Thoughts on Writing: A Substack Digest
Roundup of all of the amazing writing on writing happening here on Substack this week
Thank you so much for being here at Create Me Free where I explore the complex relationship between art and mental health. In addition to my own writing, I love to use this space to celebrate, encourage, and amplify other writers who are doing amazing work in related niches.
This is my Thoughts on Writing weekly digest, where I curate the best writing about writing on Substack, highlight connections between some of the pieces, elaborate on topics related to my niche or my own experience, and hopefully help you find new writing that educates, inspires and empowers you in your own work.
I also do a free weekly digest of the best writing about art and mental health. This weekly digest is only available to paying subscribers. Here’s some more about why. That said, I’m keeping the first edition free for everyone so that you can see in full the type of post you would receive weekly if you chose to subscribe. I very much need the support to keep this work going, so I hope you’ll find value here and decide to support it.
Housekeeping:
I’ve created my Table of Contents where you can see all of my post types and the posts available in each one.
I’ve made it so that you can opt out of the types of posts here that you don’t want email notifications for. Learn more here.
On a really tight budget? Learn about my Pay What You Can option here.
Okay, let’s dig in to all of the quality writing about writing that is happening right now here on Substack, including some tips and techniques for writers but mostly inspiration.
From the past week or so then …
A Creative Frame
of shared I am “with book”
which is this great frame:
“The idea being that whenever anyone asks you what you’re up to, you can say, “I am with book”, much like some 19th century pregnant woman of the house who is ‘with child’.
This struck me as GENIUS – imagine how you’d move through the world if you reframed your creative work as a new being, one that relied on you to be brought to life?”
Marion elaborates on this in such a great way and I am here for it. Love the tips within the post. And also want to add two things:
1. It is okay to recognize if you're still in the vulnerable early stages where you don't know if the pregnancy is going to flourish and you don't want to tell too many people because you're just protecting it and yourself around it. Sometimes creative work needs that protection before it's ready to be shared with the world.
2. And also, sometimes we lose our babies. Sometimes no matter how much we really want a creative piece to come into the world, it doesn't ... at least not in that time and not in that way. And when that happens, it is not just okay but important to grieve that and recognize that it's not something to feel shame about. You are here to mother in many, many ways.
The Writing Life
of shared in Ten Things, Part Five:
“I’m bopping back and forth between book ideas, for months, really, and I realize part of the reason it’s happening is because I’m searching for a way to make what I want to write work for everyone — for my agent, for publishers, for you who is reading this, for therapists and readers of literature and every single person in the world, really, as if that’s possible. After writing a self-help book, it’s been a big challenge to truly turn inward and explore what wants to come forth in this next book — not what will be most helpful or most liked but what I want to write the most. There is some grief around how blurry this has felt, as if I should know and be totally clear on it; and there is some relief in admitting just how hard it can be, and not rushing to clarity before I’m ready, before I’ve done the work that is needed to stay in integrity. Creating is hard sometimes. This isn’t a problem.”
of wrote in Pep Talk:
“One person’s yuck is another person’s yum. As I was writing You Could Make This Place Beautiful, taking risks with both form and content, I suspected that for every reader who attached to certain craft choices, there would be a reader who’d chafe at those same choices. (Sort of like, “For every bird there’s a stone thrown at a bird.”) The direct address, the vignettes, the meta aspect of the narration, the privacy boundaries—I knew all of these were “love it or loathe it” choices.”
which is a great reminder that not everyone is going to like your writing work and that the important thing is that you are doing the work that you believe in doing, that you’re being true to your creative self, regardless of who is loving or loathing it.
PS: Maggie has a new children’s book ready for pre-order.
