Greetings, Fictionistas!
I can’t speak for the rest of Tuesday’s meetup participants, but I for one am still glowing from all the goodwill and positive vibes that came out of this one. Given that December is a traditionally hectic month for writers and readers on this platform, I will forgo my usual detailed play-by-play of the festivities and invite, nay urge, you to consider either watching the video replay, or listening to it, podcast style.
Yes, the Google Meet recording is laden with freeze-ups and blurry faces, but the voices behind those blurry faces have a TON of valuable things to say about fiction writing on Substack and beyond.
For anyone who simply doesn’t have the time to indulge in our merriment, here are the main bullet points of our rousing discussion:
REAL TALK for fiction writers
- , , and are co-conspiring to create a new recurring segment on Fictionistas where members of our community can share details of their personal writing journeys— The celebrations, frustrations, pitfalls, and rebounds of a writer’s life—with the hope that others will join in the conversation, and we can all learn from each other’s experiences. This project is still in its planning stages, but we’re hoping to start rolling it out in the New Year!
Substack: What is it good for?
PLENTY!
It’s a place to engage with other writers and find an audience for your work.
And it gives you ownership of the all-important email list you will build from that engagement.
It’s a place to communicate with your current fan base (if you have one😉) and keep them informed of your activities in other realms of your fiction writing empire.
It can be a platform from which you promote and sell your books (if you have them😉)
It can also be a place where you simply write and share with the primary goal of establishing a creative practice, finding your writerly voice, and honing your craft.
Substack: What is it NOT good for?
Making money??
It remains to be seen if the “dream writer life”—consistent work, sustainable income, plus a pinch of notoriety—is possible for (currently non-famous) fiction writers on this platform. Still lots of work to be done on the part of Substack management to make this a place for fiction writing and its creators to flourish.
Let’s keep reminding them we’re here and we dream big.
Why are we doing this?
The big question we all agreed to ask ourselves as we storm into 2024 with wild creative abandon is: What is our end goal … really?
Is it to make money?
Is it to build a huge following?
Is it to practice writing in a space that naturally allows for a community (big or small) to gather around us and help us grow?
Is it to simply WRITE consistently and freely without feeling a need to buy into the gimmicky side of Substack’s business practices?
There’s no right answer here, folks. But we hope you’ll remember that whatever you’re focusing on, whatever you're struggling with, whatever you’re celebrating, there are people here who get it.
We’ve got you, fiction writers! If you want to see an example of how supportive this community is, here’s a transcript of the chat we kept up during the Meetup.
I dare you not to get warm fuzzies in here1:
Please restack or share this post with your fiction writer friends.
Happy “all the things”! We’ll see you in the New Year!
And remember:
People also shared links to their Substacks and other cool stuff in the chat. Worth a look!
Recap: Virtual Meetup 12-12-23