Writing is hard. What is it that brings you back to the page to keep working on your projects?
For me, it’s publishing my work as a serial. Knowing that there are readers waiting for that weekly chapter keeps me coming back consistently and really helps me be more productive.
Nothing more complicated than a love of words, the way they hang together, the way they sound, the ebbs and flows, the rhythm and blues of it all. Words, bloody love them!
There is immense satisfaction in finding a combination of words that elicits some kind of response. The existence of language is amazing and often feels slightly magical.
Couldn’t agree more. There are moments too of quiet satisfaction when the words I’ve penned please me. Occasional moment ... but II will sometimes sit there smiling at the way they emerged!
Hm, force of habit? I've been writing my whole life, I get withdrawal symptoms (grumpy, short-tempered, less reflected & self-aware) when I take breaks. That's mostly for plotting & drafting though, the parts I enjoy the most.
For revision & editing, I'm motivated by the feeling of satisfaction I know I'll get when the story has visibly improved as well as the hope it might reach & help others, like books & stories have helped me throughout my life.
Writing for the self is as much a motivation as one needs, sometimes. Can you pinpoint why it gives you those withdrawal feelings? Is it a sense of loss of creativity? Or that the creativity needs to be unbottled? Is it something more meditative and calming through simply writing? I think for me it's that last point. It becomes a singular focus that helps declutter my mind.
Yes, I think it's part exercising creativity, part meditative & calming. There's a specific feeling of relief & refreshment I get when I write again after a break that's similar to the feeling I get from meditation or yoga.
Brain yoga! Definitely relate to this. The process itself is satisfying and relaxing, but I also feel that my brain starts filling up uncomfortably if I don't empty it onto the page.
I meant the fact that you have this intrinsic motivation to write and you derive pleasure from the activity of writing itself. Community is nice as a motivating factor but inner motivation is the actual engine. I’m slowly getting to that place.
Ah, I see. I think all writers (those who want to write more than one particular story, that is) have some degree of intrinsic motivation, you just have to find the right approach to draw it out. I'm sure you'll get there!
I noticed that it's happening the more I write. At the beginning the motivation was to write for my newsletter, now it is to simply write my book. I love getting to this place and my next goal is to set a writing schedule. Currently it's a bit chaotic but I'm slowly getting there.
Primarily the love of writing and the love of my novel, knowing specific plot points and character beats I'm going to hit makes me excited. Imagining the finished project is like an anchor that pulls me forward. And yes, I look forward to comments and feedback!
Anticipation of big story moments that you're about to right is so compelling! I get a real mischievous glee from knowing what I'm about to do to my characters (and, thus, my readers).
Aug 28, 2023·edited Aug 28, 2023Liked by Simon K Jones
Great topic Simon. I'll divide my comment in 2 topics, because they both contribute to my motivation:
1. What inspires me?
2. What makes me write?
Answering the firs topic, I am inspired by 2 kinds of things. People and nature observation.
What makes me write? I write since I was a child, and I don't need any particular reason for writing. Let's say is at the same time an hobby and kind of a therapy that makes me feel good.
The consistency I get it from my specific goal. Write everyday, no matter what.
A high-school teacher told me once, half as a mentor, half as bully (joking!), that those who can carry a mountain, should carry a mountain, and those who should carry a grain of sand, should carry a grain of sand. Implying that I belonged in the first category, but obviously I wasn't pulling my weight (he believed). This credo has been haunting me all my life. I've always had some writing talent, I knew, and I played with it, or even started novels, but never had the mental space to do just that. Now, my life has fallen into place, and I have that mental space. And I feel, now the time has come to commit myself to it, because I CAN. I do it 80% out of a fascination with the story I've drafted, and the remaining 20% by virtue of a daily writing routine I've established. I've always been a task-, rather than people-oriented person at work; I don't think about publishing success so much, but I'm fully engulfed in the writing and the polishing-off process.
The romantic notion of writing is all well and good, but it is very hard until those outside factors fall into place (or get out of the way). A room of one's own, and so on. Glad you've found that space in your life!
I’m motivated by all the connections that wouldn’t manifest unless I start writing. It’s like, I know wonderful things are waiting but their only chance at existence is if I get the words down.
This is why I have found Morning Pages to be such a life-changing part of my daily routine. I love it. It allows me to creatively clear my mind, make connections, and plan ahead all before hitting the shower.
I've never managed to cultivate an in-person writing group, but have found that motivation online in various ways over the years - most recently here on Substack.
I started on Substack in the spring and writing here has made me build consistency. I’m hoping to mobilize the same momentum to serialize my first novel. Writing regularly and getting feedback on it is very motivating.
Yep! That was the mental trick I discovered when I started writing on Wattpad back in the day. It was like a switch was flicked in my brain, which suddenly enabled me to be consistently and regularly productive.
Having a serial definitely keeps me actually writing instead of just daydreaming about the story. My mind generally can't stop thinking about my stories, so that keeps me going. Writing is simply one of the main things I like to do.
I've found the same with serials: it builds in a natural cadence to my output, so that I don't get distracted for weeks/months at a time (as used to happen in my 20s).
I do my best to write at least an hour every single day, rain or shine, no matter what. To me it's almost like exercise. If you start to get a little lazy about it, it builds on itself. And the next thing you know, you've gone a week without exercising.
This is why I release stuff every week in public. It keeps me honest and coming back to the keyboard, otherwise I'd drift away and then become very annoyed with myself.
I do this with Morning Pages each day, and it often produces seeds of future essays. My next step is to block off another good "creative time" during the day to spend time fostering planting and fostering those seeds into complete essays or articles. I obsessively write out the ideas after they come to me, which disrupts my schedule. As I am on summer break, it is not a problem now, but once the semester begins, I will need to focus on lesson prep and such, so I need to find the right spot to fit in this creative exercise.
A good question. I'm not sure I know the answer, and I think the answer exists on many levels for me. Probably. At the deepest level, I think it's to seek the connection with story and character in a sort of meditative way. That sounds wanky, I guess, but there's a certain calm where I can blot out all worries/stress/work-muddle-mind etc and go someplace else, to try and connect in the closest way I can with whichever character so demands the page.
At other levels, to try and be better, to improve, to edit and think and write, over and over. Sometimes it's hard to get there, though.