RELATED: From Picturing the Pause by of
“There’s never a guarantee that our creations will produce the fruitful outcome we desire. Sometimes, we are met with silence from our audience and we don’t quite know what it means. Failure is part of it too. Nevertheless, let this be an invitation to work on developing courage alongside our creative practices. It’s probably the most sustainable path as we travel through our creative journeys.”
shared What can travel burnout teach us about managing a creative life?
which is about the challenges of solo travel and how, of course, no matter where you go, there you are. I relate so much to this about travel which is a story for another time, but I also relate to this, which gets at the heart of why we keep choosing the writing life:
“I hope that these words, while specific to my experience, ring in some way true to one’s life as a creative person. Similar to the strange and somewhat scary experience of hitting the road alone, the life of a creative person can be lonely and without immediate validation. There are ups and downs, and yes plenty of burnout if you’re not careful. But boy do you learn a lot, and get the privilege of living your life the way you want.
Gratitude and intention as the ways forward still feel like the best moves to me so I will be applying those to the rest of my trip. But also to my studio practice when I get back in there this September.”
LOVE WHAT YOU’RE READING? PAY IT FORWARD TO THE WRITERS BY SHARING IT WITH OTHERS:
of shared in Taking it Easy on Yourself:
“I've been on a self-imposed "break" since the end of 2021. My break started as a desperate move to regain my mental health. Then, it became a book-writing sabbatical. And then, I kept extending my break by taking on short, lightweight "jobs" that felt manageable given my limited capacity.
Then offers this, digging into all the details in the full post:
I certainly didn't have a "plan" for my break other than "write book." But upon reflection, I think there are four strategies that have helped me follow through on taking a longer-than-expected break:
Acknowledging what I need and affirming what restores me
Focusing on the lighter lifts to stretch financially
Being honest about what I can go without
Being honest about what I can't do
Sometimes we want to rush through a creative project or into one when what we need is to rest in the space of waiting for the thing to be ready to come to fruition. To return to the frame we began with, the baby can’t be born too soon if you want it to thrive.
of shared in I Think My Book is Dead
how sometimes you just have to realize that a project you absolutely expected to finish just isn’t right to continue with anymore … and that’s okay …
“It’s now many years since I started writing this novel of mine. It has been a practice novel, in that I have discovered a myriad of ways of writing fiction that doesn’t work. I have read books on writing techniques and tried them while writing this book. I have written with reckless abandon and had to pull everything apart and rewrite the whole thing. I have added and subtracted characters. I have been structured and unstructured, I have planned scenes in detail and written purely on intuition. …
Somewhere along this way, I grew too far from where this novel began. I have put my struggles down to being occupied by running a business, not having mindspace, and for a while, that might have been true. But I think it was masquerading a deeper root problem, that just like Elizabeth Gilbert, I have lost what I once had with my novel. It wasn’t until I cleared everything else away and still struggled to write that I realised that it might be time to move on from this project.”
answers publishing questions in Before and After the Book Deal
and someone asked about how to reframe thoughts during the querying process if you’re a writer living with depression/anxiety. Love this part of the answer (and also the whole thing):
“Make lists of positive things about your writing that nobody can take away from you no matter what. You want to start reminding yourself of how absolutely freeing and exhilarating it feels to write, and how much you need the practice in your life. Write out everything you love about writing, and your writing in particular. Don’t link these things to anything related to gatekeepers. This list is for you and you should have agency over the things on it. Don’t ever forget that you got into this whole thing because of how it makes you feel. That writing is first and foremost something you do for you. Don’t let the gatekeepers mess up your love of writing. They only have that power if you give that power to them.”
I also highly encourage creatives to create a “brag book” of things that you’re truly proud of when it comes to your work. This could certainly be awards and publications but for me it includes things like printed out emails/comments from people who were really touched by my work, pieces that maybe didn’t find a home yet but really feel like my best stuff in a heartfelt way, encouraging letters to myself, a certificate from a class I took that was really hard and I finished it, a piece of writing about writing that I did as a child in crayon …
RELATED: Halt! Who goes there? By in
Courtenay mentioned those gatekeepers and Priya shares about Threshold Guardians from Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey framework:
“Thresholds are often guarded by threshold guardians. They block your way. They might be actual people (e.g., authority figures like parents, bosses, etc.), or they might be life situations that seem to hinder your progress. They can also be your internal fears, doubts, and self-sabotaging behaviors. Threshold guardians test you to see if you are committed to the journey. They are not the villains of your story though they do appear antagonistic.
