Things I Said in Substack Notes This Week and Have More To Say About
A weekly column for connecting further and deeper on topics I care about because the conversations here are just so rich and wonderful
This is my weekly free column rounding up things I shared on Notes (and every now and then something poignant in the comments I shared on someone else’s great writing.) I elaborate a little on them, especially trying to emphasize the relationship between art and mental health, which is my specific writing and research niche. (And I believe that all of us are artists and all face mental health challenges to varying degrees.) I hope it also introduces you to writers that you want to get to know better.
A FRAMEWORK TO BEGIN:
As we dig in, I wanted to bring your attention to a thought I expressed in a Notes conversation with Andrew of
which I also highlighted in my other digests this week but I think it is an important reminder:One of the things I truly love about Substack is that huge published names can co-exist alongside “unpublished” folks and everything in between. That doesn’t mean that we’ll all suddenly become
or or but for me what it means is that oh yeah, those people are humans just like us, writers just like us. Maybe someone who reads them might stumble upon a piece we wrote and love it. Maybe we can just exist in this space with those writers we admire and know that we’re both part of that community and in our own lane.
You are here because your unique voice matters.
INSPIRATION:
Inspiration check in:
I am reading: books by
I am watching: 90 Day Fiance but looking for something similar to Inventing Anna and Theranos if anyone has recommendations?
I am listening to: late 90s country music women (like reba)
I am listening to: voices for Justice podcast
I am tasting: lentils and Moroccan spiced rice
I am smelling: cinnamon candles and cedar essential oil
I am sleepy but cozy, a little bummed by things I signed up to participate in that I keep missing because I bit off more than I can chew but hopefully I can get organized and make a more realistic plan.
What’s nourishing you today?
Some lovely answers this week from:
“I am reading An Immense World by Ed Yong! It’s all about the different sensory configurations of various species and how this creates their “umwelt,” or perceived world. Very mind-expanding.
And, I am smelling cinnamon orange tea that I ordered from Hobee’s restaurant in Palo Alto, Ca.
Have you watched the Fyre Festival documentary? It’s quite… something. Also the WeWork doc is along those lines.”
I have seen those. And Abercrombie. And apparently pretty much everything else in this genre which we discussed names for and I found that Google/reddit are mostly calling either “scam tv docs” or “grifter dramas”.
“I am on my side porch with my two tuxies, about to meditate.
I feel the gentle, cool breeze and am grateful for it given how hot it's been.
I notice the air filter is glowing red, which is a bit concerning but unsurprising.
I am tired but also rested—an interesting contrast.
I dreamed a short story in full and am looking forward to writing it today.
Not watching anything, which is very unusual.
Not reading books rn, which is somewhat seasonal.
I don't do podcasts. My days are already filled by the voices of others. I need the alone time whenever I can find it.
I am relatively content, which has become my default these last few years. I'm feeling grateful for that.”
:Reading Chernow’s Hamilton currently. Had some good exercise, worked on my podcast then listened to joe rogan podcast with Matt Rife, played Zelda TotK, enjoyed a big veggie dinner, watched some nfl highlights. Catching some Substack before bed! Thanks for asking
I am reading: Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
I am watching: old episodes of Eastenders
I am listening to: A playlist I made for our journey to St Ives recently
I am tasting: KFC!
I am in my office looking out at my big Red Maple in my backyard, lush green leaves lit up with sunshine and I am hoping and wishing the impossible hope of an endless summer. I do not wish for 114 F Phoenix summer, however.
I am listening to several books, including the first Gaslight Mystery, The Shard Emperor, How to Shoot Video That Doesn’t Suck,The spin-off from Chicagoland Vampires, The Georgia RICO Indictments, and The Touching Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh.
I am watching the last two episodes of Ted Lasso
I am trying really hard to focus on editing a video but my brain just can’t.
I’m taking a break from politics podcasts but am listening to several true spy ones and a couple of legal ones: Justice Matters, Opening Arguments mostly.
I am trying to read all of my substack writers.
I am sleeping so much.
I’m told I am dying but here I am one year on from that pronouncement.
