the Substack urge
the urge to post on substack to stay relevant is strong, even when we don't have new opinions to share
Let me start this off by saying that I love this app. I love this community and how welcoming it is to new ideas, new opinions, and new forms of art. I love that we can rally behind an author and their prose start a comment section chain reaction and start talking in depth about a topic.
I love that this community makes me feel safe to share my personal experiences and feel heard for the first time in my life as this is the first time in 10 years I’ve shared my writing with anyone outside of my friendship bubble.
But something troubling is happening on substack: the urge to stay relevant.
Let’s be honest here, how many times have we opened a draft wondering what we would write about next, facing writer’s block mixed with a desire to stay relevant and likable? We need to write something our audience will connect with every single time, and that can narrow our writing perspective.
For example, I shared a short story I wrote years ago because I thought it’d be the perfect Halloween read, and it didn’t do well numbers-wise, (yes I care about numbers, don’t pretend you don’t) because my audience isn’t here for my fiction, they’re here for Rory Gilmore commentary and decrypting the publishing industry.
I realized this after a note I shared with the above photo saying ‘figuring out what to write next’ gained a bit of traction with authors personally sliding into the DM section telling me they related to this so much because writing 2-5 minute long articles doesn’t take a lot of time, sure, but it takes a toll on you to constantly think of what you should write about. What would be interesting? What do people expect from you?
You sometimes feel like a circus freak having to come up with a new act to keep people interested.
Another concern of mine is that I fear this app may turn into Twitter 2.0, with people sharing rapid-fire hot takes with no long-formed opinions just to occupy space and be relevant.
I want to keep this a safe space for emerging writers, and emerging people with opinions, but when I see writers post 4/5 times a week I feel a tingle of jealousy. How do you do it? How do you have so much to write about? So many opinions?
I thought I was opinionated, hell, everyone around me considers me to be the ‘opinion person’ but compared to some beasts here, I’m dust.
I’m not here to shame those who post more than I do, who get more interaction on their posts than I do, I’m genuinely happy for them and happy to support them. I’m just wondering if it is healthy for a writer to write opinionated pieces so much during a week.
I’m sure most of you have jobs or other avenues of revenue and this isn’t the only thing you do so the money insensitive isn’t here most of the time, even though it might help pay for your groceries if you’re lucky.
But I can’t help but feel this pressure to write something for my audience every single couple of days to stay relevant, and I know I’m not the only one.
If you’re one of these people, I hear you, and I’m with you. Because sharing long-form content every two days is truly difficult, you have to experience life, to notice habits in people, to watch content, follow trends, and I can’t help but feel like Carry Bradshaw, crumbling to finish a piece when she has no inspiration.
Unfortunately for us, we can’t afford Manolo Blahnik shoes and a Manhattan apartment, and we are the content sharing on this app pro bono (for most of us). We are what makes this app work. Without us, this app wouldn’t exist hence the incentive to write more and more and share your work and opinions.
Think about it for a second, tiktok, without its creators wouldn’t exist, this, like every other, is a social media app where we are the product. So treat yourself well, and don’t put too much pressure on yourself to always write something new and magnificent, sometimes all that comes out is blah, and that’s okay too. Some days you can’t bear to open the app and write something altogether and that’s fine.
You are the product this app is selling, remember that, and in that there is power, so if you want to move slower, write less, then do so.
Hope you’re all doing well,
*vapes away*
Honestly this is such a real take. I find that a lot of my posts don't do well numbers-wise because I just don't think people come to Substack to read the niche I write, but I've grown to be okay with that. It's such a good platform to engage and consume good quality work and the couple of recognitions I do get feel more personal in a way. And because of the demographic on this site, I also think most of us are the kind of people to appreciate quality posts once a month over a quantity of quick takes once a day. Anyway, that's just my two cents. Keep up the great work and don't feel pressured to put on the clown nose and perform! Your content is great no matter what medium you create it with, because it's coming from you :)
I think the 'staying relevant' part of the equation on Substack is a lot lighter than other social media platforms. Maybe it's trending heavier, but IMO, it's still light. Mainly because the things one publishes on Substack appears in email inboxes, and most people I know aren't actually browsing from Substack.
I think the truth is that for 80% of subscribers, once they subscribe, they're not actually waiting for the next email in their inbox. When it comes, it comes. When it doesn't, they're not like, "huh, this person didn't publish for a while now. I'm going to unsubscribe."
That said, I get the urge to write more and publish more. I recently changed strategies and decided to publish daily quietly (on my blog) and send a newsletter collating the good ones -- the ones actually worth sharing -- via Substack. With this I've changed the dynamic for my self-publishing: create something daily, publish via Substack weekly containing some of those creations. I feel happier, FWIW!