I suggest you concentrate on what you want to write. I subscribe here because I like your work. I imagine that's true for most, if not all of your readers.
Writing what you like may not get you huge numbers, but you'll do well, and enjoy it more.
I'm not sure pandering will have the effect you hope. It typically drains the joy and makes this more like work.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for your thoughts! As I said in the post, I will keep writing about whatever I want to write about. I just wanted to get a sense of what people were responding to in particular. I fully intend to keep being me.
I vote for essays best, teaching discussions next, and then anything and everything (not to exclude dog pictures, nor to yield them the whole of Shakespeare's second best bed). But this is only because you ask. Really, anything you want to write is just dandy. With apologies to Sir Philip Sidney:
Loving truth, and fain on Substack my love to show,
That subs, dear subs, might take some pleasure of my optic strain,—
Pleasure might cause them read, reading might make them know,
Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain,—
I sought direction for which course to go;
Studying inventions fine their wits to entertain,
Oft turning others' leaves, to see if thence would flow
Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sunburn'd brain.
Such words came pouring forth, wanting any stay;
Invention, Nature's child, so filled me to my toes
That once I asked some strangers for the way.
Thus great with child to speak and helpless in my throes,
Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite,
"Fool," said my Muse to me, "look in thy heart, and write."
It would help me a lot to know what it is, specifically, that you value here so that I can do more of it. The best thing about writing on Substack is this immediate connection to readers with no gatekeepers to get in the way. So please: let me know what you think.
John, I see you going through what I did just a few short weeks ago. I *feel* you! You've obviously recognized on your own a kind of natural, circumstantial limit to your output. Regarding *what* you write, I think be guided by the name you gave your Substack and what that meant to you when you chose it. That's where your personal satisfaction will be found, and that will pass to your readers.
I suggest you concentrate on what you want to write. I subscribe here because I like your work. I imagine that's true for most, if not all of your readers.
Writing what you like may not get you huge numbers, but you'll do well, and enjoy it more.
I'm not sure pandering will have the effect you hope. It typically drains the joy and makes this more like work.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for your thoughts! As I said in the post, I will keep writing about whatever I want to write about. I just wanted to get a sense of what people were responding to in particular. I fully intend to keep being me.
I vote for essays best, teaching discussions next, and then anything and everything (not to exclude dog pictures, nor to yield them the whole of Shakespeare's second best bed). But this is only because you ask. Really, anything you want to write is just dandy. With apologies to Sir Philip Sidney:
Loving truth, and fain on Substack my love to show,
That subs, dear subs, might take some pleasure of my optic strain,—
Pleasure might cause them read, reading might make them know,
Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain,—
I sought direction for which course to go;
Studying inventions fine their wits to entertain,
Oft turning others' leaves, to see if thence would flow
Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sunburn'd brain.
Such words came pouring forth, wanting any stay;
Invention, Nature's child, so filled me to my toes
That once I asked some strangers for the way.
Thus great with child to speak and helpless in my throes,
Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite,
"Fool," said my Muse to me, "look in thy heart, and write."
:-)
One of my favorite poems--and so fun to teach, what Sidney does with hexameter! And thanks for the vote of confidence, Tara!
It would help me a lot to know what it is, specifically, that you value here so that I can do more of it. The best thing about writing on Substack is this immediate connection to readers with no gatekeepers to get in the way. So please: let me know what you think.
John, I see you going through what I did just a few short weeks ago. I *feel* you! You've obviously recognized on your own a kind of natural, circumstantial limit to your output. Regarding *what* you write, I think be guided by the name you gave your Substack and what that meant to you when you chose it. That's where your personal satisfaction will be found, and that will pass to your readers.
Yes, thanks, Jay! That’s what I intend to do, and I’ve benefited from your example.