If writing my book was equivalent to setting off on a hero's journey, I'd just run into my first threshold guardians, procrastination and perfectionism. As if that wasn't enough, the words sounded heavy and burdened. The subject wasn't too grim- my novel is a fantasy-rich, coming-of-age story- so I couldn't understand the heaviness. Maybe I wasn't the writer I thought I could be, and it was time to give up.”
Of course, Priya did not give up. And the frame of the hero’s journey that Priya is exploring in this Substack is a great one to work with in your own writing/creative journey.
From Hope is The Lifeline that Connects Us by of
“Hope is the fragile thread that weaves its way through the narratives of our lives. In a world where hopelessness can engulf even the strongest souls, our moral duty is to protect and nurture the hope within the stories we share. We must remember that by sharing negativity, we risk erasing the light that can keep someone alive, resilient, and determined.
If you want to be a writer, embrace your role as hope-bringers and steadfastly uphold the power of possibility in every narrative you craft.”
I’m undecided about how I feel about this perspective. My gut instinct says that sometimes we can’t write the silver lining because that’s not where our truth is at. But then I think of everything I love to read and even when it shares the darkest stuff, there’s an element of hope of some kind that does pull us through.
I recently read “Little Earthquakes: A Memoir” by Sarah Mandel, which is a cancer memoir with a lot of twists and turns. I read it primarily because she’s a narrative therapist in trauma psychology who applied that lens of storytelling to moving out of her own dissociation around the confusing experience of being a young pregnant woman diagnosed with a form of cancer that it’s rare to recover from and then being one of the ones who recovered … I don’t want to spoil it so what I’ll say is that there’s a lot of hope and silver linings and happy endings but life also doesn’t have an ending until death (and perhaps not even then) so it’s not a finished story and it’s not hopeful in the way you might initially expect a story like this to be. So I think I have that in mind and I am sitting with it and sitting with Winston’s words and thinking it all over.
What do you think?
RELATED: By Mariah Zebrowski Leach in Sunday Prompts at
“After my own struggles as a new mom with rheumatoid arthritis, I always wanted to write a book about pregnancy and parenting with chronic illness, but I think I was waiting for some sort of conclusion to my own story—as if I would magically hit some special point where my own life experiences would culminate into some resonant ending. But since the fire, I’m beginning to think that maybe the important thing isn’t a “conclusion” at all. Maybe what I need to do is write about the journey, and the inevitable ups and downs I have faced along the way. Maybe I will never get there; likely there doesn’t even exist. But perhaps I can figure out how to thrive here.”
of wrote Bad Case of The I Don’t Wannas
“I have a bad case of the I Don’t Wannas. I don’t want to write this newsletter and I don’t want to do that contract on my desk and I don’t want to fold that laundry or think about dinner. I don’t wanna attend to the 200+ emails in my inbox. I. Don’t. Wanna.
But I will. Not only because I have to do these things (…..dinner will be take out) but because it is not the tasks that don’t want to be done. It’s just a feeling. I am having a feeling, a normal end of summer feeling, and it will pass. I will feel better doing some things, not because productivity = self worth, but because NOT doing them will make me feel worse (and, um, piss off my clients etc, lol).”
And then this great reminder …
“The real key here, that I’ve learned over time, is to not spiral. I am not a failure because I’m off my writing schedule. I am not worthless because I am not excited to do the job I love. I will not let shoulda woulda coulda drown me. This is just what it is right now. It will be different later. I am overall ok. Of course I would rather be on the beach.”
On Writer’s Block
of wrote The Hardest Part of Writing a Book:
“Tess Gerritsen blew my mind once. I paraphrase, but she said every book, when she sits down to start, she forgets HOW. She’s spot on. There’s a moment when the blank page stares you in the eye and says all sorts of nasty, cruel things. It reminds you of every one-star review you ever received, that your sales aren’t what they could be, that your idea is dumb, your title has been done before, every story is derivative, there are only 7 plots…”
and then shares some tips.
of wrote How An Idea Can Grow from Writer's “Blank”
“When I’m stuck, when I don’t have any fresh ideas, I sometimes, as now, sit down and write precisely that. I’m mired, glued, bolted, pinned, frozen. Take your pick. No characters, no plots, no swirling ideas.
