'm going to do my best to post it on Friday and if I don't, it will just be a day late and I'm fine with that. :)
It's your newsletter and your comfort zone. You make the rules, and you can break them! I started a 'Friday Follies' section on Constant Commoner, my other Substack blog and I haven't kept it up. It seems by Friday I'm burned out and can't find enough 'good news' to get all excited about it. If I get back to it, fine. If I don't, I'll be okay with that, too.
It could be I'm shooting myself in the foot by not being consistent, but my Friday Follies never get much attention, anyway. I doubt if anyone really misses it.
Wow this is one of the things I've been wrestling with a lot lately. What is the point of my writing is no one else reads it/wants to read it? I keep trying to remind myself of when I used to write in high school. I wrote because and when I felt like it never intending anyone else to read what I'd written. And that was enough. There was less pressure. I wrote want I wanted without constraint or fear of what others might think. Yet now I constantly hear the questions - what if someone reads this? Is it too revealing? Is it in the right style for them to want to publish? Have I hit the mark? So I'm trying to focus now on just writing. If nothing else then for practice. But either way I need to keep reminding myself that the first person I'm often writing for is myself.
I think about artists who create their works not for buyers but for themselves. It's great if their work sells but that's not their motivation. Something moves them to create and, for the best of them, it's not the money they can make by selling them--though that's always a factor. It exists because they've put something of themselves into it.
I see writing the same way.
This is really helpful. You're absolutely right. Thank you!
I do both writing for money and for love now. Sometimes there are things I want to write about that don't easily shoehorn into my newsletter. Those I usually just write about on Facebook, which is where I did all my writing free for years. But I also write for money over at my newsletter, because, to be perfectly honest, I'm not very good at having a boss anymore. It could be argued that I now have 42 bosses, but so far I have avoided feeling obligated to make them happy with what I write about, only that I write at all.
The best of both worlds. I like that you don't feel obligated to make your paid readers happy, yet you DO keep them happy. There's a lesson in there somewhere!
Can you send me an email so we can "talk" offline?
I've been putting undue pressure on myself to stick to a self-imposed deadline that I set up when I started my newsletter in May 2021. I don't have paid subscribers, so there is NOT that pressure. I don't have subscribers complaining that the Happy Friday Links newsletter didn't go out at 10 a.m. on Friday like it did for many weeks. I have a little voice in the back of my head telling me all of this and I finally told that voice to "shut up" in yesterdays one day late links email. Now I'm going to do my best to post it on Friday and if I don't, it will just be a day late and I'm fine with that. :)
It's your newsletter and your comfort zone. You make the rules, and you can break them! I started a 'Friday Follies' section on Constant Commoner, my other Substack blog and I haven't kept it up. It seems by Friday I'm burned out and can't find enough 'good news' to get all excited about it. If I get back to it, fine. If I don't, I'll be okay with that, too.
It could be I'm shooting myself in the foot by not being consistent, but my Friday Follies never get much attention, anyway. I doubt if anyone really misses it.