Substack - A New Venture and more Writing!

 

As if I didn't have a busy enough writing life, I've found something that will give me more writing to do in a week but, at the same time, may bring some rewards.

Substack - no, it's not a song ( think about it) was launched six years ago and is a blogging/email newsletter hybrid thingy. I say thingy. I don't know why I say thingy, but thingy it is.

I have posted a few posts on Facebook about my starting to use Substack, and this week I will explain further how it works and how I plan to use it.

I have registered on Substack, and that has given me a URL

 https://stuartbilverstone.substack.com/ 

Having registered, I can leave that URL loafing around in emails, in the middle of blogs, social media posts, etc. That gives people the opportunity to visit my Substack page. To be able to register with the page, they will need to input an email address. As I have set the page up as a Free Access page, all that is happening is that the page is building an email list. That list remains private and only for me to use. 

When I post a newsletter/ blog on the page, it will email everyone on the list, saying there is a new post and the link.

Substack allows placing your writing behind a paywall (Dominic Cummings, for example, put his shenanigans behind a £200 paywall). I have not taken this option, meaning you can safely register and know that I won't be asking for a subscription. That's not to say I may offer extra enhancements to the page through a subscription, but that is many miles down the road. I will need a lot of emails to do that, and that will be down to me to boost that with my content and encourage more people onto the page.

What happens next? There is a post on the page, last week's blog post, which has had 13 views, and currently, I have four subscribers. Thank you to Mrs B, my Sister, a fellow writer and my old mate Bob.

I plan to post regularly on there, initially two weekly, aiming to get to weekly very quickly. I don't wish to post the same content as this blog page. I have a 'Writing Tips' piece that I am working on for the following post/newsletter.

There we are, then. Substack is a new venture for me and will be much more writing. My blog continues, and my novel is nearing the final third. I shall still be looking at entering short story competitions, and of course, there is the full-time job with the NHS, which brings in the real money!

Remember that URL, and I hope to see you on the page.

 https://stuartbilverstone.substack.com/ 

5000 writing prompts? There must be at least one in there that will pique my interest. Thankfully there is, and all being well, I will pique your interest with it too.

This week is a round-up of the websites and YouTube channels I use for inspiration and recommendations for writing.

I spend much time on YouTube, which is good and bad. Getting trapped in those YouTube wormholes, and minutes later, there's no writing.

There, I came across the websites that have inspired my writing and productivity.

William Gallagher is a real writing hero of mine and many others and is an all-around inspiration to everybody to get out there and write.

https://www.youtube.com/@WilliamGallagher

His opening lines to his weekly 58Keys broadcast are the best,

"Hello, I'm William Gallagher, and this is 58Keys, which, as ever, as always is for writers like you and me, who use and write on Macs, iPhones and iPads."

And it does what it says on the tin! It's where I learnt about Focus on the MacBook and iPhone which stops you from going down aforesaid YouTube wormholes!

A full-time Freelance Writer, William has many achievements on his CV. For those who can remember Ceefax, William wrote those pages. He's written radio scripts for Dr Who and is a regular writer and guest on Apple Insider.

William has been Deputy Chair of the Writers Guild of Great Britain. He is a mine of information for the writer, and I have spent many hours on Zoom, feverishly typing away on his Two Biscuit writing sprints. They are fantastic for my productivity. William encourages young writers and regularly runs workshops.

William also has his blog, http://williamgallagher.com/selfdistract/ . The latest posts drop on a Friday morning.

Also on YouTube is Mark Ellis, https://www.youtube.com/@MarkEllisReviews Mark reviews Apple products and all sorts of tech. His honest approach and diligent research are really valuable when looking for tech to purchase. I have used some of his recommendations for Apps, proving really useful.

Martin Sketchley https://www.youtube.com/@sketchley is chair of the West Midlands Branch of the Writers Guild of Great Britain. VLOGGER, published novelist, writer, editor and Royal Literary Fund Fellow with 30 years' experience across business, fiction, other non-fiction, scriptwriting and education, Martin has a wonderful channel about ( and I quote), journaling tips, morning pages, reviews, prompts and insights into writing, creativity, productivity, mindfulness, reviews of products, and how to live a more analogue life in the digital age!

I certainly get my journaling tips from Martin, and like William, he also has a web page, https://martinsketchley.com/blog/ . I recommend journaling to anyone. It is a very relaxing form of writing. All you need to journal is a pen and paper. However, at the moment, although I have several journaling notebooks, I currently use an app called Day One, and I love it.

I've probably bored you enough with my novel Beasting Dartmoor, but nothing is boring whatsoever about Jenny Kane and her site https://www.imaginecreativewriting.co.uk/. 