There’s no use denying it, so I give the moment its due.
It’s not writer’s block – an unwelcome, if sometimes necessary, pause in the action.
This is all out Writer’s Blank.”
wrote The Unexpected Joys of Writer’s Block
“I need creativity, sometimes I have to temporarily change how I access it
Writer’s block is a thing, so I know the feeling of being unable to access your writing skill is a universal experience among writers, and that, I find quite comforting.
I’ve tried to learn overtime that it will come back, but because it’s an ability that, through illness, I’ve lost for long periods of time and had to fight so incredibly hard for, it’s difficult to trust it’ll return, and it’s triggering every time I experience these blocks.
Now I am coming out of that fog, I am surprisingly grateful for being unable to write in that short time. This and having so much going on acted as a huge challenge to my creativity, one I’ve really risen to. I needed something to channel my feelings and thoughts into, something to help me process, but what I usually use obviously wasn’t available to me the majority of the time.”
and shared what that looked like most recently.
Also check out ’s poem in called A Lifelong Affair: The One Relationship Where I Don’t Have Boundaries, written in response to a conversation about writer’s block
On Famous Writers and Books
shared Margaret Atwood, An Island
about filmmaker Michael Rubbo’s 1984 documentary 'Once in August' which tries to argue that Atwood was writing autobiography into her fiction:
“How much of a writer’s life trickles into the work? And if a writer’s life appears in her work, how much of it is true? These are the questions at the heart of the documentary, along with the director’s assumption that Atwood is haunted, and her books, which he describes as somber in tone and filled with female victims, are drawn from her “repressively benevolent” upbringing. Rubbo’s persistence makes for a brutal (and delicious to watch) fifty-seven minute tête-à-tête with one of the sharpest minds in contemporary literature.”
I especially love the roundup of quotes from famous authors about how a reader can’t know a writer based on their fiction writing alone. It includes these two Atwood quotes:
“Wanting to meet an author because you like his work is like wanting to meet a duck because you like pâté.”
“All writers are double, for the simple reason that you can never actually meet the author of the book you have just read. Too much time has elapsed between composition and publication, and the person who wrote the book is now a different person.”
And also from Jean Rhys:
“All of a writer that matters is in the book or books. It is idiotic to be curious about the person.”
Speaking of Jean Rhys, from wrote Jean Rhys and the Mother-Daughter Complex
which is a comprehensive overview of the author’s work as it relates to the mother-daughter theme.
“Although Rhys insisted that she began to forget about her mother, she undoubtedly encodes her into her texts. Most of her five novels feature mothers or mother figures of some description, whether dead, dying, absent or step. Her writing also often centres around abortions and infant death, locating Rhys’s position that the women within her narratives can neither find maternal love or provide it.”
By the way, did you know that has a Substack …
of shared 3 Ways Students Took Notes Before Computers
“For those of you who shudder at the thought of writing in books, consider that the great Humanist educator, Erasmus (1466-1536), argued that students ought to completely surround themselves with quotations. Not only should they write in blank spaces of textbooks, but they should also cover blank walls with quotations.”
I’m here for it. Love all the quirky history in this whole post.
of asked a community question prompted by :
Which fictional characters would make the best parents?
My favorite answer was from
:“Oh, my, is this exciting!! I would choose to have Glenda the good witch from Oz as my Mother and the iconical father whom Robin Williams plays in Mrs. Doubtfire as my Father. I'd still come away from childhood scarred, but in a much better and more magical way!”
But there are lots and lots of good answers there and it’s a fun conversation to go join. My answer:
I'm gonna go with Aibileen Clark from The Help and Dr. Ruth Barnhouse (Sylvia Plath's fictional psychologist in The Last Confessions of Sylvia P.) Yep, I just want two moms. With a little bonus help from the Peter Pan dog Nana.
