My Top 7 Substack Posts (And Why They're Worth Reading)
I went from 0 to a 100K novel in 7 months while building a thriving creative community
For many years I dreamed of doing creative work, but I could never meaningfully start or finish a writing project. There were a lot of reasons: My brain was tired from working as a lawyer. I let perfectionism stop my pen from moving. I felt like an imposter who would never create anything good, so why bother trying.
After decades of floundering around reading self-help books, trying different jobs, observing jealously from the sidelines as friends built creative careers, or colleagues spiked their corporate jobs in favor of something more fun, I finally developed a modicum of self-awareness and courage to actually do the things I was dreaming about doing.
In the past seven months, I have:
Written a 100,000-word draft of my sci-fi novel
Built a community of 290+ fellow writers and creators
Published 28 essays about creativity, career pivots, and productivity
Helped dozens of subscribers overcome their own creative blocks
Write on Track is letters to my former self. I tell her the things I learned that helped me get to the place I am now—pursuing writing seriously, humbly, and strategically. I am by no metric perfect or “arrived.” But I would have gotten to this place faster if ten years ago, someone had shared the hard-earned lessons I now share in these letters.
Many of you are new subscribers here (welcome!). Today I surface foundational posts that I believe may serve you on your creative journeys.
For my OG subscribers, this list may help identify letters from me that you may have missed because of life and work and family and everything else.
This post contains raw truths about walking away from a well-paid legal career to pursue writing and the framework I used to decide if this massive life change was worth it.
This controversial post reveals uncomfortable truths about what it takes to do creative work. Using six months of detailed time-tracking data, I show exactly how I “selfishly” stole 420+ hours of time from my traditional responsibilities to make art happen.
This is my most viral post to date and it’s a little snarky. I wrote it during a time I was frustrated by all the unqualified people trying to make money selling Substack growth advice to newbies. I freely share a few tacticts that worked for me as a new writer on the platform.
I share strategies that got me from “wanting to write” to completing a 100,000-word novel manuscript. It includes on-ramps to productivity, methods to capitalize on existing ideas, and how I move past perfectionism.
As a follow up to “How I Get Myself to Sit Down and Write,” (above) I share two additional strategies that helped me write over 27,000 words in a single week during my novel’s final sprint.
Embracing beginner’s mind helped me set aside the self-doubt that was halting progress on my novel. I tried to turn my creative inexperience into an advantage—being new at writing craft might allow for fresh prose and unique stories.
When I first joined Substack in April, I was really irritated by other writers’ paywalled posts. Why would I pay $12 a month for some random internet person’s weekly diary? Fast forward six months and I am now a paying subscriber to several solo content creators. In this post I tell you why I had a change of heart.
Further Reading
If you enjoy my letters about building a creative life while maintaining authenticity and connection, you’ll love these fellow creators who I admire:
Renee Fountain’s Gryphon Quill: Renee is a literary agent with 30+ years of experience in the industry. Her letters offer clear, actionable strategies for navigating the publishing world. She is also incredibly generous in her interactions with subscribers. Here’s one of my favorite posts of hers.
Jennie O’Connor’s Down the Rabbit Hole: Her writing captures the messy truth of creative life with both humor and depth. Here’s one of her most popular posts.
Very inspiring and confidence building write up.