And now ‘tis nap time
I SHARED:
I was just reading a comment from
about bullet journals which made me laugh because there is a part of me that imagines some parallel life where I am a bullet journaler. I love the concept. And some of my journals aren’t so different. But I mean that I would like to be the kind of person who is a bujo influencer on Instagram, who uses twenty different pens and has decorative layouts for every month and day and week. Who actually tracks their habits daily and doesn’t stop after three days. I will never be that person mostly because that would sap all my energy and nothing on the to do list would ever get done. But oh in my fantasies I’m a bujo girl.Do you bullet journal?!?!
This topic also reminds me that I keep meaning to mention somewhere about Barbara Sher’s ideas for a Scanner Daybook.
- are you familiar? She uses Da Vinci’s journals as a core example. Have you covered his notebooks yet? (Forgive me if you have … I haven’t seen it and I love a lot about substack but not so much the search functionality 🤣) basically her idea is to take any idea you have and write it as far as you can with it because it will either spur you on to take the next step or you’ll realize that writing it down was enough. In a nutshell but there’s more it’s it than that and it can be a useful concept for a lot of people I think whose interests far outnumber any possible amount they could actually do in this lifetime.
I loved reading all of your responses! Those included:
From
“I love Barbara Sher’s scanner notebook idea. I have one set up on Notion with all my little rabbit holes of my exploration!
I love the original concept of a BuJo. I use some elements of it — especially love the Index, collections, and threading of notebooks idea — and while I love looking at all the aesthetic layouts, it just feels too time consuming and pointless to me. I like to throw down some stickers and washi; I’ll occasionally doodle or tip-in photographs or mementoes; but it’s pretty much just plain text and lists and notes.”
From
“It seems a little like a distraction technique, putting off the useful note making? They look beautiful and sometimes I do find myself doodling and designing pages but never to this extent!”
From
“OMG, I used to! But now, it just seems far too much like hard work in itself. I can't do pretty any more. I don't have time to crosscheck whether the 2nd is really a Tuesday in October nor go back and reawrite all the dates I got wrong once I realise I missed one out somewhere in Feb… 😱
I started a thread in my Members' Chat on this recently so it seems we're capturing a zeitgeist!”
From
“I am a bujo starter, too! I have my bujo’s from the last 4-5 years. Not because they are filled with all of my daily exploits. But because I enjoyed the act of filling in the pages. There’s something about being a minimalist bujo’r and creating my daily and monthly logs. First in pencil, then tracing over it with my .5 micron pen. For those couple of days, creating a fully functional 365 day planner with extra other bits to track things I’ll never track, is calming.
I recommend it to anyone who enjoys that sort of thing. It’s like how I’m doing Murdles these days and the occasional crossword or word search. I find things like that (repetitive) very relaxing in this crazy world I’m living in.
Does a part of me want to be as fancy as the Instagram posts? No. But I will say I went as far as creating my own “company” where the purpose was to create blank BuJo type journals for an entire year as a way to try out digital BuJo making for fiction writers. I’ve still got those layouts. Have you gone down the rabbit hole yet of digital bujo makers? It’s quite an interesting thing to behold but be warned you can be down that hole for a while…”
From
“I love this. It’s just how I feel myself. I hardly have time to do the tasks, let alone track them. My teenage souls loves all the stickers and pens - have you seen the pens that roll out a printed line of flowers and hearts?! I love it all. But in real life - sorry I have a life to live.”
Some of my responses to the above do a good job of elaborating on my personal thoughts, starting with my response to Kate:
Ah this comment just sent me back to when I was in high school, had lots of pen pals, and created tons of mail art to send to them. There was a store on the cool street in downtown Tucson where I’m from that entirely sold stickers. A whole store of stickers, with these rolls that you could choose from, taking as long or short of a length off of each roll. So much fun. And yes, those pens are fun as well. While this isn’t something I intend to get back into full force, I do think there’s an element here that could be fun to bring back as part of my creative practice and downtime.
