Great post Georgie , can I just say Georgie I haven’t been on Substack long as I came off all social media in lockdown as I had a life changing operation. I really didn’t want a pity party and personally while I was nursing my wounds viewing others success during lockdown , I stepped away for my sanity .
I am now retired and working on my dream of being an artist , studying botanical illustration. I’m not interested in promoting myself , I had years of that and it often seemed so false . This is for me now not how many likes I get so I just enjoy reading the posts and seeing others art . I an honestly say that you are one of my favourite as I can feel your honesty , even online your congruence shows through . Always be yourself , post because you want to not because you have to . The people who like your work will be there . Hope this makes sence x
Thank you Fiona and you make perfect sense. Honestly your words are actually really comforting because I know there's someone who feel the same. It's wonderful to feel heard. Much love to you. x
I think you have to find how you personally want to use this space - which seems to be exactly what you're doing. I have been putting daily drawings *and* daily words on Substack this past week (not emailing them out) and I am 100% finding the daily drawings incredibly helpful in a tonne of ways and the daily words much less so, so I will probably drop those. On the other hand, I found myself picking up and writing in a physical journal, that I hadn't written in since last year, and that felt *good*. I think a lot of that is because in the physical journal that is only for me I can share things I want to get out of my head that I can't share publicly on the internet - e.g. things related to my kids who have specifically said they don't want their lives shared publicly any more (while both loving reading back over the stuff I wrote when they were kids!), or work-related moans that I can't share because it would not be professional and clients would obviously not appreciate it. But I also think the physicality of writing by hand helps, too.
Anyway, all that is to conclude what I said at the start - make this space what you need and want it to be. Unless you're specifically aiming for it to be a considerable chunk of income, there is literally nothing more you need to do. You can write something once a year, three times a day. You can read nothing else on Substack or gorge on Notes while you drink your morning tea/coffee/lemon water! For me, I think that's the beauty of it - that it can be what you want and need it to be, rather than what some algorithm tells you it has to be.
Thank you Tasha. Reading your comment almost feels like the permission I needed. It's funnynotfunny because I would say the same to a friend but not to myself - make this space for yourself and what works for you :)
And I feel exactly the same as you and keep a written journal for exactly the same reason - I need an outlet for those things that need to remain private!
I tell you what, the best thing about writing this post has been connecting with the like-minded who have commented. Keep up your wonderful work and writing x
Oh, and drawing and reading are probably my healthy obsessions. And (non-creative) work is my unhealthy one that I need to get better at switching off from.
Great post Georgie , can I just say Georgie I haven’t been on Substack long as I came off all social media in lockdown as I had a life changing operation. I really didn’t want a pity party and personally while I was nursing my wounds viewing others success during lockdown , I stepped away for my sanity .
I am now retired and working on my dream of being an artist , studying botanical illustration. I’m not interested in promoting myself , I had years of that and it often seemed so false . This is for me now not how many likes I get so I just enjoy reading the posts and seeing others art . I an honestly say that you are one of my favourite as I can feel your honesty , even online your congruence shows through . Always be yourself , post because you want to not because you have to . The people who like your work will be there . Hope this makes sence x
Thank you Fiona and you make perfect sense. Honestly your words are actually really comforting because I know there's someone who feel the same. It's wonderful to feel heard. Much love to you. x
I think you have to find how you personally want to use this space - which seems to be exactly what you're doing. I have been putting daily drawings *and* daily words on Substack this past week (not emailing them out) and I am 100% finding the daily drawings incredibly helpful in a tonne of ways and the daily words much less so, so I will probably drop those. On the other hand, I found myself picking up and writing in a physical journal, that I hadn't written in since last year, and that felt *good*. I think a lot of that is because in the physical journal that is only for me I can share things I want to get out of my head that I can't share publicly on the internet - e.g. things related to my kids who have specifically said they don't want their lives shared publicly any more (while both loving reading back over the stuff I wrote when they were kids!), or work-related moans that I can't share because it would not be professional and clients would obviously not appreciate it. But I also think the physicality of writing by hand helps, too.
Anyway, all that is to conclude what I said at the start - make this space what you need and want it to be. Unless you're specifically aiming for it to be a considerable chunk of income, there is literally nothing more you need to do. You can write something once a year, three times a day. You can read nothing else on Substack or gorge on Notes while you drink your morning tea/coffee/lemon water! For me, I think that's the beauty of it - that it can be what you want and need it to be, rather than what some algorithm tells you it has to be.
Thank you Tasha. Reading your comment almost feels like the permission I needed. It's funnynotfunny because I would say the same to a friend but not to myself - make this space for yourself and what works for you :)
And I feel exactly the same as you and keep a written journal for exactly the same reason - I need an outlet for those things that need to remain private!
I tell you what, the best thing about writing this post has been connecting with the like-minded who have commented. Keep up your wonderful work and writing x
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Oh, and drawing and reading are probably my healthy obsessions. And (non-creative) work is my unhealthy one that I need to get better at switching off from.
What are your healthy obsessions that you show up for day in and day out?