Not wanky, I totally get that. I think any kind of 'flow state' can do that: where everything else recedes and it's just you and the thing. I get that when I play squash, because my brain has no time to think of anything else. I get it when I write, but in a different way: in that case it's because I'm entirely surrounded by the fiction and the effort to bring it to life, rather than due to the intensity of the experience.
I think it's the idea that a person I've never met before with no interest in the writing side of things could potentially be reading a chapter from one of my stories on the way to their mind-numbing, soul-draining cubicle existence and somehow it helps them get through the day.
Other than that, on my end of things, once I've started to flesh out the stories and characters and the worlds they inhabit, I feel an intense sense of duty to "raise and feed them" as if they are my children or, at the very least, care for these ideas as you would plants in your garden.
On a separate, but I think relevant note, I just opened an unsubscribe email that specifically complained about "the flood of messages in their inbox every day" and because of this they have unsubscribed from multiple accounts followed by the suggestion that we "find a different business model."
To be fair, I feel the same way about the deluge of email notifications. So I can understand that part. The model itself is a good one and has relatively quickly established itself as a standard across all internet-based media and quite effectively selects for those who will support your work for as long as they are able to in a more direct manner than previous methods that were too hit and miss.
Anyway, this is fresh in my mind because I looked at "How to fix Substack's fiction experience" again and wondered if fiction will ever be fixed on Substack. The technical issues... sure, no problem. I think those will be resolved. What we cannot resolve is the "deluge of emails" in Substack users' inboxes that the recommendation system inevitably leads to until users feel the need to purge their inbox. This is something that happens to all of us I'm sure. And it leads to me not being able to consume or even look at half the messages that I receive. There aren't enough hours in the day. And my fiction reading suffers because of this too.
Platforms such as YouTube cater for all types of content, so I don't think creating a specialized platform is required, and the ones that do are not as competent as Substack anyway, so I think the solution will be filtering and better search and recommendations based on user choices. And possibly a wider range of monetization options. Not everyone can afford to sub $5 to multiple accounts every month (there are podcasting and video platforms too) and there is a such a glut of free content now that I can understand why people drop their paid subs unless they specifically want to support newcomers, "the underdog," or an old favorite.
For now, my response is to focus more on the fiction emails I receive and to develop that side of this conversation. Most of the articles I get on certain topics just repeat themselves or are simply too random to be useful. I start to feel like I'm wasting time instead of focusing on my fiction projects.
So that's probably the biggest motivation right now. To put fiction front and center where it belongs!
You have to admire the person who has nothing better to do than to tell you what they deem to be the right way to do something. I hope you took that unsubscribe email and put it where it belongs; the trash.
Speaking from a newfound sense of experience (I am the Queen of 100 Word Stories after all) sending an email daily, and currently twice a week I send two emails, with plans to increase to three times a week sending two emails, there are LOADS of people who don't mind it. Why? Because the content I send is quality (to them) and that's all that matters. There is less to complain about if the quality of the abundance of emails they receive is worth it to them.
I think you are 100% correct. This all boils down to those people whose inboxes are cluttered and stuffed. They can't see the forest for the trees, so to speak. It can be irritating to see someone sending multiple emails daily or weekly when they are faced with an inbox that reads thousands of unread messages. They see that sender as part of the problem, when really, the problem is with the owner of the inbox.
I speak from experience there as well. I also will say, after reaching Inbox Zero over a year ago, it has changed my experience with emails. I never have more than 10 emails in my inbox and that's only because they are to remind me when a package is coming. Once I receive it, that email goes away. Seeing an empty inbox is only half the battle it doesn't win the war. The other half is organization of the inbox. The reason I don't have hundreds or thousands of unread messages in my inbox is because of the hundreds of rules I've set to tell my inbox where to send those messages. I have folders and subfolders ready to organize what I'm receiving so they aren't cluttering my inbox. I see a folder when there is something in it that's brand new. I read it. The folder goes away. Now I am obsessed when I see a new email from someone I want to see but I'm equally obsessed with keeping my inbox clean at all times.
Sure, it took me the better part of a day to clean it (I had over 50k unread emails in my inbox) but now that I've done it I can easily say it was worth every minute I spent to fix it. I have several Substack posts dedicated to helping people reach inbox zero. Perhaps I will resurface them and try to champion the cause. I see this helping fiction writers like us immensely. Thank you for reminding me as I had not mentioned inbox zero or how easy it can be to achieve if people are willing to dedicate the time to get it done.
As for the paid subscriber points you made. I have to disagree. There are plenty of people willing to pay "at least" (and in some cases more than...) $5/m. This is easily evidenced by the Patreon accounts and Substack accounts (just to use those two examples as I realize there are likely more) that have hundreds and in many cases thousands of paid subscribers. There are accounts earning thousands and tens of thousands a month. I think the issue is less the cost and more the genre. I don't even think it's the quality of the content or length. The right genre will sell to the right people. It's like the music industry. Country music sells. It just does. It oversells other music genres. If we insist on creating our own unique genre that no one else has ever heard of or seen because we want to be "different" then we must pay the price of no one taking that chance to be a paid subscriber. And who could blame them. We need to be smart not only about the genre we write in, but in how we market ourselves as well. We can't simply say "if you like X you'll love what I'm writing" because if we are fudging even a little bit to get eyeballs on our work, the reader will find out (and call us out) immediately and we'll be dead in the water. The readers are there and the money is there in abundance it is all in how we go about going after it.
Apologize for the lengthy response. The writer in me can't help but bloviate from time to time...
Thanks for laying that out! The inbox management protocol is duly noted.
I stand corrected on the $5 issue. I too have seen plenty of accounts, both fiction and non-fiction, that enjoy hundreds or thousands of $5 and up subscribers. And yes, it probably has a lot to do with the type of content, the genre, the quality, and the frequency.
All I was trying to get at was the difficulty for those with less money to support more than a few authors in this way because the monthly bill soon adds up.
And for any reader, unless you are superhuman, there are only so many fiction products you can pay attention to at any given time. For example, I am currently working through a few oldies but goodies that got left behind before I catch up again with the Substack authors that I follow and even then, I'll have to pick and choose which ones I support (based on my own private subset of criteria) and that support system (which I am more than happy to provide) may form part of a larger set of shifting sands as time goes on, if you catch my drift.
