WRITING CONSISTENTLY VS WHENEVER

I’ve been writing online for over 25 years now, but it’s been only recently that I feel confident in answering this sort of question (asked during a recent live stream):

“I write sporadically here on Substack and would like more of a system. We’ll eventually move to my website. What do we think about consistency versus right when I feel like it?”

I think part of the consistency aspect is that writing a newsletter via Substack (or anywhere) is grand. It’s big. It’s “to everyone.”

Now think about something like Morning Pages, or writing in a journal. It’s private, staying close to home.

One is out there, sent directly to people’s inboxes, while the other never sees the light of day.

Since restarting my blog in 2018 (sethw.xyz), I didn’t know that getting back to writting a few posts every month would help with consistency (this from someone who managed a site that published 20+ posts a day in 2009).

See, when sitting down to write a newsletter on a regular basis, say every Friday, I’d start thinking about it on Wednesday. Write a draft, come back to it. Thursday night, write some more. Finish it up on Friday morning maybe, before hitting send.

But lately I just write a bunch on my blog, or here on this site. It’s not really “to everyone,” and it’s technically not private.

So I really think the sporadic, maybe “not consistent,” writing in a public space has helped, because a post I wrote last Tuesday informs the one I write a few days later, and maybe that post unlocks something in a conversation I have on a Zoom call, and a week later when it’s time to send a proper newsletter, I write the new thing here on this blog first, then send it to everyone via Substack.

That’s how I started to answer this question nine months ago, from this post “BLOGGING IS LOWER STAKES WRITING.

“One thing about Substack is every newsletter you send is a “launch.” It’s to everyone, your whole audience! It can be intimidating, knowing that everything you write will be seen by 40% of the people you send it to.

Since I’ve set up this site, I find myself posting sometimes twice a day. It feels like my music blogging days, when I found an interesting band or quote, I’d dive into WordPress and just get something posted. That’s exactly what I’ve done today with this post!”

In the last year this has worked better than “start a draft in Substack in solitude,” as hitting publish more often introduces some tension, and puts it out in the world, even though it’s not delivered to anyone’s inbox.

So for me, this solves the “consistency versus right when I feel like it” riddle. If I’m always writing when I feel like it, when it’s time to send a proper newsletter I’ve got a week’s worth of ideas to pull from.