The Writer Who Made Me Rethink Everything I’m Doing On Substack
And what she's teaching me about writing, niche, and the permission to just be interesting
Welcome to my new weekly series, “The Unretired Creator.” This is a series for those of us who still feel called to create, whether that’s writing, painting, podcasting, making videos, launching projects, designing products, or simply sharing what we’ve learned along the way. Every Wednesday I’ll be exploring creativity, purpose, publishing, storytelling, and what it means to keep growing, contributing, and creating at any age. Because adventure (and creativity) never retires! 🎉
Last week I bought a subscription to ‘Hello Writer’ by Linda Carroll.
She’s one of favourite writers on Substack and I’ve been meaning to upgrade for ages.
A friend Linda Jackson kindly gifted me a subscription months ago which introduced me to Linda Carroll, but at the time I wasn’t ready to upgrade. (This is important, I’ll come back to this point).
But I was reading her article about how to write great post titles which was paywalled and I wanted to read the rest. So I took the 7 day trial to access the whole post.
However I already know that I’ll become a paid member at the end of the 7 days because I read pretty much everything she sends out and I want to support her writing. (Another very important point I’ll come back to.)
Right now, on a personal note, my reach is all over the place. Some notes & posts go mad, some get crickets, but few are having a massive effect on my subscribers.
In fact if you’re reading this right now you’re in a fairly small minority & I appreciate you. ❤️🙏
But I’m not surprised. I’ve changed my bio (a hundred times), changed my messaging, experimented with different topics, different publishing cadences and probably confused Substack, you & myself in the process. 🤯
Except I’m actually not confused at all.
I know exactly what I want. I’ve just been too chicken shit to take action on it.
And I don't think I'm alone.
Here’s a note I posted this week;
“Struggling to work out what you really want?
I don’t think that’s the problem.
I think most people already know deep down.
The problem is admitting it.
Because once you admit you want to travel the world, start a business, move countries, write the book, leave the job, or make a big change, it suddenly becomes real.
And that’s when fear, doubt, and other people’s opinions show up.
Sometimes the goal isn’t finding the dream.
It’s giving yourself permission to say it out loud.”
Whoa, that’s pretty deep.
But I posted it because half the time we’ve convinced ourselves we’ve named it. We convince ourselves we know exactly what we want, and then wonder why we pivot, or are indecisive, or just don’t actually take any action.
This is literally my favourite quote in the whole world…
It’s so full of energy & light & love.
And when I tell stories, about a violinist in Cartagena who taught me about practicing in public, or how the movie Hook made me reassess my dreams at 53 years old, or how I fought with Claude on a bus in Colombia, that’s how I feel.
Lit up! Shooting sunbeams. Hopefully lighting up those around me.
But then fear kicks in. The fog of the comfort zone closes in and I go back to - ‘7 Ways to Build an Online Business’, or ‘How to Make Your First $1000.’
Useful and valuable posts no doubt. But safe, tangible, & somewhere for me to hide behind.
Because what if we reveal our true selves?
What if we tell the stories, share the observations, offer the opinions, put our thoughts out there for months on end, and no one cares?
No one listens.
No one likes, shares, or restacks.
The safe content we can always put down to a changing market, a noisy internet, maybe our refusal to go meta. (Substack about Substack, Insta about Insta - if you’re goal is simply to make money, go meta, it’s the fastest route).
But when it’s truly us on the page - our voice, our perspective, our take on the world - there’s nowhere left to hide. And what if we do the brave thing, and it turns out we’re just not interesting enough?
Well now that’s a different story altogether isn’t it.
…
Enter stage left - Linda Caroll.
Here’s what she’s doing that the rest of us could learn a thing or two from.
