Two Year Substackaversary!
I wrote 100-Word Stories for 60+ days in a row!
Dear Reader,
It was two years ago towards the end of June that I discovered Substack and I never looked back. Everything I’ve written from that moment forward has gone in my Substack. And the platform just keeps getting better! It may have taken longer than most, but I finally think I’ve found my footing. I have a release schedule that works: 100 Word Stories (daily), Editorials (Wednesdays), and The First Edition (1st of the month).
I even took that scary step of turning on Paid Subscriptions and deciding the time has come to leave it on and let you and everyone else in my circle know about it. No shame. I’m producing content that I’d say was more than worth shouting about. And if you can afford it, upgrading would be amazing. But if you can’t, there are plenty of opportunities (scroll to the bottom of this email) for you to help me reach more eyeballs and you earn paid subscriber access for your efforts.
If you want to understand more about why I made this decision with a compelling argument for why you should consider upgrading your free subscription to paid, I share my thoughts in my About Page.
I’m not resting on my current (short term) success. I need to keep this train running full speed ahead and here are my plans in that regard:
WHAT’S NEXT FOR 100 WORD STORIES
A quick note: I have made a small name change from 100 Words Daily to 100 Word Stories. This just makes it seem more obvious that I’m sharing an actual story every day as opposed to just 100 words that could be anything.
Win 6-Month Archive Access
There is a thread (four to be exact) among the 7 stories I shared last week. Can you guess what they are? If you can guess at least 3 of the 4 threads I will comp you 6-month archive access!
July - Technically, I started this theme on June 24th to give you all a sneak peek, but this entire month will feature a song where I take a few lines and use them as the prompt for my story.
August - The Literary Tarot is back! This time we’re going to work on a suit every other day.
September - The Literary Tarot continues with a new suit every other day.
October - Are you ready for Pentober? Subscribers will get the list of 31 prompt words on September 1st! And I’ll share more about what exactly is Pentober soon!
November - The Literary Tarot continues with the third new suit every other day.
December - The Literary Tarot deck comes to a conclusion with the final suit!
A NOTE ON SUBSTACK NOTES
I don’t typically mention Substack features to you guys because being subscribed to my daily newsletter is thanks enough. But I want to tell you about something extraordinary that is happening over at Substack right now called Notes. You may have heard of it in the news a few months ago when poor old Elon Musk had such a fit about this teeny tiny “Twitter Killer.” While it is a timeline of messages sent by Substack users, I would hardly compare it to what Twitter is today. Far less toxicity and more great conversation. You don’t need to use Notes if you don’t want to and if you don’t already have a Substack account and hate the idea of creating yet another account, then I recommend not doing it!
100 WORD STORIES ARCHIVE
Stories on the 1st of every month are Free-to-Read while the rest are archived and for paid subscribers only.
EDITORIAL COMMENTARY
Here are my Wednesday Editorial emails in case you missed them. And you can catch-up on previous Editorials HERE.
I've Turned on Paid Subscriptions
The idea of activating the PAID feature of my Substack has always felt strange to me. As strange as having a Patreon. It took me a long time to come to terms with the idea of getting paid for the hard work I put into my creativity. Value myself first and the rest will fall into place. I am more than willing to pay for the work of someone I like or want …
Substack Envy
What is Substack Envy? When you are envious of the growth, check mark (transparent, filled in, or that they have one and you don’t!), and overall curb appeal of a Substack that isn’t yours. Some of you might be reading this and thinking to yourself, “I don’t suffer from Substack Envy!” Really? Let’s see if that is true.
How to Create Your Own “You Are Here” Guide
Note: The You Are Here concept isn’t mine. To see its originator, check out Ben Wakeman’s Substack. I give him all the credit. I hope he doesn’t mind my feeble attempt at trying to explain how he structured such an amazing idea. THE GUIDE Many things require a guide. In Ben’s case, he is using a “field guide” but for mine I decided to go with a “house guide.” There …
HEARD ROUND THE STACKS
I have the largest directory of over 200 Fiction Substacks! If you’d like to find some hidden gems for yourself, just click HERE. Someone missing? Your Substack should be on it? Reply to this email and let me know! This gem is plucked from the list and deserves your attention, especially if you love poetry, as I do:
YOUTUBE VIDEO WORTH THE WATCH
Such a great video that I couldn’t not share it. I enjoy candid moments like this with former President’s and personality interviewers that are great at their job just make it all the easier to watch.
WHAT I’M NOT READING BUT SHOULD BE READING
Okay, so I went to Barnes & Noble for my birthday and bought more books to add to my overstuffed bookshelves. That doesn’t change the fact that I should be reading along with my small book club of 400+ reading the Oz books. We are on the second book. There are seven chapters left to THE END and I am seven chapters BEHIND! Yikes! I hope by my next update I can report that I’ve finished The Marvelous Land of Oz and started the third book with everyone else!
Congratulations on 2 years!!!
Thanks for the mention!