Compare that to the experience of following some link to Amazon because someone somewhere recommends a book that more or less aligns with your previous consumption and you check it out, read the blurb, maybe a chapter or two, and click the button to buy for 99 cents or whatever and then forget to read the rest of it because well... you forget about it and it sits there somewhere in your Kindle collection collecting digital dust because you spend most of your time on Substack and other assorted media platforms.
Yep... I can identify with that behavior, but I don't have to like it. There must be a better way.
I think there are lots of types of readers, and a ridiculous number of humans overall, and there's enough to go round. Doesn't mean it's easy to find the right ones, of course - that's partly on us and partly on Substack (or other platforms).
I do think Substack is the best business model for writing so far (at least from the writer perspective - I'm not sure how well it's working for Substack as a company), at least in concept. Lots to optimise and improve and fix etc, but the potential is immense. I mean, I'm making more on Substack after 2 years than I ever have with my writing. It's not much, and it's not a living, but it's something.
The cumulative cost issue is real, but again...we're possibly seeing it from a weird perspective because we're the writers. We're aware of the huge number of OTHER writers. The average reader will find a handful of newsletters and stick to that. But because there's so *many* readers, there's still enough to go around.
It is why I like to keep my fiction largely free (at least during its initial run). My ideal is that everyone can read it, but those who can afford it provide the financial support. Everyone wins.
Sometimes it feels like there are only writers on Substack all talking to each other! Obviously, the readers are here too and as you say they form the majority so that perspective thing is really important to keep in mind.
Thanks for inspiring the rest of us to give this a shot. I have low overheads so even minimal success at this would make me happy as a pig in you know what.
Re. "find a different business model" - I wish this unsubscribing person a lot of luck, because I doubt they'll find anything better without an absurd amount of effort. If it exists at all, which I doubt.
(They should take a look at the state of advert-supported websites and advertorials and those bloody awful "YOU'LL NEVER GUESS WHAT THIS ACTRESS LOOKS LIKE NOW" chum-boxes from Outbrain and Taboola and so on. That is the main alternative, and it serves nobody, including the websites running them because how is that a growth strategy?)
It'd also be nice if they stopped for a second and thought about how incredibly easy it was for them to unsubscribe. This is the great gift of a paid newsletter: we leave the door wide open for people to walk away, 24/7, no pressure and no questions asked. And they do. That's a sign it works, and also a sign that we make it very, very clear how they can leave. (Barring the odd person who pings us an email saying "UNSUBSCRIBE ME FROM YOUR FACEBOOK").
So I'd interpret that unsub message as that person saying, "I really like your work which is why I've gone to the effort to sign up and to now leave this comment, but sadly I don't have the time or money to engage with it right now" - but they're saying it in perhaps the clumsiest and least self-aware way possible.
I agree 100% with what you're saying. I can't stand the advertising model. The subscription model and the way it's evolving works perfectly well and eliminates the issues you mentioned while creating the environment for better relationships between authors and readers.
What I found to be relevant in that statement was the way that the Substack model works and how it affects the motivations of an author. Every author wants to have more subscribers or at bare minimum be able to reach the readers that will potentially become fans. And from what I can tell, Substack handles this part of the equation exceptionally well. I'm obviously not maximizing this side of things yet but I can see how it's working for others. The potential is there. It's palpable. And that becomes a large part of the motivational pie --- the idea that a growing number of readers can be found here without having to jump on Amazon and all the other platforms that have been done to death.
We crave an audience more than anything. I think that's what I'm trying to say. Without that and the lovely response we get from our fans, motivation would drop to zero unless you just write for yourself. Which is fine. But kind of defeats the purpose.
So, whichever model maximizes the ability to reach as much of our potential audience as possible is the one that naturally increases all other aspects of motivation because once you have an audience that cares about your writing then you automatically tend to care about what you produce even more. Now you have a responsibility to others. And that's a helluva weight to carry, but someone's gotta do it, right?
As someone who is relatively new to this, what I like about this model over others is that I don't have to jump through as many hoops and get everything as polished as is expected on Amazon etc just for readers to get a taste of what I do. And as far as reach goes, I'll take the gradual build up of subs here over being practically invisible on Amazon any day.
Something I've found, so far, is that I haven't had to contort my writing to 'fit the model'. I just write what interests me, and (so far) that seems to have just worked. I mean, it's a lot of time and effort, but I haven't had to game the system, or turn into one of those YouTube 'creators' desperately begging for subscribes/likes/etc.
We'll see how that goes over time...with the non-fiction I do think about the audience a lot, but I don't that's in an unhealthy or cynical way. More from an editorial, magazine-ish angle.
Excellent question! I am replying as much to share as to remind myself to come back and see what others say. I am trying to harness the sense of obligation to my readers to get a weekly Santa article/chapter published. The Gori side of GoriSan (Gorilla/Santa), writing about mental health, comes from my journaling and shower thoughts. Anything that the hamster wheel spits out and gets stuck in the gears needs to be typed up and explored. Now, with Substack, I have a place to share them. ;^)
For me it’s knowing that I want my children to have something of mine to remember me by. O and reading for enjoyment. The more I read for enjoyment, the more I need to write!
I particularly love that last point, of how lots of small things gradually build up to become a very big thing. Writing a novel is an almost impossible task; writing several chapters one after another is very doable.
That's one satisfiying feeling of accomplishment and a big motivator. How the picture gets painted bit for bit till the accumulation makes the picture more and more discernible. Love it.
#1: The joy of it. I started writing stories as soon as I learned to write. There's nothing in the world I love as much as I love writing, and I still dream of making a living out of it. I don't know if it'll happen but I have to try.
#2: Being on Substack has made me realise that there are, in fact, people reading my stuff. Even if it's just a dozen people right now. Even if they don't read me every single week. They matter. So I show up every day because I know a handful of people care enough about the work I do that they gave me permission to email them with new stories.
I always dreamed of mass success, when I was a kid. What I didn't expect was how even a handful of readers can make all the difference. Knowing there's a reader anticipating the next chapter is enough to get me back to the page. Any more than that is bonus.
Well. Money helps sometimes but, honestly, it's a love of the creative process. I have a lot of work I've done that no one else ever saw, and no one else has to.
For me, producing weekly content on substack with an editorial calendar is helpful for continuous production. On the tent pole novels, it’s maintaining a production schedule, detailing weekly and quarterly milestones. And all of it is in service of the creative that lies outside the work of the real job.
