I'm a ninny.
1. That's one of my fav things to call someone being a silly goose, and 2. my Substack is free now.
Right off the bat, I am going to shout out Shades of Greaves. His post about Substack’s Notes section and “How I Grew My Substack From 439 to 451 Free Subscribers In Just 11 Months!” both gave me a chuckle and an epiphany in rapid succession. His satirical and self-aware writing about social media and online communities was very enjoyable and relatable, I highly recommend giving those a read, especially if you, like me, are trying to find a nice, quiet place to chat with other creatives in this current social media hellscape.
Now back to The Chuckle and The Epiphany.
You know those times when your mind and eyeballs float outside your body and you look back at yourself or a situation and see things for truly what they are? It happens a lot when I’m in some kind of corporate meeting about KPI’s while there is also a rare solar event happening right above our heads, or I’m doing the job of five people because everyone was laid off because the economy sucks and you know, capitalism doing its thing, and I go “Hmm, we’re all gonna die and the world is really beautiful, why do I care about this silly little task?”
Yeah, you know those moments.
Going back a minute, when I first started writing, I had this idea that I know a lot of us have had to create some sort of passive income while finishing the draft. This was before TikTok so I started with Patreon, then went to Buy Me A Coffee. Then I went to KoFi. I’m not the TikTok type so that was a no. Then I came here. All in all, the combination of working a full-time job, writing a monster of a fantasy series, and being beholden to paid subscribers (that I didn’t even have!) it all just wasn’t working. It continued to not work wherever I went, and only pulled my attention away from my draft which, in the end, is the only priority.
So my Substack is free now.
The support option is still there for those who feel inclined, I’ll never say no to a coffee to fuel a writing session, but nothing is behind a paywall, everyone can comment, etc. I came here to build a community - not make money - around writers trying to write and function under capitalism, and then I was placing things behind a paywall?
Silly.
Silly, ninny me.
I'm glad you were able to come to this decision, especially if it means taking pressure off you and giving more energy to your novel work!
I also get a hefty laugh from Carlos Greaves’ substack.