That really leads to a point I made in answering Hannah:
Yep for me the time that goes into the beauty is not the point of a notebook, it’s all about the content of the words for me, and that’s part of why this doesn’t ever work for me. But I can also see how for some people making them beautiful and organized like this is a creative outlet that’s also a special part of the process. In my imaginary life, I’m one of those people :)
And emphasized in my answer to Erica:
I think your point is a really important one - that the making of the layouts, even if it’s only a few times a month, can be a really creative outlet that’s also soothing/meditative. It creates a sense of organization even if just in that moment. I do a lot of stuff with calendars and planners that often serves a similar purpose.
All of which is to say that I’m kind of curious now to think more about the act of creating the bujo as part of a creative practice, and the value of it whether or not you actually keep up with it on a consistent basis.
But one of my favorite parts of this conversation was with
who shared:“I was a ‘bujo girl, in a bujo world’ for a good year or two and it became a bit of an insanity project which was mostly focused on instagram. i built a decent sized audience and i absolutely love my bujos from 2016 and 2017, but i think that part of my life is beyond me now. nowadays i just write crappily in a basic planner and keep another notebook for doodling and sticking things down, without an instagram account solely dedicated to it :)”
Which prompted me to ask:
I wonder how many people would have gotten so into it if they weren’t also sharing it on Instagram. Do you think you would have?
Olivia said:
“yes and no! i think i wouldn’t have used it every day if it weren’t for instagram. and i wouldn’t have made it as pretty, i think? but i’m glad i did! but its like writing a substack — you do it because you love it, you go a bit crazy tweaking things and looking at the numbers, but in the end you’re also proud of what you’re doing.”
And then went on to post an image of one of her pages:
A note by @Kathryn Vercillo reminded me about the time I used to use a bullet journal, in 2017/2018. It was my most consistent paper habit, and this was mainly down to my obsessive Instagram use and the need to post something daily. But through that I also created an artefact which is kind of amazing — a beautiful object which documents exactly how I spent each week of my life during that period.
It makes me think about how social media often motivates us to create. I’m kinda thankful for it sometimes. For sure, other times I’m tearing my hair out over numbers, but for the most part I think it’s been a force for creative consistency in my life.
What I love about this exchange beyond just getting to enjoy the chat with Olivia is that I think it reflects how powerful Notes can be as a part of our own creativity - the conversations then spark thoughts and ideas and then grow into something else, if we let it.
I ANSWERED:
of Hype Yourself said in response to a post I did trying to gauge interest for a Substack authors book club:I would love to know more about your Substack book tour! I’ve written two non-fiction books. Would happily donate a set for a giveaway or something?
To which I explained:
I did a book tour for a month where other Substacks hosted guest posts, interviews, excerpts etc and my publisher and I promoted them in and off Substack.
I would love to collaborate on something with your books. I can’t tell if there’s enough interest here to start a book group but I’m hopeful.
And Lucy suggested that people might be interested in a post about the way I set up the virtual book tour, to which I answered:
It’s been interesting to see that people have been surprised by this approach since it’s something I’ve always done for my books via blog tours but I think it would be great to share the behind the scenes with others since people are expressing an interest in that. I’ll have to ponder a post about it.
So I’m thinking about that right now. At first I was thinking “there must be a million articles out there about how to set up a virtual book tour” but then I remembered that my own way of doing it is my way and unique and sharing that could inspire others. So I think I’m going to put that post together soon. There’s a poll about this and also a book club idea in yesterday’s post if you’d like to come give your two cents.
I RESPONDED:
of asked who has the best death in fiction? Naturally there are many great answers in the comments of the original post. I immediately said “the wicked witches of the east and west” although I confess I remember the movie far better than the books. As soon as I’d posted, I started thinking about the books that made me cry as a kid and immediately remembered the death in Bridge to Terabithia. So I added that one. agreed: “Bridge to Terabithia still haunts me!”If you haven’t answered, go to that original post and share what you’re thinking!
NOTES ON NOTES:
and were having a conversation and Donna tagged me in (thanks for thinking of me), asking:“Kathryn does a Notes round up every week so let’s ask her! Kathryn how do you save the Notes you want to go back to at a later time?”