I have a production schedule that I more or less follow to get my books out. Doing serialization for a while helped me get out several books that otherwise would have just been sitting on my hard drive. Alas, Kindle Vella is trailing off. I'm assessing my current Substack serialization but will finish the current book, then decide whether the remaining books in the series will go through Substack or if I'll let that particular one fade out. Serialization has helped me figure out how to work on two projects simultaneously and I'm setting up structures to help me continue with it.
Feels to me that it might need to come from somewhere new, rather than somewhere like Amazon. Amazon's readership is there for a particular type of experience.
Fiction brings me to the table daily because once I start my characters talk to me and tell me what they want to do. Memoir I write because I firmly believe personal narrative may be the truest history of our time. Poetry once something stimulates the thought just rattles around in my head until I write it down. Great question, Simon, and an interesting diversity of answers.
I started writing outside of assignment when I was ten years old. It’s just something I do and cannot imagine not doing. I do try from time to time, to imagine not writing. It’s a bit like imagining my own death, which sounds dramatic. I don't mean it carries the same weight or emotion as that. I mean it's akin to pondering a vacuum or nonconceptuality.
So, to answer your question, I would say I am impelled to write, such as I am to eat, sleep, excrete, and have sex. It’s a bodily motivation. Like my head 'gets full,' and I am driven to empty it out.
The routine of writing, I think, and the fact that if I start something, a serial or a novel or whatever, I really want to finish the story and see how it plays out. Especially on Substack, once I got a good routine going of when I wanted to post and what, that really helps. Force of habit and all.
Desperation, imposter syndrome and existential dread?
Sorry, too honest. Uh...
I think what brings me back is my own ignorance. Every time I dive i9nto writing about something, I learn a few things about it, but also learn that there are far *more* things that I only have a dim grasp of - or I'm basically clueless about them. Happens every time. The sum total of this is that with every season of my newsletter, the vast landscape of things I'm aware I don't know much about...well, it gets bigger. The horizon creeps further away. I'm even more aware of how little I know.
I should add: I love this feeling. It's the same jolt of excitement as walking into a library, knowing that I will never ever have the time to read all the books and publications in it, but *isn't it so cool they're there*? It's a feeling that gets me up a little faster in the morning...
There's just so much to learn - and there's *always* something more to learn about everything, even the boring things (which is why I try to hold my opinions lightly).
I'm always impressed that you were able to create a newsletter designed specifically to allow you to explore your own curiosity.
I did some public speaking training many, many years ago and the trainer talked about people being 'coachable', and how you can only learn if you're open to learning. It sounds like that's at the core of your being!
That's what I love about the way communities have sprung up around Substack, whether on specific newsletters (including mine, somehow. Still not sure how I've wangled this one) or over on Notes. A big gaggle of curious people, learning from each other.
My productivity, specifically with my fiction writing, comes from the story itself. Just yesterday I had multiple story ideas come to me, one after the other. The kinds of story ideas that make me smile and think of myself as some brilliant literary giant. My mission? To tell these stories as quickly as possible so that others may bask in my genius.
I don't think I'd be as quick to write or share my stories if I didn't think they were the next best thing to sliced bread. It's that feeling of excitement and joy that the story provides me and I hope will provide one other person (at least), that keeps me going.
I realize that might seem like "bravado?" But that is the point, isn't it? The brilliance of my story must start with me, otherwise it would be fairly easy for me to second guess my work and take rejection to heart, thereby ceasing my writing altogether. How dreadful would that be? To leave the world without the benefit of my amazing storytelling. I wouldn't want to be so cruel.
I was talking to my son, who is 10 and an avid comics creator, about the importance of being excited by the stories you're telling - because if you're not excited by them, nobody else will be. Plus you don't want to get bored halfway through telling it.
A lot of my less online writer friends think I am absolutely INSANE for publishing my work so quickly, piece-by-piece, before finishing the entire manuscript. It is seen as a dangerous and irresponsible way of writing, almost, and they can't imagine doing it. For me, I can't imagine not doing it - but, as you say, it does require a certain level of confidence in your abilities. Or a disregard for the opinion of others, I suppose. :)
-Writing's always been a necessity more than a pastime or optional form of entertainment, It is how I can reflect on and make some sort of sense of the phenomenal world and record my interaction with it for posterity.
I can understand people who write with the goal of publication, but I could not operate in the same way because most of what I write has never been published. I am either still revising, or too far or behind my time for it to resonate with anyone :D
-And that is the thing, audiences. I have never much cared for them, or being in a 'scene,' The next 20 years will see, I believe, some fundamental transformations in the relations between authors and audiences. In light of that, I feel good in saying that I am happiest in writing primarily for my own enjoyment, as it is far beyond my control whether anyone reads me or not. I guess this is an inevitable outcome of writing a thesis on Stoicism, but it's also a healthy rationale for what can be a hard business. Not like mining-for-coal hard, but hard. That's why it's so great that in writing we can at least get lost in the sounds of syllables and labrynths of plot and so on. Happy writing everyone!
I think the only audience you can ever truly know is yourself, after all. But there's a good chance there will be other humans out there who think similarly, and will also enjoy your work. But if you start thinking too much about outside factors, it'll likely harm the work - and your enjoyment of it.
Nothing more complicated than a love of words, the way they hang together, the way they sound, the ebbs and flows, the rhythm and blues of it all. Words, bloody love them!
Like a hidden melody, words haging together produce some kind of music, only certain people are able to hear it
I think that’s true!
Good, aren't they? :D
There is immense satisfaction in finding a combination of words that elicits some kind of response. The existence of language is amazing and often feels slightly magical.
Couldn’t agree more. There are moments too of quiet satisfaction when the words I’ve penned please me. Occasional moment ... but II will sometimes sit there smiling at the way they emerged!
Hm, force of habit? I've been writing my whole life, I get withdrawal symptoms (grumpy, short-tempered, less reflected & self-aware) when I take breaks. That's mostly for plotting & drafting though, the parts I enjoy the most.
For revision & editing, I'm motivated by the feeling of satisfaction I know I'll get when the story has visibly improved as well as the hope it might reach & help others, like books & stories have helped me throughout my life.
I get quite grouchy if I don't write regularly. It feels like a muscle that needs exercising, otherwise it starts to seize up.
You sound very self-motivated - I still struggle with that, if I don't know there's some kind of audience on the other end.
Guess I had to be - I used to never show my stories to anyone until they were finished!
