Why I was a Reader on Substack before I became a Writer Here

Plus 3 Substack writers I've been enjoying reading

Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash

My Introduction to Substack

My first blog was on WordPress, where my theme was art; creating paintings and drawings and writing about the exhibitions I entered with the finished works, as well as those I went to review of other artists. Eventually, I started another blog on WordPress, but this time it was about my life as a creator of self-published books, and - just life. Despite having very active social media accounts, it was difficult to build up my blog followers, so I became disheartened and gave up. There seemed no point in writing into a void.

My Twitter account has almost six thousand followers, but it is a platform for my political activism so I didn’t want to attract attention there to my blog. My Instagram account has nearly seven thousand followers. It’s where I write about ageing and my interest in the science of it. The downside of Instagram is that the visual is more important than the text, and I had to produce constant selfies to publish with each post, which I didn’t enjoy. The vast majority of my followers on Instagram are men, not those interested in ageing and my writing about it, but those hoping to start up a “friendship”, so not the followers I was hoping to attract.

During the pandemic years, I had the idea of turning the Instagram posts into a book, which I did, and eventually, this year, I self-published it. Women’s rights had come to the fore (again), and I became active in local and national groups. Some prominent people in the field were writing blogs on Substack, so I subscribed to their newsletters. These include Graham Linehan, Meghan Murphy, Julie Bindel, and others. The more I read about the platform, the more interested I became in starting my own substack. Apparently, unlike WordPress, writers get support and help to grow their subscriber list. That was very appealing to me.

In April of this year, I took the plunge and wrote and published my first newsletter on Substack. My output since has been consistent, but growth is slow. Nonetheless, it is happening and I’m enjoying learning to be a Substack writer. When a post gets a fairly indifferent response, it can be off-putting and I wonder why I’m persisting. Then it’s time for the next newsletter to be worked on and there I am, enthusiastically pursuing an idea for it.

Finding my way has been tentative. In the beginning, I didn’t know what to call my newsletter. I finally decided to continue to write about ageing, as well as the other areas that interest me, such as books, films, music and life. But as healthy and positive ageing was going to be my main theme, the title was obvious. I still feel that I’m finding my way and I have much to learn. I’m reading other writers who are more established on the platform and learning from them how they grew their subscriber lists. Sarah Fay of Writers at Work has been an invaluable help.

Beautiful writing has always been a draw for me. If I find a book that has a good plot as well as being beautifully written, then I’m happy. Someone said recently that it doesn’t matter if a book with a really good plot isn’t beautifully written. I remember when I found Jeffrey Archer’s much-recommended first book, Not a Penny More Not a Penny Less. I bought it and set about reading it. The book was all plot with little depth in the characters. I understood that those who like plots more than writing would have thoroughly enjoyed this, but I didn’t. His books have much improved, apparently but I haven’t been tempted to try him again.

A few years ago, I discovered Edward St Aubyn via his autobiographical Patrick Melrose series. There are five books in the series. The first one, Never Mind, was where I fell in love with his writing. It charts memoirs of his childhood, which was full of privilege and entitlement but simultaneously, harrowing. Yet, he can find laugh-out-loud humour and sharp wit in his painful memories. His writing is such that sometimes, you need to stop and read a sentence again. It’s so exquisitely constructed. The entire series was a pleasure to read, despite its often difficult subject, because of the quality of the writing.

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3 Substack writers I’ve enjoyed reading

I have now subscribed to more writers and would like to introduce some of them to you, telling you why I enjoyed reading them and the specific post. There’s a link at the end of each paragraph that takes you to the actual post. The first one was recommended to me. I enjoyed reading Molly Ella’s lyrical writing about the Scottish landscape where she lives. In this post, she captures the feel of the fierce wind as it buffets her on a morning walk and the memories it evokes of other winds in other places. Molly Ella: Slow Scottish Stories. The Wind That Stole My Heart

The next one is by a writer whose theme is skincare from the perspective of a beauty journalist. In this post, she wonders whether, with an imminent 40th birthday in the new year, she needs a plan to prepare her for the ageing process. It was around that age when I became aware of time and how I may have used up half of that allotted to me. Having a plan to move forward would have been a good idea. Anita: Bhagwandas: The Powder Room. Do You Need an Ageing Plan?

The final substack I’m recommending here is The Austen Connection. In the post, the writer talks about love from the perspective given by bell hooks in one of her books, All About Love. It comes from Scott Peck originally, possibly The Road Less Travelled, which I read many years ago and so I’m familiar with the definition. It describes love as active rather than passive, a definition that Erich Fromm also gives in his book, The Art of Love which I have on my bookshelf. The Substack writer applies it to families and characters in Jane Austen’s novels, which makes a good read, especially if you enjoy the world Austen wrote about. Love in action is what the world needs today. The Austen Connection. Jane Austen bell hooks and a definition of love

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