I know exactly what you mean. The more I write posts for publication, the more I open other files or a notebook and write whatever the hell I want. Never to share!!! Well articulated 👍
I'm still retraining myself to give time back to my side projects, which more often than not are my big picture projects (novels, etc.) that get sidelined by the littler stuff. Then ... when I make a little progress on those bigger projects, I must try to resist the temptation to SHARE about it immediately. 😂
I so agree. I love the collaborative aspect of Substack in so many ways, but I don’t want feedback on everything I write. Having the secret project that isn’t subject to commenting is my quiet little happy place. It’s just mine 🥰
For me the challenge is always carving out time for/and committing to the work that is invisible to others. It's a bit like motherhood, in that much of the hard work being done goes unnoticed ... and that's usually the best work. The work that makes the biggest difference in the grand scheme. 🙂
OMG I love this post. Thank you so much! I was "this many" years old when I learned that this was the answer to the question I didn't know my soul was asking. ❤️
I'm making a real effort this year to set aside time for my slow-grow projects. Instant gratification can be highly addictive - and distracting! It requires great will power to choose a quieter workspace with less engagement over an active one that's constantly smacking you in the face with dopamine. 😂
I think richer detailed experiences don't lend themselves too well to more guide oriented substack so therein lies my distinction but I like how the two can play on one another so as not to reinvent the wheel
I am starting to think large projects like novels are best done in private. I think there is a place for writing serials online, but they should be episodic serials, closer to television series than novels. But I have one novel I am writing online that I need to finish online. Then the next novel, I think I will do in private (and then maybe serialize.) Live and learn.
The sticky part for me is knowing I want to write things that I can share on my newsletter while simultaneously wanting to write the books in the background. Because there's an audience for one, I usually feel a bit of pressure to show up there first, even if it means making less progress on the book. I'm trying to reverse that thinking this year. It might mean I show up here less, but that might not be such a terrible thing. 😉
I know I've never commented before, but I'm thinking maybe I should step out from behind the safety of my own anonymity. I know a lot of you have seen me lurking about, maybe read some of the Notes that I've put up over the years? I don't get out much, which is my fault. I suppose for a long time I was looking for my niche. I couldn't find it, so I carved one out for myself. I just wanted to say that this place, since I retired, well, the whole of Substack is my secret place. It's the fulfillment of a writing life left unattended. Everything that I've posted, pretty well all of it, is stuff I wrote and never sent in to magazines because I always overwrote things.
This latest story that I started? "Cinderella & Her Sisters"? I'm pretty sure I started that about a dozen years ago, if not more. It's been a side project of mine for years. I just threw it out there thinking it would force me to work on it. My serial: "The Shield of Locksley"? I came up with that when I was around eighteen. I'd been reading Dumas and Mallory of all things. I wrote a Table of Contents and about 50 pages in a notebook, since then, it's been rolling around in the back of my head for close to fifty years. And with all those old stories, I still have that one...my, what I call: "Apprenticeship." Three different versions of the same Roman/Christian epic and each one 250,000 words just begging to be restructured.
Good thing here is, when I post, I never see a lot of feedback. I'm lucky if I see three per post. I never see my story running along that top banner on the Homepage, and I actually like not seeing it up there. I don't mind sending it out into the great wide void. My dopamine rush comes from the creating of the story itself. I go over and over and over a chapter, because I have the time. I haven't gone back to my Apprenticeship for a long time. But it's there; it's lurking, waiting to entice me with the promise of research beyond my wildest dreams. (I don't need to use the library and snail-mail; or depend on inter-library loans anymore? It's all at my fingertips!)
I have a list a few miles long of unfinished or just barely started projects I'd love to bring back to life during my empty nester years. But my kids are barely in middle school now, so I got a ways to go. No rush, though.😊I'd like to get a book published (by someone other than myself) in the next few years ... for me it's the stepping stone to the things I really want to be able to do ... like speaking engagements, podcasts, and paid invitations to write more books, and such. It's all that trad publishing journey grindstone noise I'm trying to keep behind the scenes these days. I'm happiest on Substack when I can just play and try out weird stuff and not worry so much about career outcomes.
You should still go to the library sometimes. If not for research then just for nostalgia. And real book smells. 😁
It takes a strong commitment to integrity to ignore the doubts and second thoughts that come to mind when publishing on a platform such as this. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Meg.
I feel this so strongly right now. But instead of "cheating" I feel like each day I'm deciding which child to favor. And sometimes I just have to plop them down in front of the TV and have both of them (i.e., my brain) continue a binge rewatch of Mad Men.
I think I liked being a writer better before I knew so much about "how to be a writer."
The silver lining of my new newsletter enterprise is it requires quite a bit of "secret" bingeing of source material, which feels an awful like a personal indulgence. Like Mad Men marathons, but with Romance. 🙂
Bravo 👏 such a provocative way of writing about this subject. And so true. I wonder if that’s many of us have secret projects we’re working on. I remember how the feeling changed when I published my memoir. This work of love was suddenly ‘asking’ to be reviewed, compared to, commented on! Our intimacy was lost forever ♥️
I know exactly what you mean. The more I write posts for publication, the more I open other files or a notebook and write whatever the hell I want. Never to share!!! Well articulated 👍
Cheers, Shoni!
I'm still retraining myself to give time back to my side projects, which more often than not are my big picture projects (novels, etc.) that get sidelined by the littler stuff. Then ... when I make a little progress on those bigger projects, I must try to resist the temptation to SHARE about it immediately. 😂
I so agree. I love the collaborative aspect of Substack in so many ways, but I don’t want feedback on everything I write. Having the secret project that isn’t subject to commenting is my quiet little happy place. It’s just mine 🥰
For me the challenge is always carving out time for/and committing to the work that is invisible to others. It's a bit like motherhood, in that much of the hard work being done goes unnoticed ... and that's usually the best work. The work that makes the biggest difference in the grand scheme. 🙂
At least personally, for sure. I use my weekends to write my personal project, and the weekdays to write the more public ones!