Writing for the self is as much a motivation as one needs, sometimes. Can you pinpoint why it gives you those withdrawal feelings? Is it a sense of loss of creativity? Or that the creativity needs to be unbottled? Is it something more meditative and calming through simply writing? I think for me it's that last point. It becomes a singular focus that helps declutter my mind.
Yes, I think it's part exercising creativity, part meditative & calming. There's a specific feeling of relief & refreshment I get when I write again after a break that's similar to the feeling I get from meditation or yoga.
Brain yoga! Definitely relate to this. The process itself is satisfying and relaxing, but I also feel that my brain starts filling up uncomfortably if I don't empty it onto the page.
This is a good place to be in terms of writing motivation.
True! I tend to neglect the community aspects of Substack when I'm busy but I definitely want to interact more.
I meant the fact that you have this intrinsic motivation to write and you derive pleasure from the activity of writing itself. Community is nice as a motivating factor but inner motivation is the actual engine. I’m slowly getting to that place.
Ah, I see. I think all writers (those who want to write more than one particular story, that is) have some degree of intrinsic motivation, you just have to find the right approach to draw it out. I'm sure you'll get there!
I noticed that it's happening the more I write. At the beginning the motivation was to write for my newsletter, now it is to simply write my book. I love getting to this place and my next goal is to set a writing schedule. Currently it's a bit chaotic but I'm slowly getting there.
Vanessa, the same with me
Primarily the love of writing and the love of my novel, knowing specific plot points and character beats I'm going to hit makes me excited. Imagining the finished project is like an anchor that pulls me forward. And yes, I look forward to comments and feedback!
Anticipation of big story moments that you're about to right is so compelling! I get a real mischievous glee from knowing what I'm about to do to my characters (and, thus, my readers).
Great topic Simon. I'll divide my comment in 2 topics, because they both contribute to my motivation:
1. What inspires me?
2. What makes me write?
Answering the firs topic, I am inspired by 2 kinds of things. People and nature observation.
What makes me write? I write since I was a child, and I don't need any particular reason for writing. Let's say is at the same time an hobby and kind of a therapy that makes me feel good.
The consistency I get it from my specific goal. Write everyday, no matter what.
As we say in Portugal, writing is "inside me"
The better question, then, is "how could you NOT write?" :) Writers write, simple as that, sometimes!
:) not writing is not an option. To me the following question is: how can I improve my writing?
A high-school teacher told me once, half as a mentor, half as bully (joking!), that those who can carry a mountain, should carry a mountain, and those who should carry a grain of sand, should carry a grain of sand. Implying that I belonged in the first category, but obviously I wasn't pulling my weight (he believed). This credo has been haunting me all my life. I've always had some writing talent, I knew, and I played with it, or even started novels, but never had the mental space to do just that. Now, my life has fallen into place, and I have that mental space. And I feel, now the time has come to commit myself to it, because I CAN. I do it 80% out of a fascination with the story I've drafted, and the remaining 20% by virtue of a daily writing routine I've established. I've always been a task-, rather than people-oriented person at work; I don't think about publishing success so much, but I'm fully engulfed in the writing and the polishing-off process.
The romantic notion of writing is all well and good, but it is very hard until those outside factors fall into place (or get out of the way). A room of one's own, and so on. Glad you've found that space in your life!
I’m motivated by all the connections that wouldn’t manifest unless I start writing. It’s like, I know wonderful things are waiting but their only chance at existence is if I get the words down.
This is why I have found Morning Pages to be such a life-changing part of my daily routine. I love it. It allows me to creatively clear my mind, make connections, and plan ahead all before hitting the shower.
I like making plans for myself with dates and goals like word count. My writing group has also kept me very accountable over the years!
I've never managed to cultivate an in-person writing group, but have found that motivation online in various ways over the years - most recently here on Substack.
For me, it’s a commitment to my characters, connecting and co-creating with them, wanting to share their story. They inspire me!
Love that! It's so satisfying when your characters end up surprising you.
I started on Substack in the spring and writing here has made me build consistency. I’m hoping to mobilize the same momentum to serialize my first novel. Writing regularly and getting feedback on it is very motivating.
Yep! That was the mental trick I discovered when I started writing on Wattpad back in the day. It was like a switch was flicked in my brain, which suddenly enabled me to be consistently and regularly productive.
I write to see my physical book in someone’s hands who can’t wait to open it and start reading.
One day you'll be the guy on the train, and be able to lean over and go "excuse me, that's my book," with hilarity ensuing.
I would love that so much, especially if it’s my Twin Peaks book!
(in no particular order)
1. The hope that some day somebody might enjoy it
2. My own pleasure in doing it
3. Story
4. Creative outlet
5. Nothing else I appear to be any good at
My writing buddies! Close writing pals who challenge me and cheer me on and i get to do the same for them :)
Having a serial definitely keeps me actually writing instead of just daydreaming about the story. My mind generally can't stop thinking about my stories, so that keeps me going. Writing is simply one of the main things I like to do.
I've found the same with serials: it builds in a natural cadence to my output, so that I don't get distracted for weeks/months at a time (as used to happen in my 20s).
I do my best to write at least an hour every single day, rain or shine, no matter what. To me it's almost like exercise. If you start to get a little lazy about it, it builds on itself. And the next thing you know, you've gone a week without exercising.
This is why I release stuff every week in public. It keeps me honest and coming back to the keyboard, otherwise I'd drift away and then become very annoyed with myself.
I do this with Morning Pages each day, and it often produces seeds of future essays. My next step is to block off another good "creative time" during the day to spend time fostering planting and fostering those seeds into complete essays or articles. I obsessively write out the ideas after they come to me, which disrupts my schedule. As I am on summer break, it is not a problem now, but once the semester begins, I will need to focus on lesson prep and such, so I need to find the right spot to fit in this creative exercise.
A good question. I'm not sure I know the answer, and I think the answer exists on many levels for me. Probably. At the deepest level, I think it's to seek the connection with story and character in a sort of meditative way. That sounds wanky, I guess, but there's a certain calm where I can blot out all worries/stress/work-muddle-mind etc and go someplace else, to try and connect in the closest way I can with whichever character so demands the page.
At other levels, to try and be better, to improve, to edit and think and write, over and over. Sometimes it's hard to get there, though.