What’s your answer?
of Shared My Latest Encounter With The 48 Laws of Power
which is about:
“the perennial bestselling book known as the “The 48 Laws of Power” by Robert Greene. This immensely popular read explores strategies for gaining and maintaining power in various situations through insights into human behavior, historical examples, and practical advice.”
I haven’t read it myself, hadn’t even heard of it honestly, and don’t know that I ever will read it, but how much did I love this description:
“What makes him unique among authors is his ability to weave historical anecdotes, psychological insights, and practical advice into his works. Greene's writing style is characterized by its analytical approach to understanding human nature and the dynamics of power. He has a knack for dissecting intricate interpersonal relationships, often revealing the less obvious motivations behind people's actions.
Personally, I love how his writing polymatically draws from a wide range of sources, including classical literature, philosophy, and biographies. His books represent a fascinating smorgasbord of self-help, history, and social commentary.”
Writing Tips
of discussed story architecture
and specifically how to go about distilling the themes in your own story. Explaining why this is important:
“For a reader to stay hooked, they need to find meaning in your story. The external arc, the action, is crucial, as it provides the skeleton for the internal story of transformation—i.e., the juicy reason your readers keep reading. A story without a skeleton can be sloppy, abstract, and hard to track for meaning, whereas conversely a story that is all skeleton can be glib, empty, and lacking the emotional current that keeps readers turning the page.”
of shared 6 reflections from 6 months on Substack, including:
“Regardless of what I’m writing about I try to have a narrative that runs through it, something that ties the initially disparate thoughts together into one cohesive story. I often find that comes together in the edit and I spend as much time, if not more time, editing than I do writing. I cut things pretty ruthlessly and paste them into another document in case I want to develop them into something else. I rarely do but it makes it easier to chop them out and put them somewhere else that to hit delete. I play with the order of paragraphs, I reorder sentences and I try to keep the writing as tight and clear as possible. It can be hard but it’s also so much fun and I love it even in the moments when I’m hating it, y’know? Ultimately, I just want to be a good storyteller and I’ll keep practising forevermore because there’s always more to learn and always more to tell.”
of offered tips on How to Keep a Writer’s Notebook:
“Above all else, come as you are into this space. Some days, your writing will look fluid and gorgeous. Some days, it will look like something has dipped itself in ink and crawled over the pages. Both are fine. Despite what your teacher told you, presentation is morally neutral.
Get your thoughts down in the way that suits you best. For me, that’s just long blocks of writing. But you can do it however you like. It’s yours.”
Alex of shared How To Create a Fictional Language
which covers the seven levels of linguistics and how to use them to create a fictional language for your own writing world. For example:
“Graphemics is the study of the basic components of language, such as letters and other written symbols. It looks at how these components are used to represent words and sounds.”
This is a paid post but you get a preview and can try a 7 day free trial.
of Shared Thoughts: On Writing
which is “ the can’t-miss excerpts on the deeply personal craft of writing” excerpted from her interview series. Lots of gems in there from
, , and other amazing writers.
Marketing of Writing/ Going Paid on Substack
of shared Substack Field Guide and a Simple Marketing Model:
“So, the Substack Field Guide is not a locked-step, do this - get that manual. It is a learning experiment being documented in real time. It means looking at hundreds of Substacks through the lens of the 5 Es marketing process … a form of crowd-wisdom: synthesizing what I see authors doing well (in a marketing sense) or not so well. Identifying and highlighting Substackers who are figuring out how to use this system aesthetically and commercially and may be a step or two ahead of us.”
