One Year of Writing on Substack

"It's the fun of doing it that's important...No matter how anybody says it is. It feels good to have made something" - Mr. Rogers

The first beautiful day of spring is a momentous occasion; a time to celebrate the transition from winter, especially in New York City. I spent the first 70+ degree day after a long cold winter doing what anyone would hope to be doing on a sun-filled spring day: serving jury duty. While sitting in the drab, soulless federal building - wishing I was enjoying the first beautiful spring day, the fact struck me that it had been roughly a year since I published my first post on Substack. Sitting bored on an anniversary, waiting to find out if I would be required to report to court for multiple weeks is a great time for reflection on a year of writing.

• First, and the most important - I found something that scratches my “creative” itch, and I was able to stay consistent with it. For the last several years I found myself interested in finding a creative outlet, but always would fail to sustain any prolonged interest. I took the leap of not only writing, but actually sharing online. I came to the realization that I love writing, and stuck with it somewhat consistently for a full year. That is something I am proud of and excited about. Sometimes just finding something you are excited to keep doing is a win in and of itself.

• One area that anyone who creates anything will tell you is that consistency and repetition are a massive part of improvement. While proud I stayed with it for a year, my output could be described as “scattered”. I averaged about a post a month, but the gaps between writing could be weeks, sometimes stretching to a month or longer. A few months had multiple essays, some had none. A big focus for year two is being more consistent with writing and sharing, because the only way to become a better writer is to write more.

• I have a desire to improve, and to keep writing. A reliable signal that I can stay consistent with any endeavor is if I have a genuine interest in the process of improvement. From constantly thinking about different topics to write about, to reviewing ways I could have improved pieces I had already published, to formulating new experiments or formats to try – I felt a drive to push myself. Seeking constant improvement and development is usually a high-quality signal you will be able to stay with an activity for the long haul.

• Writing consistently has changed the way I read. As a voracious reader since childhood, I’ve found writing on my own has allowed me to approach the material from a more analytical perspective. While I will always read for enjoyment and leisure, I find my mind now filled with questions like “Why did the author structure this sentence in this way?” “Why are scenes constructed in this manner?” “How do they develop their writing from beginning to middle to end?” Writing has cultivated a greater appreciation for how words come together and has expanded my admiration for talented authors, and made me want to read not only for enjoyment, but for skill development as well.

• I’ve written on this before here and here, but one of the largest benefits of writing for me has been forced clarity of thought. In the age of relentless stimulation, clarifying my own thoughts in a cogent manner is a constant struggle. Writing forces me to organize and outline points, and when I know I am going to be publishing words into the world to be read, I’ve had to become direct, clear, and concise – resulting in becoming a stronger communicator overall.

• Creating something that other people enjoy is incredibly rewarding. Pouring my heart, soul, and scars of a decade-plus of fandom into an essay about Penn State football resulted in a piece of work I am proud of. It was the “thing” I had craved to write, and when friends or family told me how much they enjoyed it, I felt a flow of gratitude. All the time I spent revising and editing felt worth it when genuine support came in and I could see people choosing to share it with others. You ultimately need your own guiding light in any pursuit, rather than creating to please someone else, but anyone who tells you they are immune to the reception their work receives is lying.

• Constraints direct focus and expand creativity. When first starting this, I was not sure what to write about. I experimented with different topics from sports, to my own personal endeavors, to broader cultural insights. This goes against the grain of modern media or content which rewards hyper “niche’ing” – i.e. picking one thing and sticking to it. One of my biggest inspirations in writing and media at large is Bill Simmons, and his ability to paint different topics together through sports, movies, and culture. I want to create my own version of that, where I won’t be constrained to writing about one thing. This is not a job, so I crave the freedom to chase the sources of inspiration. Sometimes that feels too broad, and like Thor needing his magic hammer Mjolnir to channel his lightning powers, I needed a throughline instrument to tie everything together. Suddenly a new name not only brought a cohesive vision, but a clear direction on where I want to explore further.

• Experimentation is necessary for evolution and passion. I’ve played around with numerous types of posts, mainly in an effort to see what types I enjoy writing. These varied from classic “lessons from” essays, to post-game recaps during the Stanley Cup Final, to massive narrative journeys through a decade of a Penn State football program. It helped reveal the types I like to create and spend time on, and more importantly the types I do not. There will be more experiments in the future, but I have a much more solid idea than I did a year ago about what kinds of things I want to write about.

• Metric tracking is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it is helpful to have tools and data to measure and track “improvement” over time, but therein lies the problem: What constitutes “improvement”? I found myself struggling with this battle often. If I feel I wrote something strong, but it didn’t get as many “opens” or “shares” as previous posts - was it worse? If I purposefully aimed for something that was more “engaging” or “viral”, but I wasn’t proud of the quality, or didn’t enjoy the process of writing it - was that really an improvement? It can be difficult to not focus on chasing these metrics - more followers, subscribers, clicks, views, shares. These are data points of “growth”, and the conditions that equal success today. Letting that focus become too central, however, I found myself shifting away from “I want to write about and explore this topic” to “this is really topical right now I should write about it because people will engage with it and share it”. Swimming in the waters on X/Twitter, I learned after a few nasty comments and DMs that engagement for engagement’s sake was a game I had no interest in playing.

• As I enter the second year of this publication, the focus will continue to remain on quality over quantity. I will aim to write in a more consistent manner, but never at the expense of quality. There will be more depth into the “pressure point” theme - the nexus of important and interesting stories, and the people involved in them. I want to meet and spotlight interesting people doing cool things. Some new experiments will be coming, but I will continue to write about topics that I am passionate about, and share some more personal stories. I believe now, more than ever, authenticity is valuable.

I don’t really know where this is going, or where year two will bring me, but I am committed to staying the course and writing one word at a time. The last year has been filled with breakthroughs, frustration, bursts of creativity, fits of writer’s block – but ultimately joy, clarity and excitement for what is yet to come.

Thank you for reading!