Not wanky, I totally get that. I think any kind of 'flow state' can do that: where everything else recedes and it's just you and the thing. I get that when I play squash, because my brain has no time to think of anything else. I get it when I write, but in a different way: in that case it's because I'm entirely surrounded by the fiction and the effort to bring it to life, rather than due to the intensity of the experience.
I think it's the idea that a person I've never met before with no interest in the writing side of things could potentially be reading a chapter from one of my stories on the way to their mind-numbing, soul-draining cubicle existence and somehow it helps them get through the day.
Other than that, on my end of things, once I've started to flesh out the stories and characters and the worlds they inhabit, I feel an intense sense of duty to "raise and feed them" as if they are my children or, at the very least, care for these ideas as you would plants in your garden.
On a separate, but I think relevant note, I just opened an unsubscribe email that specifically complained about "the flood of messages in their inbox every day" and because of this they have unsubscribed from multiple accounts followed by the suggestion that we "find a different business model."
To be fair, I feel the same way about the deluge of email notifications. So I can understand that part. The model itself is a good one and has relatively quickly established itself as a standard across all internet-based media and quite effectively selects for those who will support your work for as long as they are able to in a more direct manner than previous methods that were too hit and miss.
Anyway, this is fresh in my mind because I looked at "How to fix Substack's fiction experience" again and wondered if fiction will ever be fixed on Substack. The technical issues... sure, no problem. I think those will be resolved. What we cannot resolve is the "deluge of emails" in Substack users' inboxes that the recommendation system inevitably leads to until users feel the need to purge their inbox. This is something that happens to all of us I'm sure. And it leads to me not being able to consume or even look at half the messages that I receive. There aren't enough hours in the day. And my fiction reading suffers because of this too.
Platforms such as YouTube cater for all types of content, so I don't think creating a specialized platform is required, and the ones that do are not as competent as Substack anyway, so I think the solution will be filtering and better search and recommendations based on user choices. And possibly a wider range of monetization options. Not everyone can afford to sub $5 to multiple accounts every month (there are podcasting and video platforms too) and there is a such a glut of free content now that I can understand why people drop their paid subs unless they specifically want to support newcomers, "the underdog," or an old favorite.
For now, my response is to focus more on the fiction emails I receive and to develop that side of this conversation. Most of the articles I get on certain topics just repeat themselves or are simply too random to be useful. I start to feel like I'm wasting time instead of focusing on my fiction projects.
So that's probably the biggest motivation right now. To put fiction front and center where it belongs!
You have to admire the person who has nothing better to do than to tell you what they deem to be the right way to do something. I hope you took that unsubscribe email and put it where it belongs; the trash.
Speaking from a newfound sense of experience (I am the Queen of 100 Word Stories after all) sending an email daily, and currently twice a week I send two emails, with plans to increase to three times a week sending two emails, there are LOADS of people who don't mind it. Why? Because the content I send is quality (to them) and that's all that matters. There is less to complain about if the quality of the abundance of emails they receive is worth it to them.
I think you are 100% correct. This all boils down to those people whose inboxes are cluttered and stuffed. They can't see the forest for the trees, so to speak. It can be irritating to see someone sending multiple emails daily or weekly when they are faced with an inbox that reads thousands of unread messages. They see that sender as part of the problem, when really, the problem is with the owner of the inbox.
I speak from experience there as well. I also will say, after reaching Inbox Zero over a year ago, it has changed my experience with emails. I never have more than 10 emails in my inbox and that's only because they are to remind me when a package is coming. Once I receive it, that email goes away. Seeing an empty inbox is only half the battle it doesn't win the war. The other half is organization of the inbox. The reason I don't have hundreds or thousands of unread messages in my inbox is because of the hundreds of rules I've set to tell my inbox where to send those messages. I have folders and subfolders ready to organize what I'm receiving so they aren't cluttering my inbox. I see a folder when there is something in it that's brand new. I read it. The folder goes away. Now I am obsessed when I see a new email from someone I want to see but I'm equally obsessed with keeping my inbox clean at all times.
Sure, it took me the better part of a day to clean it (I had over 50k unread emails in my inbox) but now that I've done it I can easily say it was worth every minute I spent to fix it. I have several Substack posts dedicated to helping people reach inbox zero. Perhaps I will resurface them and try to champion the cause. I see this helping fiction writers like us immensely. Thank you for reminding me as I had not mentioned inbox zero or how easy it can be to achieve if people are willing to dedicate the time to get it done.
As for the paid subscriber points you made. I have to disagree. There are plenty of people willing to pay "at least" (and in some cases more than...) $5/m. This is easily evidenced by the Patreon accounts and Substack accounts (just to use those two examples as I realize there are likely more) that have hundreds and in many cases thousands of paid subscribers. There are accounts earning thousands and tens of thousands a month. I think the issue is less the cost and more the genre. I don't even think it's the quality of the content or length. The right genre will sell to the right people. It's like the music industry. Country music sells. It just does. It oversells other music genres. If we insist on creating our own unique genre that no one else has ever heard of or seen because we want to be "different" then we must pay the price of no one taking that chance to be a paid subscriber. And who could blame them. We need to be smart not only about the genre we write in, but in how we market ourselves as well. We can't simply say "if you like X you'll love what I'm writing" because if we are fudging even a little bit to get eyeballs on our work, the reader will find out (and call us out) immediately and we'll be dead in the water. The readers are there and the money is there in abundance it is all in how we go about going after it.
Apologize for the lengthy response. The writer in me can't help but bloviate from time to time...
Thanks for laying that out! The inbox management protocol is duly noted.
I stand corrected on the $5 issue. I too have seen plenty of accounts, both fiction and non-fiction, that enjoy hundreds or thousands of $5 and up subscribers. And yes, it probably has a lot to do with the type of content, the genre, the quality, and the frequency.
All I was trying to get at was the difficulty for those with less money to support more than a few authors in this way because the monthly bill soon adds up.
And for any reader, unless you are superhuman, there are only so many fiction products you can pay attention to at any given time. For example, I am currently working through a few oldies but goodies that got left behind before I catch up again with the Substack authors that I follow and even then, I'll have to pick and choose which ones I support (based on my own private subset of criteria) and that support system (which I am more than happy to provide) may form part of a larger set of shifting sands as time goes on, if you catch my drift.