OMG I love this post. Thank you so much! I was "this many" years old when I learned that this was the answer to the question I didn't know my soul was asking. ❤️
Thank you, Sashya!
I'm making a real effort this year to set aside time for my slow-grow projects. Instant gratification can be highly addictive - and distracting! It requires great will power to choose a quieter workspace with less engagement over an active one that's constantly smacking you in the face with dopamine. 😂
But I will persevere! 💪🏼
I think richer detailed experiences don't lend themselves too well to more guide oriented substack so therein lies my distinction but I like how the two can play on one another so as not to reinvent the wheel
I am starting to think large projects like novels are best done in private. I think there is a place for writing serials online, but they should be episodic serials, closer to television series than novels. But I have one novel I am writing online that I need to finish online. Then the next novel, I think I will do in private (and then maybe serialize.) Live and learn.
The sticky part for me is knowing I want to write things that I can share on my newsletter while simultaneously wanting to write the books in the background. Because there's an audience for one, I usually feel a bit of pressure to show up there first, even if it means making less progress on the book. I'm trying to reverse that thinking this year. It might mean I show up here less, but that might not be such a terrible thing. 😉
I know I've never commented before, but I'm thinking maybe I should step out from behind the safety of my own anonymity. I know a lot of you have seen me lurking about, maybe read some of the Notes that I've put up over the years? I don't get out much, which is my fault. I suppose for a long time I was looking for my niche. I couldn't find it, so I carved one out for myself. I just wanted to say that this place, since I retired, well, the whole of Substack is my secret place. It's the fulfillment of a writing life left unattended. Everything that I've posted, pretty well all of it, is stuff I wrote and never sent in to magazines because I always overwrote things.
This latest story that I started? "Cinderella & Her Sisters"? I'm pretty sure I started that about a dozen years ago, if not more. It's been a side project of mine for years. I just threw it out there thinking it would force me to work on it. My serial: "The Shield of Locksley"? I came up with that when I was around eighteen. I'd been reading Dumas and Mallory of all things. I wrote a Table of Contents and about 50 pages in a notebook, since then, it's been rolling around in the back of my head for close to fifty years. And with all those old stories, I still have that one...my, what I call: "Apprenticeship." Three different versions of the same Roman/Christian epic and each one 250,000 words just begging to be restructured.
Good thing here is, when I post, I never see a lot of feedback. I'm lucky if I see three per post. I never see my story running along that top banner on the Homepage, and I actually like not seeing it up there. I don't mind sending it out into the great wide void. My dopamine rush comes from the creating of the story itself. I go over and over and over a chapter, because I have the time. I haven't gone back to my Apprenticeship for a long time. But it's there; it's lurking, waiting to entice me with the promise of research beyond my wildest dreams. (I don't need to use the library and snail-mail; or depend on inter-library loans anymore? It's all at my fingertips!)
Thanks for sharing this, Ben!
I have a list a few miles long of unfinished or just barely started projects I'd love to bring back to life during my empty nester years. But my kids are barely in middle school now, so I got a ways to go. No rush, though.😊I'd like to get a book published (by someone other than myself) in the next few years ... for me it's the stepping stone to the things I really want to be able to do ... like speaking engagements, podcasts, and paid invitations to write more books, and such. It's all that trad publishing journey grindstone noise I'm trying to keep behind the scenes these days. I'm happiest on Substack when I can just play and try out weird stuff and not worry so much about career outcomes.
You should still go to the library sometimes. If not for research then just for nostalgia. And real book smells. 😁
It takes a strong commitment to integrity to ignore the doubts and second thoughts that come to mind when publishing on a platform such as this. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Meg.
Cheers, K.C. 🥂
I completely agree.
Making moves in silence era is happening🖤
🥂
Oh I felt every drop & nuance of this. My praise junky half needs to let my creative half go &be secretive!
🥂
Wow. What a post!
Thank you, Sam! 🥂🙂
I love it! 🤫
🥂😊
I feel this so strongly right now. But instead of "cheating" I feel like each day I'm deciding which child to favor. And sometimes I just have to plop them down in front of the TV and have both of them (i.e., my brain) continue a binge rewatch of Mad Men.
I think I liked being a writer better before I knew so much about "how to be a writer."
The silver lining of my new newsletter enterprise is it requires quite a bit of "secret" bingeing of source material, which feels an awful like a personal indulgence. Like Mad Men marathons, but with Romance. 🙂
I'm nearing the end of Season Three in my Mad Men rewatch. I’m enjoying it even more the second time. it’s funnier than I remembered.
For a quick hit, I'll sometimes resort to re-watching the final episode, it's such a treat, it never gets stale.
Bravo 👏 such a provocative way of writing about this subject. And so true. I wonder if that’s many of us have secret projects we’re working on. I remember how the feeling changed when I published my memoir. This work of love was suddenly ‘asking’ to be reviewed, compared to, commented on! Our intimacy was lost forever ♥️
Thank you, Jacqueline.
Our book journeys really do feel like romances ... often with bittersweet endings. 💜
Best to you on all your writing endeavors ... secret and otherwise. 🙂
And likewise you romantic soul :)
The headline! I scrolled past it, and then scrolled back because it was so irresistible!
Cheers, Paul!
Thanks for the reverse scroll and read. 😊🥂
The best projects are the ones that weren't shared with the whole world.
They're certainly the best for the soul. 💜
You just articulated some of my deepest thoughts about writing ❤️
I'm delighted to hear this! 🥂💜