I still feel a bit like I’m not fully invited to the party with it all, if I’m honest!
I have started bringing my postpartum stories here ❤️ I’ve got loads to share but also an invite for people on here to share theirs with me too. I’m hoping people will be more open to that once I’ve shared a few more and they can get a feel for what it is
I get this feeling SO much too, thank you for sharing so honestly!!!! Your topic is one very close to my heart as well, maybe we can talk about doing a collab of some kind in the new year? I would be happy to email you to talk more =)
Going to follow you now! I started my Substack last month as a result of healing from my PPD journey. I'm covering tough parenting topics (gearing up to share PPD thoughts I have been emailing myself for 2 years, coming soon on my content calendar) as well as self development. I also empathize with not being invited to the party yet! Since I'm only a month in, I don't feel established enough to belong. But trying to learn and grow and start relationships here!
Thank you 🙏 ❤️ and what a wonderful thing to have. Have you read back through them? I have my journals and it’s hard going to look at sometimes. It would be lovely to share your experience over on our newsletter too - there’s a post there about postpartum stories and a link for filling in if you’d like ✨
I would love to share my experience! I started a gratitude journal to help with PPD and I can't read those early entries without crying and feeling like how I did then, even though the entries were all positive. I could see behind the words and how I was grasping onto these moments like life preservers. Or the days I only had one moment of gratitude with a note that I was too dark to see anything else.
When I first had my son, I wrote this little notes about what we did every day for the first year and there’s just no emotion in them at all, they’re all super factual. But then when you read them, you remember the reality and it is super emotional.
This is the post where I share my experience and it has the form to share yours - it’s very open ended because I want it to just be there to share whatever you need/ want ❤️ but also feel free to email me or chat on Instagram
Hi! I’d love to collab on postpartum stuff! I just subscribed and followed your IG (I’m https://instagram.com/brighterdays.darkernights). I’ve been meaning to write a post about what PP recovery can look like (I used a sleep and activity tracker through end of pregnancy and my first months PP so I actually have some data to share that I think is really interesting to kind of show the reality of it). Anyways, if that’s at all interesting as a possibility for a guest post I’d love to chat! I also just opened up a guest series on my publication, so if there is a topic you’d be interested in sharing about I’d be happy to talk about that, too!
But if I say it here, perhaps I’ll have to do it Claire and that feels really scary?!!! ... ok here goes: I would love to collaborate with other writers, creators and artists to contribute their own Creative Prescriptions to my Substack. To share their creative exercises, prompts and ways of dealing with common ailments such as imposter syndrome, the inner critic, overwhelm, uncertainty and all the other things we as creative people secretly battle with in those quiet moments with our work. Then I’d love to create live workshops where we get to play with these exercises and reflect together.
There ... I said it out loud. Feels nice to have shared that dream with you!
Thanks for another wonderful inspiring post as always and I shall enjoy reading through all of you recommendations.
Hey Georgie, I'd love to do something with you, I do lots around helping creatives with self-belief, it's just amazing to unlock that confidence isn't it?! if you'd like to talk you can get me on sarah@sarahlynas.co.uk 🌟
I have a yet-untaught workshop I created around the idea of connecting to place as a form of self care that I’d love to contribute if this idea resonates with you! It follows my story of overcoming burnout as a marketing exec and finding my path through Nature into birth work, and then some circadian and quantum biology around how specifically the connection to place can nourish.
If you're still looking, I'd be interested. I'm new to Substack but have many years as an arts professional, artist, curator of a gallery, and art professor. I've seen, and probably felt, it all!
Yes!!! I’m so thrilled to see more and more collaboration happening on Substack 🙌 I just published my second interview in my Women In The Thick Of It series with the lovely Lauren Barber and cannot wait to share more of these insightful conversations...
Looking forward to seeing even more sparkle in the coming weeks and months ✨
Thanks for sharing! To be honest, I’ve just been cold-emailing/DMing on Instagram and the response has been 100% positive! I think people are usually really happy to collaborate if you have content that is aligned and you provide some information as to the value the joint venture will offer. I feel super lucky to have connected with some amazing people on Substack, so even just leaving comments on articles has helped in the initial approach ✨
Ok, that’s reassuring because that’s the same thing as I have been doing and I’ve also been having positive responses! But I’m always looking for ideas to do things better. The value pitch is great. My first outreach was all to people I know and I was asking in the context of helping keep my publication going while I was on maternity leave. Now that I’m back, I am finding that I still want to keep doing the collabs so now I want to explore new ways to think frame it.
