Substack: Office or Oasis?
If you commit, it can be both. Here's how.
Substack is noisier than it’s ever been.
But I love it here.
Over the past few months, this platform’s journey has been moving in several directions, as has been my own as a writer. Let’s see where we have both been; let’s lay out how our recent experiences—Substack’s and mine—can help you achieve your goals.
Websites, Medium, Substack oh my!
I’ve created multiple iterations of Medium accounts and personal websites over many years, mostly between full-time employment. But by December 2024, I had decided to give up full-time employment, and I came back to Substack.
It was time to give full-time writing a go.
“Come back” means I had been here once before to check it out, subscribe to some writers of interest, and stake a claim. I created a publication but didn’t launch it until I left corporate learning for good.
It was the best decision I’ve ever made in many ways.
At about the same time I was considering leaving the learning industry, I signed up for my first of several workshops with some world-class influencer entrepreneurs. I worked with Niharikaa Kaur Sodhi, Ayodeji Awosika, and Tim Denning; and I learned what today’s readers require, how to write for the major social media platforms, and how to build a business doing that.
Then I came back to Substack and formally launched my site.
In the five months I’ve been active on Substack, two major events have impacted the community here: the second election of Donald Trump and the collapse of Medium.
My time at Medium
I’d been publishing my writing on Medium on and off since 2016.
In February 2024, I had an essay titled “To Sit in the World,” published in Ben Ulansey’s Thought Thinkers, and it got boosted.
It was then that I realized I was a memoirist.
For a while after that, I continued writing memoirs and other nonfiction essays in Kiki Walters’ The Memoirist and The Age of Empathy as well as in Debbie Walker’s Middle Pause and more social-impact-oriented work in Thought Thinkers. I was also publishing writing tips in Ayo’s Practice in Public, where I had started editing as that publication grew in popularity.
My writing life on Medium reflected where I was in my journey—devoted to a writing life but not nearly focused enough. I was working hard but not smart. My work was suffering.
The editing process was frustrating and taxing at a minimum; it could be grueling for both writers and editors.
The feedback I received on submissions sometimes required revisions I wasn’t comfortable with. In some cases, I felt the suggestions improved the piece; in other cases, I pulled the work.
And as the algorithm continued to glitch, I wasn’t getting the eyes on the work to make it worth my while.
As an editor, I spent too much time on each submission, making suggestions and edits for improvement when I could have just rejected the story. There were a growing number of pieces that were AI-generated. We either rejected them outright or provided an opportunity for re-submission. This translated to more work for editors evaluating the piece and communicating with writers who tried to use AI despite the clear rules against it.
I enjoyed connecting with writers and helping them refine their work. But I quit in November, shortly after a new owner took over the publication. The excessive workload was working against me.
And soon after that, I launched on Substack and stopped publishing on Medium.
Refocusing myself on Substack
As I started publishing on Substack, I felt tremendous freedom accompanied by a lot of pressure.
I’ve published over 30 stories and re-focused myself as a writer of memoir essays. I developed my Bite-Sized Storytelling Boost to help writers produce quality work more efficiently. The Memory Vault tool I’ve created supports this process.
I continue to incorporate social impact messages in the context of the pieces I publish as memoirs or nonfiction essays.
Or Notes.
Notes have impacted heavily on my approach to Substack and what I can offer to other writers.
One of the things I’ve learned in the past couple of years in my writing life is the importance of systems. Every mentor I have worked with has offered systems to support the writing process. Using Notes as the basis of my Bite-Sized Storytelling toolset, I’ve developed a system of publishing both Notes and long-form essays that streamlines the writing process.
The process helps me post three notes a day and one long-form essay a week. And it has turned into an offering that will help other writers publish here as well.
That’s me. But the platform is changing as well.
The great migration
With Trump’s election and the resulting attacks on the freedom of the press, we’ve seen a great migration of newly independent journalists and established politicos to Substack.
Robert Reich and Dan Rather were here when I started; so was Scott Dworkin. Jim Acosta followed within a few months of my launch, then came (amongst many others) Meidas, Mehdi Hasan, Pete Buttigieg, Beto O’Rouke, and most recently Jasmine Crockett, and Katie Couric.
For people who are complaining about the inundation of these big names, please note that we are getting fresher and more relevant reporting than ever before. It would appear that the whole attack on the free press has backfired because this new form of journalism is democracy’s new superpower.
And if you’re worried about heavy hitters like Pete Buttigieg stealing your users, I’m impressed.
If you were worried about Glennon Doyle stealing your users, shame on you.
Sure it’s crowded here, but the platform’s growth will benefit you, even if you have to adjust, evolve, maybe even pivot.
Substack hosts change!
Decide what it is for you
Make Substack your office or your oasis. Commit to it and to a rhythm of work that suits your writing life and goals.
Stop complaining about how many people are writing here, going live, or posting beautiful photographs or paintings. Accept the fact that you’ll need to stand out.
At around the same time Trump took office, Medium broke and many people left that platform.
When I launched, there were under 3 million users on Substack. Today there are 5 million. It’s crowded! And with larger numbers comes both diversity in offerings and quality becomes inconsistent.
I believe that writers on any platform should produce quality work. However, as an editor of Practice in Public on Medium, I learned how important it is to have a place where writers can grow in community.
This is that place.
Just, please don’t push “Post” without reviewing what you’ve written.
I believe Substack can be both an oasis and an office. Come here every day because it is full of such beauty and support; commit to coming for x number of hours and getting x, y, and z done.
When I launched my newsletter, it had a different name. I was holding onto visions from my past. I gave myself a few months to get my writing legs firmly planted for this platform. That task included learning about Notes. It turns out that my offering evolved as my understanding of Notes did.
When I launched, I knew I would want to monetize. I felt pressure to start earning. So, I signed up for a program to learn how to do that.
But then I realized I needed time.
If you need time, give yourself some grace to take it. Here’s what you can do to make your time worthwhile, accomplish your short-term objectives, and achieve your goals.
Commit to the platform to achieve your goals.
Don’t chase instant success; build slowly for meaning and to last.
Engage fully—comment and send personal messages through DMs.
Stick to a schedule with enough flexibility to breathe and be creative.
Establish a goal for yourself; the means to achieve it come next in the form of a passion project or theme to focus on. Don’t force this.
Be intentional on Substack and you can make it your oasis and your office.
I publish my “Notes-To-Post” essay every Wednesday. That long-form post is based on three Notes posted earlier in the week. Workshops on my Bite-Sized Storytelling Boost are coming soon.