Jenny and her colleague Alison have several courses on offer, and the testimonials speak for themselves. They are worth signing up for after participating in a couple of them.

These are the go-to sites that I regularly use for my writing and writing tech guidance. Indeed, without finding William, I wouldn't have the productivity of writing and the fun that I have achieved my goals. I will fulfil my long-held wish to publish a book with Jenny's support and guidance. 

I love writing. It's good for my well-being.

I hope that these sites will pique your writing interests too.  

Numbers in writing? Surely Not

 I missed out on celebrating my 50th Blog Post last week. Never mind, I'll be looking forward to a centenary post by the end of the year. That might be something to celebrate.

As usual, it's Thursday evening, and I'm thinking, "What shall I write about this week?"

The fifty-first post will be about my novel, Beasting Dartmoor (working title).

Numbers have dominated writing for the last couple of weeks. How many words can I get down today?

Is that what you normally think about as a writer? Numbers? Well, yes. 

I'm looking to complete my debut ( sorry if that seems pretentious) novel later this year.

To enable me to do this, I need to write about 250-300 words for at least four days a week. Happily, I am achieving that and, most days, exceeding it. I still have a lot of material to go into the project, and in the next week, I should be approaching the 20k word count.

The genre of the novel is a crime/murder thriller. Well, I hope it’s going to thrill the reader. 

As it currently stands, there have been four murders, the authorities are at a loss as to what is going on, and there is a figure in the shadows. It is principally based in the Dartmoor, Exeter and South Devon areas, although there are sojourns to London and a village in Somerset. 

I have a gap in the storyline at the halfway point of a chapter. I need a short story to lead into the next chapter. This may be the point to tease in the main antagonist. This person has just been a shadow to my protagonists, Greg Reid & Detective Sargent Marie Fliss. I have a description of the character I have in mind for this crucial role in the story.

Numbers again. I need roughly 800 to 900 words to complete the chapter, which is three days at the average word count, but it could be an hour's work if I'm on a roll. A bit of planning and we'll see what happens

As part of my 'Novel in a Year" workshops, I have an opportunity to have a piece of my work reviewed. I'm about ready to send off the first 5k words, which is both exciting and terrifying. I will also let a colleague at work read the first few chapters. She is a poet, and there is a reason I would like her to have a read. She might guess who my characters are,

There we are, then. Some exciting times for novel writing are coming up over the following months, and the motivation is at an all-time high.

The Writing Industry - Is this where woman can regularly break through the 'glass ceiling'?

 

What I will write about today may promote some comments, and I would love it if it did. First, let me say that this piece is written not to be detrimental or discriminatory to anyone. It's a pleasing observation of what I am finding and experiencing in the writing community.

Hopefully, we've got that out of the way and can continue.

I have delivered every month, two leading writing magazines. I diligently read the from the front to the back cover and thoroughly enjoy their contents...even the poetry!

The one thing I notice each month in both is the number of female contributors that outweighs the number of male contributors. That is, the writers of the articles and the letters submitted to the editors.

Likewise, I'm the only man in the 'Novel in a Year' workshop I started last Saturday.

Undoubtedly, there has been a significant number of highly talented female authors. Author of Handmaid's Tail, Margaret Attwood, is a great proponent of women writers. The late Hillary Mantel, a local writer here in East Devon, had outstanding success with her 2009 novel Wolf Hall, a massive hit on Television. Seeing that they are getting the recognition they deserve is pleasing.

Let's look at the Television too. One of the greatest shows in recent years, Fleabag, written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and with Sharon Horgan and Emma Thompson, represent some of the best screenwriters in this country and globally. 

In the film industry, some of the biggest blockbusters have female writers. Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh were responsible for Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Linda Woolverton is a resident writer for Disney with past credits for The Lion King and Tim Burton's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.

On Twitter, I follow many female writers, editors, agents and publishers, and there is no doubt that there is a fabulous female presence in the writing industry.

Is this one of the industries where women have been able to break through the 'glass ceiling'? I sincerely hope so.

So, where are all the men writers, then? I hear you ask.

Well, they are about. Harlen Coben was on BBC Breakfast on Thursday morning promoting his latest book, I will find you. Celebrity writer Richard Osman has a series of crime novels starting with the Thursday Murder Club. No matter what you may think of celebrity writers, each of Richard's three books has hit the top of the bestsellers immediately after publication. He must be doing something right! Let's not forget some of my favourite writers, John Le Carré, Thomas Hardy and Ken Follett. International bestsellers include John Grisham, Neville Shute, Ian Rankin and Lee Childs. All are fantastic writers in their genre.

So there may be a chance for me yet, I'll keep plodding along with my bits of writing here and there, and I will finish my blockbuster novel sometime this year. You never know. I might appear on Television as a new talent promoting my writing one day.