Compare that to the experience of following some link to Amazon because someone somewhere recommends a book that more or less aligns with your previous consumption and you check it out, read the blurb, maybe a chapter or two, and click the button to buy for 99 cents or whatever and then forget to read the rest of it because well... you forget about it and it sits there somewhere in your Kindle collection collecting digital dust because you spend most of your time on Substack and other assorted media platforms.
Yep... I can identify with that behavior, but I don't have to like it. There must be a better way.
I think there are lots of types of readers, and a ridiculous number of humans overall, and there's enough to go round. Doesn't mean it's easy to find the right ones, of course - that's partly on us and partly on Substack (or other platforms).
I do think Substack is the best business model for writing so far (at least from the writer perspective - I'm not sure how well it's working for Substack as a company), at least in concept. Lots to optimise and improve and fix etc, but the potential is immense. I mean, I'm making more on Substack after 2 years than I ever have with my writing. It's not much, and it's not a living, but it's something.
The cumulative cost issue is real, but again...we're possibly seeing it from a weird perspective because we're the writers. We're aware of the huge number of OTHER writers. The average reader will find a handful of newsletters and stick to that. But because there's so *many* readers, there's still enough to go around.
It is why I like to keep my fiction largely free (at least during its initial run). My ideal is that everyone can read it, but those who can afford it provide the financial support. Everyone wins.
Sometimes it feels like there are only writers on Substack all talking to each other! Obviously, the readers are here too and as you say they form the majority so that perspective thing is really important to keep in mind.
Thanks for inspiring the rest of us to give this a shot. I have low overheads so even minimal success at this would make me happy as a pig in you know what.
Re. "find a different business model" - I wish this unsubscribing person a lot of luck, because I doubt they'll find anything better without an absurd amount of effort. If it exists at all, which I doubt.
(They should take a look at the state of advert-supported websites and advertorials and those bloody awful "YOU'LL NEVER GUESS WHAT THIS ACTRESS LOOKS LIKE NOW" chum-boxes from Outbrain and Taboola and so on. That is the main alternative, and it serves nobody, including the websites running them because how is that a growth strategy?)
It'd also be nice if they stopped for a second and thought about how incredibly easy it was for them to unsubscribe. This is the great gift of a paid newsletter: we leave the door wide open for people to walk away, 24/7, no pressure and no questions asked. And they do. That's a sign it works, and also a sign that we make it very, very clear how they can leave. (Barring the odd person who pings us an email saying "UNSUBSCRIBE ME FROM YOUR FACEBOOK").
So I'd interpret that unsub message as that person saying, "I really like your work which is why I've gone to the effort to sign up and to now leave this comment, but sadly I don't have the time or money to engage with it right now" - but they're saying it in perhaps the clumsiest and least self-aware way possible.
I agree 100% with what you're saying. I can't stand the advertising model. The subscription model and the way it's evolving works perfectly well and eliminates the issues you mentioned while creating the environment for better relationships between authors and readers.
What I found to be relevant in that statement was the way that the Substack model works and how it affects the motivations of an author. Every author wants to have more subscribers or at bare minimum be able to reach the readers that will potentially become fans. And from what I can tell, Substack handles this part of the equation exceptionally well. I'm obviously not maximizing this side of things yet but I can see how it's working for others. The potential is there. It's palpable. And that becomes a large part of the motivational pie --- the idea that a growing number of readers can be found here without having to jump on Amazon and all the other platforms that have been done to death.
We crave an audience more than anything. I think that's what I'm trying to say. Without that and the lovely response we get from our fans, motivation would drop to zero unless you just write for yourself. Which is fine. But kind of defeats the purpose.
So, whichever model maximizes the ability to reach as much of our potential audience as possible is the one that naturally increases all other aspects of motivation because once you have an audience that cares about your writing then you automatically tend to care about what you produce even more. Now you have a responsibility to others. And that's a helluva weight to carry, but someone's gotta do it, right?
As someone who is relatively new to this, what I like about this model over others is that I don't have to jump through as many hoops and get everything as polished as is expected on Amazon etc just for readers to get a taste of what I do. And as far as reach goes, I'll take the gradual build up of subs here over being practically invisible on Amazon any day.
Something I've found, so far, is that I haven't had to contort my writing to 'fit the model'. I just write what interests me, and (so far) that seems to have just worked. I mean, it's a lot of time and effort, but I haven't had to game the system, or turn into one of those YouTube 'creators' desperately begging for subscribes/likes/etc.
We'll see how that goes over time...with the non-fiction I do think about the audience a lot, but I don't that's in an unhealthy or cynical way. More from an editorial, magazine-ish angle.
Excellent question! I am replying as much to share as to remind myself to come back and see what others say. I am trying to harness the sense of obligation to my readers to get a weekly Santa article/chapter published. The Gori side of GoriSan (Gorilla/Santa), writing about mental health, comes from my journaling and shower thoughts. Anything that the hamster wheel spits out and gets stuck in the gears needs to be typed up and explored. Now, with Substack, I have a place to share them. ;^)
For me it’s knowing that I want my children to have something of mine to remember me by. O and reading for enjoyment. The more I read for enjoyment, the more I need to write!
Great question and a even better reminder to keep reassuring you're headed towards a goal or purpose (if that's what you have, I do)
1. The curiosity towards what awaits at the end (see the progress)
2. My dream of releasing my first book.
3. Get an income from my writing
4. The love of discipline and grit behind the creative work
5. The language and writing development available.
6. To observe all the small projects tied to something bigger one day
I particularly love that last point, of how lots of small things gradually build up to become a very big thing. Writing a novel is an almost impossible task; writing several chapters one after another is very doable.
That's one satisfiying feeling of accomplishment and a big motivator. How the picture gets painted bit for bit till the accumulation makes the picture more and more discernible. Love it.
To be honest I have no idea what motivates me or to be productive. Some days I'm very low on creativity. Others its everwhere!
But my life is a roller-Coaster, so might be why 😊
For me, it's two things:
#1: The joy of it. I started writing stories as soon as I learned to write. There's nothing in the world I love as much as I love writing, and I still dream of making a living out of it. I don't know if it'll happen but I have to try.
#2: Being on Substack has made me realise that there are, in fact, people reading my stuff. Even if it's just a dozen people right now. Even if they don't read me every single week. They matter. So I show up every day because I know a handful of people care enough about the work I do that they gave me permission to email them with new stories.
