Newbie News #3 - Ouch! Sometimes Writing Hurts!
How to take care of yourself when writing about heavy topics.
Newbie News Topic of the Day
Sometimes Writing Hurts!
Even writing a memoir requires research! This week, I got my hands on a long forgotten childhood diary and read through that. Oof. And spent some time talking to my mom to compare memory notes. Double oof.
Admittedly, this part hasn’t exactly been fun! I had a number of non-rosy years of my life and this process is like shoving all of those events into a blender and then sucking them up through a straw as fast as I can. It’s starting to make me feel kinda barfy.
The silver lining: pain breeds empathy and so it has the potential to make us better human beings. 💕 The experience has caused me to reflect on authors and memoirs I’ve read in the past, and how much emotional labor must have been required. Authors, I salute you!!
I know I’m not the only one in this crew writing on some heavy topics - so this week, let’s brainstorm on how we can help each other and take care of ourselves!
Your Assignments
Assignment 1 - Self-care for writers, your ideas!
Please share your thoughts on any of these in the comments!
Have you found any helpful ways to refresh after a heavy writing session, or in preparation for a heavy writing session?
What are your thoughts on how to balance your immersion in a topic to keep your content authentic vs not making yourself a basket-case?
Do you sometimes feel too awkward to comment on someone’s raw emotional post here on Substack? If so, why do you think that is? How can we step out of our comfort zones to engage on heavy topics to support other writers?
Assignment challenge: Spread some love to a writer here on Substack who is writing on very personal or heavy topics by engaging with their content. And then if you feel comfortable, tell us about how it went here! (I promise they will appreciate it!)
Assignment 2 - Your burning Newbie questions!
Have more Substack-Newbie burning questions??
That is what we are here for! So ask away! Any topic is fine! We are here to help and no question is ‘too Newbie’, we are learning together.
Do you have answers to other peoples questions? Advice? An encouragement? A good potato salad recipe? PLEASE share it in the comments and support your fellow Newbies!
Newbie Lesson of the Day
Recommendations
Did you know that you can recommend other Publications, and vice versa?
I realized this past week that when I created my account I must have set up some recommendations based on what I was reading on this platform, before I started writing here. I saw that I had driven, without even realizing it, quite a lot of new subscribers to others already! 💕
You can see who you are recommending by going to your Dashboard. You should see a ‘Recommendations’ tab at the top. There you’ll see who you are currently recommending, see how many subscribers they have gained due to your recommendation, and manage your recommendations.
You can even add personalized descriptions to explain why you recommend a specific publication. So go check this feature out, it can be very powerful in supporting your fellow writers!
Brand new to Newbie News?
Our Motto: No Substacker Left Behind!
Our Mission: Ensure that every new Substacker has a safe space to ask their Newbie questions and to be encouraged to… just keep going, one day at a time!
What we are Not: You’ll find tons of amazing extremely experienced Substackers offering courses and amazing content… this is not intended to replace those! (Instead, consider this like a supplement. A safe place to come home to!)
Check out our intro post at this link to learn more about who we are!
Note to Newbies: It has occurred to me that this post series focuses a lot on commenting and engaging. Indeed, the intent is for us to support one another and create a welcoming community but it is worth mentioning that I recognize some people aren’t quite ready to comment yet. And that’s ok! You are welcome too! You can still show your support and say hi by just hitting the like ❤️ button. And as always, keep coming back - let’s do this together!
It can definitely be awkward or even hard to commeont someone's raw emotional post here and everywhere. What I typically do is think about the conversation I would have with the person about what they wrote in person, type out what I would say and then read it out loud to check for tone.
To keep myself from being a basket case (also an amazing Green Day song), I never underestimate the power of recommendations from friends for music, movies, and books. Or I try to delve into other interests - biology, astronomy or art history, etc. Even when I’m not looking to be inspired, there is so much that recharges me and influences my work, after all, the things we consume are still other humans doing their thing. I’m a big fan of things like RadioLabs, where they connect several topics. I always feel full of wonder after listening.