And in this newsletter addresses the issue of the Paywall on Substack:
“I have struggled and flip-flopped on this. I want to write and just leave everything open to everyone. I don’t know if that’s because of some innate generosity or a function of Imposter Syndrome. However, I finally realized if I wanted to help people build their writing businesses, I had to take my own medicine. I had to understand what it takes to create enough value that readers want to pay for it. I had to be willing to stand up and say “What I am creating is valuable and worth paying for.” I had to ask for money.
of explained in Notes:
“Did something a little scary which was send out an email to my free subscribers just being totally honest that 90% of my content will now only be available/accesible to my paying members only as I want to prioritise them. this means that overnight i've lost some free subscribers. but this is OK and even good. I am all about growing a community who feel valued, who want to be there — not growing numbers for numbers sake. ✨ *and if anyone who can't afford it right now emails me asking for a free month that will always be an available option. Xoxo”
People are expressing support for her there. I love that
and mentioned appreciation of her boundaries. Ultimately, we get to decide what’s right for us here. And Claire added appreciation for the transparency; something I also find helpful in our writerly world.Emma also elaborated in this complete post.
RELATED: Check out A Poem on Boundaries by of
RELATED: That’s Enough Internet for Today: How People Set Digital Boundaries by for
“With more and more of our daily life taking place online, it’s harder to know when it’s time to pull away. I often have to actively choose what kind of night I want to have: one where I cook myself dinner and clean my house and maybe see a friend, or one where I disappear into a TikTok hole for three hours, losing out on doing all those things and gaining nothing.”
I shared this in Writer Office Hours:
My personal goal is to find 1000 people to support me at 100 annual paid subscriptions ... this shows the world we all believe in six figure writers and process over product. I practice artistic tithing so I give a minimum of ten percent of my pre-tax income back to other writers, artists, performers etc and do my best to promote, support other creatives on this platform and elsewhere.
I offer a pay what you can subscription and also currently offer lost content free. I’m playing with what to offer only paid and expect this will change over time.
That is my money goal. But my bigger goal is to create a body of work exploring the complex relationship between art and mental health so success to me is asking myself if each post adds to that.
So my two cents is to set a goal for yourself, whether you share it or not, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be financial or numbers based. Paid subscriptions can ebb and flow but you define your own success parallel to that process.
Having been marketing/promoting my own work for decades, the information he shared rang true from a business / financial perspective but isn’t relevant to where I’m at emotionally in my work. I’m in a space where I am leaning on faith that I’m doing the work I’m supposed to doing in the world and that it’s going to reach the people it’s meant to reach … and that in doing so, somehow the universe is going to show up to support me in this. So whether it’s through the 1000 subscribers or some other thing I can’t imagine right now coming out of it all, I’m believing in it.
But that’s not to say that you shouldn’t learn the marketing side. Russel is right on with all of the info on that and if you haven’t done a lot of work around that yourself then it’s worth knowing the parts about that which are difficult as well.
RELATED: From The Platform I Rely On Even More Than Instagram by of
Who is starting a four week series for paid subscribers about Resilient Marketing that looks really good and says:
“However, in my experience, when the focus of my marketing is just “sales”, I often end up falling short. I actually find that marketing works best when I’m using it to build familiarity and trust. Familiarity, in that people know what my product is and what it’s for. Trust, in that if they decide my product is for them, they feel confident buying from me and getting what they paid for.”
RELATED: From Creative Bytes #123 by
sharing Lessons for Artists from Danny Meyer's Setting the Table
“Meyer's principle of giving first and giving abundantly can be a game-changer. Artists can adopt this by offering exclusive content to their loyal followers, providing free mints, or even providing educational resources to budding artists. This not only fosters goodwill but can also build a loyal and engaged community.”
Letting go of comparison and competition in favour of curiosity and self-compassion by Charlene Storey of Haver & Sparrow
offering another helpful frame:
“Every year for the past few years I’ve made a digital vision board and have it set as the background on my laptop. I fill it with images, words, places, and inspiration for the year ahead and it cheers me up every time I look at it. Sometimes what’s there is connected to specific goals but more often it’s connected to how I want to feel. This year in the centre is a quote: “Focus on the step in front of you, not the whole staircase.” These words remind me that we don’t have to have a ten-year plan figured out at all times, we just have to focus on the next step. So, I started to think about the next step (this letter!) and let the rest go. Those steps are for another day.”