My response:
To my knowledge there’s not currently a simple way to save notes on Substack … Like if they could add a “star” option to favorite notes then you could go back to your favorites.
I engage deeply with Notes, as you know, so I keep a running Google doc each week of the Notes I’m interested in sharing and commenting on further. If I were a spreadsheet person, I would probably create one with a link directly to the note and a short message to myself about what the note is about.
The only other option I can think of is to go directly to the note and then save it as a bookmark in a favorites folder on your own computer.
Oh also sometimes I’ll restack something with a short note because I know I want to come back to it and that way I can go to my own profile and look at my own notes I’ve posted and it’ll be there.
I am the kind of person who is always starting spreadsheets because I like the idea of their organizational genius but I never follow through. I can totally see starting one with columns for the author, the topic, and a link to the note but I’d never keep up with it or use it. But I do find that a running google doc from the week is useful for me. And of course I see the benefit of Substack adding a way to star / favorites Notes to come back to.
A CONVERSATION IN THE COMMENTS:
Just a note that I joined in a lot this week in the
Writer Office Hours. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. But when I do, I usually find that there are a lot of people there asking things I’m also curious about and sharing tips and thoughts that I find useful.Here’s an example of one conversation I enjoyed there this week with
:
Special thanks to
for sharing in this thread:“For those who don't already know, Kathryn's newsletter is awesome and she consistently highlights the work of other writers she likes and adds her thoughts about it. I've discovered and subscribed to many great newsletters thanks to hers!”
And to
for sharing some key points in Notes. And there’s a great idea beginning to percolate with about a Substack Matchup. And and also mentioned that they enjoyed doing my virtual book tour with me underneath something I had posted about it.I RESTACKED:
The restack that got the most interest from people this week was one that I restacked with just the comment “WOW. This thought.” so others clear felt the same as I did about what
said:
added:“Love this. I think my version of this each time I overhear a conversation. All these worlds. All this care and all these connections. It blows my mind.”
“I do love that. My lifespan exactly corresponds with the “Mother of All Demos” to now, and it’s been… interesting. So much hope early on around collaborating and sharing information.”
Other things I restacked:
This one also got some decent conversation, if you want to check out the comments:
The main thing I’d add is that I think/hope that the Substack subscription model is one way of shifting this. By giving our money to other writers/creatives, we tell the world that it’s critical to value this art.
I WAS RESTACKED:
Thanks to those who restacked some of my stuff this week with some great additional comments of your own:
I was newly interviewed by
of so a big thanks to her as well as to people who restacked with their own notes and thoughts including: , , , , , and especially to who shared the following awesomeness:“In awe of @Kathryn Vercillo, who has clearly had to suffer through so much, yet is such a bright light in supporting others, whether through her art tithing or just generally being an all round lovely person. If you don’t already subscribe to her substack, Create Me Free, you really really should.”
There was really such an amazingly rich conversation in the comments on that post so if you have a chance to spend some time with it, please do. Rae is creating a really great body of interviews related to women’s chronic illness and it’s a place where a lot of smart talk is happening.
quoted a portion of my post Mental Health Reasons I May Not Read Your Writing ... and Please Write It Anyway with some great elaboration of his own here. also quoted a (different) portion of that same post with thoughts here.
And it was restacked by
, , and . The latter added:“Wow Kathryn. Your message is incredibly powerful and offers valuable insights into the challenges many writers face, especially when dealing with mental health issues like depression. It's a candid and heartfelt reminder that there are various personal reasons why people may not engage with or read someone's work, and it often has nothing to do with the quality of the writing itself.”
I am really glad that other people are finding this helpful.
quoted my piece Is the Depression Spectrum Really More Of a Circle? Or a Spiral? Or a Keyboard?- of Photos Mostly for mentioning again the interview we did which I loved so much
- quoted me in her updated about page, so happy to lend my support to her great work in that way.
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Ok I’m very interested in this “scam tv docu” conversation. Will probably spend the day reading more about that! And bujo which I didn’t know was bullet journaling until now.
Having a quiet Sunday to dive into your thought and also waking up with new clarity about the project I'm working on. Thanks for your notes and notes and being part of your broad scope.