Substack Sucks Sometimes
But I'm trying to make it better
I opened my laptop today to write my rundown, feeling almost as unmotivated as I did last week. Lately, it’s been feeling like more of a chore than actual fun. I thought it was just me needing to take a break, but I think there’s more to it.
And it all boils down to this fact:
Substack is still social media.
You’ve probably heard it before and maybe scoffed at it like I did once, but I’m coming to realize it’s true! It may not look like Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok, but despite its initial appearances as a virtual writer’s guild, Substack is still a social media platform.
Now, that’s not to say it’s all bad.
Social media can be a great place to build community. It’s an amazing way to find people you may never meet IRL who have the same values and interests as you. It can even be life-changing for some, starting careers for those that are particularly lucky.
… But social media can also feel transactional. It can become a place where you lose sight of yourself, all in the name of hunting after likes and other vanity metrics.
I was heavily reminded of this reality when I went viral for a note I posted recently.
I’ll admit, it hit my dopamine receptors real good at first. I got a ton of likes from it, some funny comments, I even got a few dozen subscribers – welcome, by the way, if you’re just joining us!
But, after a while, the high was gone, replaced by a feeling of emptiness and even stress.
Because I knew if I wanted to keep growing at the rate I was going, I’d have to go viral again.
And again.
And again.
I knew I could probably do it if I shit-posted enough on here, but I couldn’t predict what would work and what wouldn’t. I mean, the note I made had taken maybe five seconds of thought and was just pure luck. So how was I going to make something go viral again ?
What was a fun 15-minutes of fame became a feeling of pressure.
And that pressure made me start to question my motives, making me ask myself:
Are you writing something because you truly feel something in your bones or just because you had to get something out this week and maybe this will be the one that goes viral?
It’s hard to know because the subconscious rarely gives its secrets up so easily, but I’m going to do my best to actively fight against the pressure to grow fast as social media demands.
First, I’m going to be posting my Rhythm & Reads and Short Stories less often. I’ll still do my rundown each week since it’s like my journal for the world to see, but I think I’ll be doing one of the other sections each week and alternating them, though I’m going to allow myself to skip them as needed.
And second, I’m going to be thinking about how to really build a community here. There’s some great people on Substack like
and who do a really great job of this, and they’ve got me feeling inspired to emulate them in my own way.I don’t really know what my way is going to look like yet, but I’m thinking of trying a monthly video call, going live on Substack, or even just making some small videos that people can watch. Hell, maybe I’ll try all three and see what sticks. Either way, I’d love for people to actually get to know my personality, and I think doing videos of some sort could be the move.
I’ve also been toying with creating and selling some zines on here as a way for people to really feel my writing, especially my fiction. Plus, then I can hopefully have more time to write more fiction and sell even more zines!
This is the start of something that I hope to be great and fulfilling, but I need your help.
Let me know: what do YOU want to get out of this?
Is there anything you particularly love about my Substack?
Is there something I could do better to build a community?
We’re all just trying to figure out how social media can serve us, not the other way around, so please, let me know!
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Tara Y
Sounds like we’re experiencing a similar feeling about this platform, maybe all platforms. I wondered today, while driving, if Dostoyevsky or Hemingway or Flannery O’Connor could make it today. Last year when Cormac McCarthy died there was a piece in the NYT about how he’d likely never get published today because the first few books of his were so unprofitable; it just so happened that the publisher, a smaller fry than the monopolies of today, liked him. Did they feel this everpresent pressure we do to create at all times? Or did they have the peace of knowing the audience would be there when they were ready with their art?
Hang in there, dude. Can you comment me your favorite stories of yours to read?
After doing social media "professionally" (as in, getting paid for running it for a company), it really gets overwhelming if your goal is to make everything you post into a "successful" post. Instead, I think of it more like building blocks of a larger goal/concept. Like chapters in a book–not every one is a reader's favorite but the story altogether could be!
Even going viral multiple times might not give you what you /really/ want out of Substack.
I'd just ask yourself: what do you want out of Substack? External motivation to write? Finding people who agree with you on something? Changing people's minds? Etc.
I think narrowing down how/why you use social media makes it more transactional but also more useable and not as soul-sucking.
On the receiving end, I'm personally overwhelmed by the many weekly newsletters I get and appreciate the monthly ones, even if they feature a months worth of content!
I really like when you share what you've been listening to, because it's always so different and you have some interesting stories to go with them!