Congratulations and happy anniversary! I'm with you on blogging: Substack is a simple way to get it into people's hands. I prefer to read your essays directly, without trawling through a magazine selling me other things.
I think it was your sub stack reference on Cesar Aria ? that caught my attention. I always look for sites/stacks at creative processes of artist and writers.
His "flight forward" method, or "fuga hacia adelante," is unique and astonishing approach to writing. You could say that process is counter craft to craft workshops methodology.
I have experimented and practiced the principals of flight forward and have had encouraging output.
Also the Melbourne Writers festival a while ago was great
Thanks, Lincoln, for keeping on writing the newsletter. I am always curious what I will find reading it and it has opened quite a few mental doors for me. I wish you all the success you deserve.
Really interesting - thank you - enlightening to read authentic advice compared to all the variations of ‘grow your Substack and get rich!’ articles that flood my Substack notes. :)
Making my way through the Counter Craft archive! Hope we’re allowed to plug our own sites here. Mine is a joint effort with my husband with some of our projects that got published (text) or produced (collaborative multimedia) that got some press, but only went far enough to get my husband up the academic tenure ladder. We are absolutely awful at networking and promotion and social media, and we are currently swamped with practical stuff so I’m not sure how long our Substack will survive (or Substack, itself, for that matter). https://alltheotherwritersartistsclub.substack.com
Lincoln – do you ever write about life in VA? Do you ever go back? We’re thinking of moving to maybe Roanoke area. A lot depends on governor’s race.
Of course! Part of the pleasure of newsletters (and blogs) is the linking and way you can hop from blog to blog. (I'm pretty ensconced in NYC I think, although my immediate family still live in Virginia and I go back a few times a year.)
I’m def picking up on some of the VA influence in your short stories—just started reading Upright Beasts. Waiting for governor’s race in VA to see how VA evolves. We’re thinking IL, MA, or maybe VA if democratic governor — getting out of wacko red state FL!
One of my favourite long emails I get into my inbox! I always make time to read your newsletter, even if I am dumping the rest of the many I follow into their folders in my email to be read at a later date (or never), because I learn so much! I've shared several of your columns with writer friends, especially when they hit on craft stuff that we've talked about in our own circles.
Making sure my narrators are weird little freaks has become one of my stated writing goals this year and I'm not sure that I'm achieving it yet, but it's been such a good reminder to like, lean the hell in and enjoy the hell out of the writing process, so thank you for that especially!
Thank you! That's really really nice and heartening to hear! Definitely think we should be enjoying the process as much as we can. Otherwise, why do it?
"If a young writer asked me what to do to build a “platform,” the newsletter is the obvious choice right now." Yes. Expose your talent. Of course expose means you're exposed : )
Congratulations on 4 years and your huge subscriber count. Thanks also for the Author advice. I’ve been struggling with what to share in mine. The more I’m on here, the more humble I feel and less I want to bother anyone. But this post inspires me to try again, trusting if it’s something worth thinking through and writing for my own benefit that maybe, eventually, someone else will appreciate the read.
One of my favorite newsletters! Your voice is much needed on here. Congrats on four years and 15k readers!
Just a sidenote, I was wondering what the source of the header image is? I ask because I've seen it circling Substack with no attribution and feel like it might be AI-generated :\
Thank you! And you know what, I think I'll swap that image out. (TBH, I searched a long time for a source and couldn't, AI or otherwise. Earliest I could find was just a Tumblr post without attribution from mid-2024. Should err on not using anything I can't find attribution for though.)
Congratulations and happy anniversary! I'm with you on blogging: Substack is a simple way to get it into people's hands. I prefer to read your essays directly, without trawling through a magazine selling me other things.
Thanks for writing it.
Thank you for reading!
I will totally buy your craft book :)
I think it was your sub stack reference on Cesar Aria ? that caught my attention. I always look for sites/stacks at creative processes of artist and writers.
His "flight forward" method, or "fuga hacia adelante," is unique and astonishing approach to writing. You could say that process is counter craft to craft workshops methodology.
I have experimented and practiced the principals of flight forward and have had encouraging output.
Also the Melbourne Writers festival a while ago was great
I enjoyed the interview too.
https://www.killyourdarlings.com.au/2011/08/cesar-aira-writing-is-my-freedom-where-i-receive-orders-from-no-one-not-even-from-myself/?form=MG0AV3
Yes, I'm a big Aira fan and find his method fascinating!
Thanks, Lincoln, for keeping on writing the newsletter. I am always curious what I will find reading it and it has opened quite a few mental doors for me. I wish you all the success you deserve.
Thank you for reading!
Really interesting - thank you - enlightening to read authentic advice compared to all the variations of ‘grow your Substack and get rich!’ articles that flood my Substack notes. :)
Happy 4 years man. I've consistently enjoyed your work on here and I'm grateful to have it. Cheers!
Making my way through the Counter Craft archive! Hope we’re allowed to plug our own sites here. Mine is a joint effort with my husband with some of our projects that got published (text) or produced (collaborative multimedia) that got some press, but only went far enough to get my husband up the academic tenure ladder. We are absolutely awful at networking and promotion and social media, and we are currently swamped with practical stuff so I’m not sure how long our Substack will survive (or Substack, itself, for that matter). https://alltheotherwritersartistsclub.substack.com
Lincoln – do you ever write about life in VA? Do you ever go back? We’re thinking of moving to maybe Roanoke area. A lot depends on governor’s race.
Of course! Part of the pleasure of newsletters (and blogs) is the linking and way you can hop from blog to blog. (I'm pretty ensconced in NYC I think, although my immediate family still live in Virginia and I go back a few times a year.)
I’m def picking up on some of the VA influence in your short stories—just started reading Upright Beasts. Waiting for governor’s race in VA to see how VA evolves. We’re thinking IL, MA, or maybe VA if democratic governor — getting out of wacko red state FL!
One of my favourite long emails I get into my inbox! I always make time to read your newsletter, even if I am dumping the rest of the many I follow into their folders in my email to be read at a later date (or never), because I learn so much! I've shared several of your columns with writer friends, especially when they hit on craft stuff that we've talked about in our own circles.
Making sure my narrators are weird little freaks has become one of my stated writing goals this year and I'm not sure that I'm achieving it yet, but it's been such a good reminder to like, lean the hell in and enjoy the hell out of the writing process, so thank you for that especially!
Thank you! That's really really nice and heartening to hear! Definitely think we should be enjoying the process as much as we can. Otherwise, why do it?
"If a young writer asked me what to do to build a “platform,” the newsletter is the obvious choice right now." Yes. Expose your talent. Of course expose means you're exposed : )
Thanks for writing! I always enjoy this blog.
Love the newsletter! Congrats on four years!
Thank you, Alex!
Congratulations on 4 years and your huge subscriber count. Thanks also for the Author advice. I’ve been struggling with what to share in mine. The more I’m on here, the more humble I feel and less I want to bother anyone. But this post inspires me to try again, trusting if it’s something worth thinking through and writing for my own benefit that maybe, eventually, someone else will appreciate the read.
One of my favorite newsletters! Your voice is much needed on here. Congrats on four years and 15k readers!
Just a sidenote, I was wondering what the source of the header image is? I ask because I've seen it circling Substack with no attribution and feel like it might be AI-generated :\
Thank you! And you know what, I think I'll swap that image out. (TBH, I searched a long time for a source and couldn't, AI or otherwise. Earliest I could find was just a Tumblr post without attribution from mid-2024. Should err on not using anything I can't find attribution for though.)
Damn, that's too bad! I want a human artist to recreate it lol it's honestly a cool image