Congrats to Kate Jones of A Narrative of Their Own on the milestone of one year on Substack!
“I have also been blown away by the readers who have chosen to invite me into their inbox each week. When I started out last August, my subscribers were all people I knew personally! I also have no social media channels, so I didn’t bring anybody with me from other platforms. Each and every subscriber has found me through either recommendations from some of the other writers here (thank you so much!!) or from finding me through the Substack network. When I turned on paid earlier in the year, I was so pleased that some of you were even willing to support my work with a regular paid subscription - and for someone who used to hide their writing in a cupboard, never to be read, until I was over 40 years old, you have no idea how much that means.”
Let’s all remember how much reading and supporting helps writers at all stages of the journey.
has a great interview series called Grow and this week was a chat with who says:
“Writers are undervalued. Those of us who cut our teeth in traditional media are very much accustomed to bad pay, rigid hierarchies, and the constant message that it’s the platform and not the writer who holds power. My experience of Substack so far (in just over a year) is very much the opposite. So my advice to other writers on Substack: don’t apologise for your best efforts. Don’t preempt rejection or lack of engagement by smothering or diminishing your own work. Push it as though it has value, because it does, and because no one will ever invest in it as deeply as you will.”
Laura shares how she’s making a living off of Substack with lots of great insight into what it takes.
A Celebration of Words
My dad and I used to keep a shared list of “ugly words” and also regularly told each other about new vocabulary words that we loved. He often told people that he was elozable (amenable to flattery.) My dad is gone now and I wished I could text him when I read about the Italian word menefreghismo in:
Careless Whispers of a Bad Friend by of
“Menefreghismo goes beyond basic carelessness, it also expresses disdain and a sense of primacy, of entitlement towards everything and everyone else, and that's what kills communities and communication between different cultures, if you ask me.”
of shared The August Lens Dump
which is more photos than words but what I loved was the series of synonyms and alliteration in the subtitle:
“A hodge-podge, mishmash, medley, motley, a pot pourri (if you fancy), of photos from my diary for August. Moments I couldn't miss.”
of shared in Living with art stops one wilting! Letters from the late Austrian artist Maria Lassnig
“Lassnig’s phrase “a palatable broth” also reminds me of a moment in Elena Ferrante’s 2002 novel The Days of Abandonment when the narrator is looking at photos of herself and her husband and their children, and thinks: “What a complex foamy mixture a couple is.”
I love this line—love the sentiment and love that there is no comma between “complex” and “foamy,” even though I bet many copyeditors would insist that there should be one. I think one’s daily mood is also a complex foamy mixture, which we endeavor more or less successfully to turn into a palatable broth?”
Simply Beautiful Writing
I want to wind down with some selections that just really inspire me as a writer because of their beautiful way with words. The topic doesn’t matter so much as the way that the topic is written about. I hope they inspire you as well. These are just selections so go read the whole pieces and celebrate these writers. After all -
as shared this week in There Is No Frigate Like a Book:
“I think most writers fall in love writing because they fell in love with reading first. Most of us remember that first moment when words became more than words, unfurling inside the mind into something as enormous and wonderful and even slightly frightening as Jack's beanstalk, and with the same power to transport.”
From On The Intimacy Of Becoming Whole from of
“As a child, I became the acreage I lived on.
I became the mulberry bush and the wild silk moth. I became the skinned snake hung over the oil drum and the life-saving bushfire that cauterized the Land. I became the fuzzy-skinned peach tree and the vampire-toothed bullfrog. I became the bleached felt and the velvet dog who ribboned through it. I became the lightning-split Jacaranda and the borehole.”
From In Which I Rot in the Ground by of :
“When we go on walks, my five year old always reaches up to hold my hand. Her little palm and fingers are often sticky with the residue of childhood - glue, sugar, sap. During the first years of my parenthood, I might have pulled my hand away and told her to go inside and wash her hands. But I’ve been a parent for nearly 15 years, an epoch in the childhood time scale. I know kids don’t stick for long. So I just hold on tighter, willing my skin to absorb the trace elements of her existence as she is, right now.
