Changing things up two months later
Can you say, “Squirrel?!”
Shiny syndrome is real, you guys. It’s been fun, Substack, and you’re a really cool platform, but I’m finally verbalizing what I want and jumping off the bandwagon.
Still want to follow along? Have no fear! Sign-up here to read my email newsletter Postcards.
You can expect:
- At the very least, a monthly round-up middle narratives over on the blog
- NaNoWriMo 2022 – previous posts will be re-shared in the new space, and I’ll finish out the journey over on Postcards as well 🙂
- A peek into my life as a human, not just a writer, but a whole human
- Eventually snippets of my novel
- Eventually eventually, short stories.
I’m proud of myself for trying it and then realizing it’s not part of my long-term writing vision. This is growth. And it’s all apart of this creative life: figuring out what works for me.
Looking forward to continuing the journey with you!
The Long Version:
Greetings to you beloved Readers who signed up in the last two months and. . .three days. (I just checked.)
I signed up for Substack on a whim. Kinda.
I’d been wanting to figure out how to keep all my people updated on writing shenanigans and I knew I wanted to do it before NaNoWriMo this past year.
Texting multiple group chats already created felt tedious. Creating one big group chat felt like a lot. Creating a group in another app—What’s App or Slack—felt like a big undertaking. Updating the social medias with daily word counts felt silly*.
At the time, a lot of writers I follow on Instagram were (and still are) talking about this platform. And so, I took the leap.
It’s a really cool space. It’s new-to-me, so it has zero pressure of the blog (all that I’m sure I created). It’s easy to use. Did I mention it’s new(er).
Classic Shiny Syndrome.
A little bit of backstory
Like a year-and-a-half ago, I took a self-paced mini course on email newsletter course and had big dreams for my blog, Mrs. Writer. I chose the simplest platform for my potential email newsletter, TinyLetter, and set-off to learn how to link it my blog. Basically the version of WordPress I have is Dot Com instead of Dot Org. Basically, Dot Org is the upgraded version of Dot Com. Third Party links, like TinyLetter, can be embedded into a WordPress as a widget or cute clickable button.
I added it onto my Writing To Do List to look into how to share my newsletter link on the blog.
I never did.
Until today.
Where am I right now?
In explaining to Anthony and a friend recently, why I chose Substack, I put into words why it felt disjointed to me as well.
What I’ve always loved about email newsletters is readers oftentimes get a peek into who the writer is beyond what they post on the blog. A lot of writers have certain things they focus on—meal-planning, cooking in general, motherhood and creativity, discerning our next right things, etc. That’s what they share about on their social medias, their podcasts, long-form content (like blog posts). However, their email newsletters usually pull the curtain back a bit and readers get to see the human, the soul, behind the meal-planning and organizational focus or whatever else they present as their content.
My blog’s purpose has always been for me to just write and help me cultivate my writing skills.
Lately, though, I’ve been wanting to give that peek into the writing life. The writing life is romanticized. I mentioned it in a previous post: I’m a writer and I still romanticize it. If I can demystify the writing life and show how writing isn’t just a dreamy, rose-colored thing, then I’ve done my job.
And for me, I think that’s best done through an email newsletter.
Technically these Substack posts have been coming to your email, but this is still a public platform and anyone can read it. I like the idea of the email newsletter being sent to the humans who want to know things, who want to stay up-to-date on my writing journey, who want to see what life looks like behind the words.
Also, I want my email newsletter and blog/website to be more streamlined. I want them to make sense. I want to stop jumping on the new thing and stick to my vision.
Really? After Two Months?
This is growth. A previous version of myself would not have wanted to redirect everyone to a new space just two months later. But this is growth. I played around with Substack a bit before realizing it wasn’t part of the long game of this writing life I want. And so, I’m taking a slightly different path. And it feels really good.
I’m proud of myself.
Where to next?
You can subscribe to my new email newsletter, Postcards, here. You’ll get everything I had planned to use this space for:
- A monthly round-up of what I wrote on my blog, Mrs. Writer
- The NaNoWriMo 2022 posts will be moved to the new platform, and I’ll continue chronicling that soon as well 🙂
- Eventually, snippets of my novel work-in-progress
- What I’m learning as I dip my toes back into the copy/content writing journey
- What’s happening in mine and Ant’s life as humans and souls
- Eventually eventually, short stories I’ve written
Thank You
Thank you for trusting me with your email and your inboxes. Thank for following along. I appreciate the support very much.
See you soon!
Love, Tracy
P.S. If you have a minute, take a peek at Mrs. Writer. I’ve added new menu buttons and I think it looks grand!
Writing Process Notes:
1/3/23 // 8:37pm-8:41pm. The final Substack post moved here to the blog 🙂
Mrs. Writer 