The Writings on the Wall #18

A new social network for the masses

May 03, 2023

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In a move that nearly gave Elon Musk a heart attack, Substack launched Notes. Of course, as should have been easy to predict, twitter’s over-the-top reaction only helped draw more attention to the new social network. Sorry, I should have said ‘subscription network’—that’s the term they prefer, though I don’t like it much myself.

So, after hearing a lot of good things about it from my fellow Substack writers, I finally decided to give Substack Notes a shot. And you know what? I like it! Which is a miracle, because I’m not much of a social network fan. But this one’s different.

The interface is somewhat similar to twitter’s, with some significant differences. First, there is no limit in word count (at least none that I’ve hit so far). Second, no ads! Third, and more importantly, it’s a much healthier environment—I have yet to encounter any of the toxicity that is so prevalent on twitter.

The focus on this platform seems to be a lot more on writing and reading, which is pretty neat.

In my latest post on there, I ask what is the one book that most impacted you and why? Feel free to chime in with your answer. And this is not just for writers, by the way. I’d love to hear from everyone.

Coming up this month

Since I still haven’t found time to build a buffer (sigh), there will only be one story published this month. And… I haven’t yet figured out what it will be :o

It will go out later in the month, so probably on the 24th or 31st.

And for those wondering about that Silius story I recently posted… no, I never found my original outline and ended up having to redo everything from scratch, heh. Well, I’m still happy with how it came out, so there’s that.

“Write 6 Books in a Year Challenge”

Update #4

So things haven’t quite gone as planned… cause, you know, how fun would that be? There are projects like that that keep dragging on and on. This novel is one of them. So I finally decided to put it aside, because the slow pace was driving me nuts.

Not only that, but I’m making changes to the publishing strategy for my serial, which means I need to publish faster, which also means I need to write the sequel sooner than previously planned.

So, I’m now switching focus to the serial and plan to write the next two arcs/books in the coming months.

I’m also writing a novella which is sort of a prequel to the serial that I will be submitting to a space opera anthology.

Also, since non-fiction clearly sells better than fiction, I am writing a series of short TV-related books. I don’t plan on counting those against my 6-book challenge, but I thought I’d mention it.

I’ll never give up on fiction, but I need to find a more effective way of paying my bills until my fiction starts selling.

And that’s all for now!