Thanks for sharing my series and website, Claire! I’m excited to publish your Substack piece in a couple of weeks, then I’ll be sharing a Substack themed Inside Story letter with subscribers. I hope it will help to bring folk over to the platform, as readers if nothing else.
ONE goal! Hmm. I’m going to say switch on my paywall because it is time 🤩
I love the idea of collaboration! I'm hesitant to reach out though, it seems that some people are adept in 'pitching' who they are and what they do, whereas I am more of a splurger! I'd love to do guest articles for people, or join in on delivering a workshop - I have 12 at the ready all based around different feelings. I'd also love to have guests to write on my Substack for my subscribers - anyone who has used poetry as a way to express the unexpressable and is passionate about helping other people do that, anyone who is keen to debunk the medicalisation myths of mental health and remind us that we are sentient beings and anyone who would want to write a guest post for my 'permission to feel' series where I take a feeling each week and give psychological insight into how to use that feeling as a helpful signpost and how to process it.
As someone who gets approached to do collabs fairly often, I can tell you that at least for me, it's always welcome. I might not be able to say yes every time (though it's very nearly every time), but I am never annoyed at being asked -- in fact, I'm grateful people reach out, and I've made some wonderful friends this way.
Hi Jacky! I have to check out more of your work ...I am defiently NOT a poet by any means, but my grad degree is in psych..and my whole mission/goal is to support mothers in priortizing their mental health..so really excited to dive into your page! =)
I would love to do a piece on 'permission to feel!' Jacky. I am learning to regulate my nervous system again after years of shutdown and in retrospect can see I was depressed for about 7 or more years after the deaths of my son and brother. I didn't take medication as it frightens the life out of me and I have had a lot of other help but mainly the work I have done on myself.
I'm grateful for you replying and love the title of your Substack. Would be an honour to have you share your story of permitting yourself to feel for my readers ♥️
I am still learning how to reach out to people, too! I’ve had 3 guest writers so far. I write about peripartum mental health and bring in the research around how Nature, sunshine, darkness and earthing tie into this topic. Not very poetic, so maybe not the most relevant for your audience? But I did have a contribution accepted to Moon Seeds this year alongside many more poetic women: https://www.moonseeds.love/?ref=nikko. Anyways, would love to chat if you are interested in finding some potential for a collab :)
My goal for November is the same as usual: Growth. I've only been here a couple of months.
I have not yet collaborated with anyone because it is difficult to find topics I'd like to collab on. It seems most people are into "writing habits" or "inspiration." I like concrete stuff lol. I'd love to collab on something travel related.
My friend Beth loves travel writing (The Adventure started with you) and I have met another pal here who writes about her adventures in their 4x4 - there are folks here I think it just takes a while to set things up... the timing will be right when it’s right won’t it? The picture of collaboration feels more possible because of the way we consume Substack I think? Eg using notes and expanding conversation in comments? ✨🙏
How would you feel about collaborating on something around overcoming adversity Kristi? It's a thought I've had for a some weeks and you cam e to mind? No pressure though. Only if it feels right. :o)
I am putting together a series of features and preparing them is really lighting me up. Some amazing collabs. I wanted to do this after other writers on here featured me too, such a joy to pay it forward, celebrate each other, highlight each other's work. ✨
I love the spirit of collaboration in the air at the moment! Collaboration is always been something I have been drawn to in my work in PR, I love bringing people together, drawing out stories and offering their beauty into the world. I have two opportunities at Story & Thread currently, INSIDER which is a deep dive into our experiences of home as places to nurture, create and anchor us to our surroundings. And as you so generously mention ATELIER, a new collaborative interview exploring our creative spaces, processes and rituals - it was an honour and a pleasure to feature your insights Claire for the first one (and thank you for sounding out my ideas with me!).