My two older daughters have mostly grown out of reaching for my hand. I find myself reaching out to them, in quick touches. Desperate to be layered down to the bone with artifacts of their actuality. Depositing my fourteen year old into my fingertips as I brush her hair back from her face. Settling my eleven year old into my palm when I put my hand on her shoulder.”
From of I Took a Trip to the Foreign Country of my Past:
“Sometimes when I look back at my erstwhile life, I’m hit with existentialist angst because the artist formerly known as Katherine Ormerod just doesn’t exist anymore. She is so distinct from the woman I am today, so distant as to not even resemble a cousin. Did it even happen? Hard to say as I burnt the photos. But just to be abundantly clear, I harbour no desire to return to that time, nor the mistakes I knew I was making. The stream my life has rippled into is healthy, deep and bountiful. I changed my luck or at least luck stood in my way and didn’t allow me to pass. But I don’t know whether I will ever be able to bury the bones of that other life completely. When my memories cut through the fabric of worlds, and sit tart on my tongue like last night’s vodka, they can feel impossible to scour. Like any kind of grief, mementoes of a broken heart run bottomless in your marrow.”
Loved this celebration of writer of by :
“Sara Benincasa is a true wordsmith, weaving tales and crafting narratives that transport readers to unimaginable realms. Her literary prowess is evident in her thought-provoking essays, where she fearlessly tackles complex subjects with grace and humor. From her insightful commentaries on society to her soul-stirring memoirs, Sara's words possess the ability to ignite emotions and inspire change. Her eloquence is like a symphony for the soul, leaving readers in awe of her linguistic wizardry.”
When one writer uses thoughtful imagery and vocabulary to describe another writer in a positive light, it can inspire all of us.
Classes, Courses, Workshops, Submission Opportunities, Announcements:
- here on Substack provides leads on eight high-quality literary submission opportunities each week, so that’s a great one to go follow.
- of offers a Skillshare class about success on Substack that you can try out with a thirty day free trial.
Check out Memoir Monday by
for some more writing classes, both in person and online- of Things Worth Knowing With Farrah Storr offers a monthly writing salon and a new Substack support group chat for paid subscribers
- and are hosting Substack Soiree, a five week “supportive group programme for anyone looking to start, grow or expand their Substack presence.” Sign up by September 10.
- says in Between the Issues: “In 2022, we launched our first annual writing week. We had so much fun that, this year, we’re extending the #MamaAndWriting celebration for the entire month of September. We’ll be supplying writing prompts, coming together for virtual write-ins, and answering questions during an Ask Me Anything. Keep an eye on our blog, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn for more info.”
I am thrilled to be virtually attending A Writing Room writers retreat with teachers that include
, SARK, Julia Cameron, Anne Lamott and more. I’ve started a chat in the retreat’s Facebook group for any Substack writers and hope others will join me! Definitely wish I could be doing this one in person but it wasn’t in the cards this time.
PLEASE HELP ME MEET MY GOAL:
My goal is to find 1000 people who are interested in subscribing to this work at a rate of $100 per year. This shows the world that we as creatives believe artists and writers can and should earn six figures. I practice artistic tithing, meaning that at least 10% of my income automatically goes to support other artists, writers, makers, creatives, performers, etc. So if I meet my goal, we keep at least $10000 of that right in the creative community. I also make every effort to continuously encourage, support, share and promote the work of others.
$100 per year feels like a lot. But it works out to less than $2 per week.
If this is something that you believe in, I really need the support of paid subscriptions to be able to keep doing this work that I’m deeply committed to. In fact, I believe in this work so much that I’ve self-funded a year of full-time work here using a business loan. If I don’t reach the above goal by Summer 2024, I may have to revisit things.
Thank you for the mention Kathryn, you are quite an avid reader on Substack. Your weekly round up is commendable, good effort to help the community sum up quality reads for the week. I have already picked up a few to read. Keep going, I enjoy the read and appreciate the great effort you have put in.
I love @marionpiper idea of saying “I am with book”, and plan to say so from now on!