December '24/ January '25 Recap
PLUS an introduction to TOP IN FICTION!!!
Greetings, Fictionistas!
A warm welcome to our newest subscribers and a hearty “how the heck are ya?” to the rest of you fine friends of fiction.
We’re here with your post holly-daze recap of all the fun you may have missed during the busy end-of-year transition.
Please be sure to scroll all the way to the end for a message from one of our Community All-Stars. ⭐
We exchanged “presents” virtually
Back in December, we held our quarterly virtual meetup. The theme of the event was “bring your present,” as in bring something to share that you’re celebrating “present”ly. We didn’t talk New Year’s resolutions or compare year-in-review stats. We just enjoyed a lovely, gratitude-infused soak in our respective here-and-now. We had a fantastic turnout, and the presents shared were joyful and inspiring. Thanks to all who participated!
And for those who couldn’t make it, our next virtual meetup will be held sometime in March. Sadly, we can NEVER accommodate EVERYONE’s schedule/time zone for these, but if you want to provide some input to help us plan the next meetup so you can maybe, possibly, or definitely join us, here’s a convenient poll. (If the poll proves inconvenient, or doesn’t provide the option you need, feel free to drop your preferences in the comments.) Again - we can’t please EVERYONE, but we’ll do our best!
Be our guest (posts)!
We had some great contributions from writers this month (and last!). Be sure to check out these posts, if you haven’t already.
shared her thoughts on friendship in fiction, highlighting the close bonds we as writers form with our characters as they in turn connect with each other to form their own.Friendship and Fiction
The following is a guest-post from Marylee Pangman 📝✍️📚 , originally published on Women, Fiction and What Comes Next earlier this year.
Yours truly,
, struck a common heartstring in the fiction community with this post about reigniting the passion flames under our secret back-burner projects.I'm cheating on Substack, and you should too.
Today’s story is a guest post from Meg Oolders, co-host of Fictionistas, author of The Romantic and creator of Stock Fiction. Please “like,” share, and subscribe to her work, if you’re so inclined.
And
gave us all a reason to shelve our screens and keyboards and return to freehand writing … for the freedom of it.
Prompts, prompts, prompts …
Even if you missed the prompt events offered in December and January, you can still dive into the archived posts for some story making inspiration. Prompt parties are held monthly and include a live meetup, followed by a prompt post for those who can’t attend live, and finished up with a thread to share your work. If you’re looking for a way to engage more with fellow fiction writers and get some eyeballs on your fiction, this event is for you!
Plenty of info on the process in this month’s Prompt Celebration announcement, hosted by
andJanuary 2025 The Great Substack Prompt Celebration
Welcome back to another month — and a brand new year — of The Great Substack Prompt Celebration!
“Where’s the fiction”?
Fictionistas doesn’t publish fiction. We operate more like a clubhouse where fiction writers can gather, talk shop, support each other, and learn a few things along the way.
But the reality is, we’re all here trying to do the same thing.
Publish our fiction
Get people to read it
For the vast majority of us, the first item on that list is not the most challenging. Finding readers requires your work to be VISIBLE, not only on your own publication, and to your own loyal audience, but in spaces where people go to find something NEW from someone they’ve never heard of before.
Substack has dropped that ball time and time again with regard to fiction writing, to the point it seems nearly impossible for fiction writers to FIND each other when they first join the platform.
Some people in our community are working their butts off to change that.
Allow me to introduce one of those people working their butt off to prioritize fiction on Substack for both readers AND writers:
.Erica was kind enough to write up this short piece about her publication
. I heartily suggest you give it a read and subscribe to ASAP!
There is a lot of fiction to be found on Substack. Probably more than the average visitor knows about. And nowadays, readers looking for fiction are finding themselves in the hallowed halls of Substack, hands on hips, asking anyone who’d listen, “where’s the fiction?”
The “Substack way” of getting an answer would be to search the Discovery page for “Fiction.” However, the problem that’s existed since before the days of Notes, remains; Fiction isn’t always what’s discovered on the Discovery page.
Most of us have seen the lack of actual fiction mentioned or included on the leaderboards that claim to be for “fiction.” And when I saw this, I knew something needed to be done about it. So, on a whim, I created Top in Fiction. TiF for short.
The purpose and mission are one and the same and very clear: Highlight and promote 100% fiction, all the time, in every way possible.
When I created this in July I had no idea, more than six months later, the kind of reach it would have to both readers and writers of fiction. But beyond the growth, the community is what makes this venture so worth while for me. And if you haven’t heard of Top in Fiction, I want to tell you a little bit about it in the hopes you’ll join our mission.
The “bread and butter” of TiF is found on Fridays when we ask everyone to “Send Us Your Fiction.” This is the time for writers to self-promote and readers to share any fiction pieces they’ve read within the last week.
Everyone has 48hrs to share fiction in the comments section before the thread closes and the real work begins.
Then, every Monday an email goes out to all subscribers listing 20 featured fiction writers and their stories along with 5 honorable mentions! This year, I’ve added something extra, which is that I “go Live” using the new Substack Live feature to share any announcements, answer questions to anyone who joins, and most importantly, to read the titles and names of all the featured stories for the week! So far it’s been lots of fun and the feedback of doing these Live weekly sessions has been nothing but positive. I hope you are able to join us! They happen Monday mornings at 10am EST.
Included in the Monday emails, besides the list of fiction stories, is a PDF that shares each story with a clickable link and all featured writers get a medallion that can be included in the post of their story or used however they wish.
If you need another reason to subscribe: We’re this close to reaching our largest milestone of 1,000 subscribers. We’ve featured over 300 different fiction writers and shared over 750 stories. These fiction pieces range from Poetry to Micro Fiction and Serials and everything in between. We share romance, horror, climate fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy, and any other genre you could think of. All fiction is welcome here.
They say a rising tide lifts all boats. Look upon TiF as the tide that lifts all fiction writers to new readers daily.
Come on in out of the cold and hallowed halls. Share TiF among your friends. The home of fiction. We’ve got some really amazing things planned for 2025 that you won’t want to miss.
Thank you, Erica!
And thank you, readers and contributors of Fictionistas, for continuing to help our creative community flourish.
Happy New Year!
and
Top In Fiction is amazing!! So glad to see this collab with Fictionistas 😊📖 My two favourite newsletters on Substack!