I always dreamed of mass success, when I was a kid. What I didn't expect was how even a handful of readers can make all the difference. Knowing there's a reader anticipating the next chapter is enough to get me back to the page. Any more than that is bonus.
Money.
Well. Money helps sometimes but, honestly, it's a love of the creative process. I have a lot of work I've done that no one else ever saw, and no one else has to.
For me, producing weekly content on substack with an editorial calendar is helpful for continuous production. On the tent pole novels, it’s maintaining a production schedule, detailing weekly and quarterly milestones. And all of it is in service of the creative that lies outside the work of the real job.
I have a production schedule that I more or less follow to get my books out. Doing serialization for a while helped me get out several books that otherwise would have just been sitting on my hard drive. Alas, Kindle Vella is trailing off. I'm assessing my current Substack serialization but will finish the current book, then decide whether the remaining books in the series will go through Substack or if I'll let that particular one fade out. Serialization has helped me figure out how to work on two projects simultaneously and I'm setting up structures to help me continue with it.
As long as it's useful, Joyce! Did Vella ever go beyond the US? It seemed like a bit of a half-arsed launch.
No, it hasn't. There seemed to be a potential market in serial fiction apps back when it was launching, but it hasn't caught on at all in the US.
Feels to me that it might need to come from somewhere new, rather than somewhere like Amazon. Amazon's readership is there for a particular type of experience.
Fiction brings me to the table daily because once I start my characters talk to me and tell me what they want to do. Memoir I write because I firmly believe personal narrative may be the truest history of our time. Poetry once something stimulates the thought just rattles around in my head until I write it down. Great question, Simon, and an interesting diversity of answers.
I have to stay quite focused: I'm impressed you're able to juggle all of those different forms of writing.
How well they land is an open question!
I started writing outside of assignment when I was ten years old. It’s just something I do and cannot imagine not doing. I do try from time to time, to imagine not writing. It’s a bit like imagining my own death, which sounds dramatic. I don't mean it carries the same weight or emotion as that. I mean it's akin to pondering a vacuum or nonconceptuality.
So, to answer your question, I would say I am impelled to write, such as I am to eat, sleep, excrete, and have sex. It’s a bodily motivation. Like my head 'gets full,' and I am driven to empty it out.
I must - it's a character flaw. And it depends on how you define productivity - am I able to get at what I want?
The wonder of exploration and fun always brings me back to storytelling! The “what if?” always inspires me.
The routine of writing, I think, and the fact that if I start something, a serial or a novel or whatever, I really want to finish the story and see how it plays out. Especially on Substack, once I got a good routine going of when I wanted to post and what, that really helps. Force of habit and all.
Desperation, imposter syndrome and existential dread?
Sorry, too honest. Uh...
I think what brings me back is my own ignorance. Every time I dive i9nto writing about something, I learn a few things about it, but also learn that there are far *more* things that I only have a dim grasp of - or I'm basically clueless about them. Happens every time. The sum total of this is that with every season of my newsletter, the vast landscape of things I'm aware I don't know much about...well, it gets bigger. The horizon creeps further away. I'm even more aware of how little I know.
I should add: I love this feeling. It's the same jolt of excitement as walking into a library, knowing that I will never ever have the time to read all the books and publications in it, but *isn't it so cool they're there*? It's a feeling that gets me up a little faster in the morning...
There's just so much to learn - and there's *always* something more to learn about everything, even the boring things (which is why I try to hold my opinions lightly).
I'm always impressed that you were able to create a newsletter designed specifically to allow you to explore your own curiosity.
I did some public speaking training many, many years ago and the trainer talked about people being 'coachable', and how you can only learn if you're open to learning. It sounds like that's at the core of your being!
That's what I love about the way communities have sprung up around Substack, whether on specific newsletters (including mine, somehow. Still not sure how I've wangled this one) or over on Notes. A big gaggle of curious people, learning from each other.
Plus a few weirdoes, obvs.
My productivity, specifically with my fiction writing, comes from the story itself. Just yesterday I had multiple story ideas come to me, one after the other. The kinds of story ideas that make me smile and think of myself as some brilliant literary giant. My mission? To tell these stories as quickly as possible so that others may bask in my genius.
I don't think I'd be as quick to write or share my stories if I didn't think they were the next best thing to sliced bread. It's that feeling of excitement and joy that the story provides me and I hope will provide one other person (at least), that keeps me going.
I realize that might seem like "bravado?" But that is the point, isn't it? The brilliance of my story must start with me, otherwise it would be fairly easy for me to second guess my work and take rejection to heart, thereby ceasing my writing altogether. How dreadful would that be? To leave the world without the benefit of my amazing storytelling. I wouldn't want to be so cruel.
I was talking to my son, who is 10 and an avid comics creator, about the importance of being excited by the stories you're telling - because if you're not excited by them, nobody else will be. Plus you don't want to get bored halfway through telling it.
A lot of my less online writer friends think I am absolutely INSANE for publishing my work so quickly, piece-by-piece, before finishing the entire manuscript. It is seen as a dangerous and irresponsible way of writing, almost, and they can't imagine doing it. For me, I can't imagine not doing it - but, as you say, it does require a certain level of confidence in your abilities. Or a disregard for the opinion of others, I suppose. :)
Great top, Simon. Why we write...
-Writing's always been a necessity more than a pastime or optional form of entertainment, It is how I can reflect on and make some sort of sense of the phenomenal world and record my interaction with it for posterity.
I can understand people who write with the goal of publication, but I could not operate in the same way because most of what I write has never been published. I am either still revising, or too far or behind my time for it to resonate with anyone :D
-And that is the thing, audiences. I have never much cared for them, or being in a 'scene,' The next 20 years will see, I believe, some fundamental transformations in the relations between authors and audiences. In light of that, I feel good in saying that I am happiest in writing primarily for my own enjoyment, as it is far beyond my control whether anyone reads me or not. I guess this is an inevitable outcome of writing a thesis on Stoicism, but it's also a healthy rationale for what can be a hard business. Not like mining-for-coal hard, but hard. That's why it's so great that in writing we can at least get lost in the sounds of syllables and labrynths of plot and so on. Happy writing everyone!
I think the only audience you can ever truly know is yourself, after all. But there's a good chance there will be other humans out there who think similarly, and will also enjoy your work. But if you start thinking too much about outside factors, it'll likely harm the work - and your enjoyment of it.
I think too much and if I don’t get those ideas out there I start going crazy.