I am also starting to write for other publications and it is such a joy to be asked and to work with others on a shared creative vision! Here's to connecting, collaborating and celebrating each other xx
YES! Love your speakeasy vibe Erica, so different to mine (cosy kitchen table I think... still working on mine 😘) but I'd totally be up for doing something fun with you!
Oh how exciting! I’m not sure I ever had a stalker before Erica and sooo thrilled it’s you 😘 You’d be so welcome in my inbox love - find me just here… sarah@sarahlynas.co.uk
LOVE this idea of collaboration 🌞🌀🌷 thank you for showing us what's possible!!! I'm still fairly new to the Substackian universe but this has given me many tingles and much food for thought 〰️
Hi, it's been great to have co-working sessions with you here, even if I may have to replay them. I came into Substack arena with the idea of working through the book I'm writing. It is actually a collaboration with my deceased husband, using his papers and family history to tell our two stories to each other. But first I wanted a place to land everyday and write so I started Writers Daily Dive on Substack so a bunch of us could write together every day. It is only a few weeks old. Some days they are just two of us, but sometimes there are five. And I have 3 paying subscribers! I guess thats not bad at all for 3 weeks in. I cant wait to get more engaged with the community. I have realized that you can't really promote yourself here without promoting others. It's that way on Etsy as well, where I have been a vintage seller for over 10 years. It's all about joining the community.
So, I just typed a really long reply and then lost it!😂
Can't redo it, so will summarise...
Loved my collabs with Caro Giles back in August, and am still beaming she accepted the invitation to chat all things caring and creativity...
Have been so nurtured by the IRL pen-pal relationship I've been building with Stephanie Jucar Cooley recently, when I replied to her call-out.
Absolutely loved the invitation to think richly about my writing practice for Sarah Roberston last week... We express ourselves in unexpected ways when responding to others' brilliant prompts.
Right. Goals... Before the end of the year, I aim to collaborate twice more!
My goal this month is to watch all of Sarah Fay's workshops and... put into practice her advice about writing less. (This will have to be a work in progress for me because wow, do I write a lot.)
I've collaborated a lot with other Substackers and have done interviews with children's book authors and illustrators once a month for awhile, all of which I've found fun -- but in a recent survey, my subscribers let me know those are their least favorite posts, so I decided to cut back on them. (It's always a balance between what *I* like and the feedback I get.)
It was written feedback, not votes — iirc, I asked something like, “What do you like the least about my newsletter?” And the most common answer was guest posts and interviews.
Ooof always so interesting! So I’ll share because I think you’ll find this interesting but I get unsubscribes whenever I share guest posts over on Creatively Conscious - the topic is Big Dreams and Quiet Ambition and lots of my community adore them but I think for some their is an instant disconnect and I feel like that’s ok because the work feels very important to me and I want to support other writers...
Yes, I understand that. I get unsubscribes every time I post no matter what, so I’ve stopped using that as a metric that’s relevant to content — it’s more like people knowing whether my newsletter is a fit for them or not, and I’d rather they go then stay and not engage. But I’m still going to do guest posts and interviews from time to time anyway because I, too, want to support other writers.
Fascinating isn’t it! Off to read some now Sarah! 📖 I’ve worked with a few children’s book authors on various projects - they have a special place in my heart and actually picture books really brought me home to myself when I first became a mum.
My goal is to reach out and start collaborating more in Nov/Dec. My intention is to do a couple of 'A coffee with...' style written interviews with people whose writing I admire.
Such a valuable post, Claire - and thank you for sharing my own collaborative project! 💖
Although I love to write my regular Saturday posts, my every-other-Wednesday 'Letters to Terry' - and his replies in the alternate weeks - are an absolute highlight of my Substack experience. Here's why:
1. Having a letter to write to Terry means that I'm always on the look-out for things to write about, which gets me tuned into the world around me at a deeper level than I otherwise might be.
2. Having to respond to subjects that I would not otherwise be expecting to write about - ones which Terry has introduced in one of his letters - keeps me on my writing toes.
3. Having a deadline that isn't 100% self-imposed is really helpful. I tend to tweak my own Saturday posts right up to the minute before they're scheduled to go live... but I'm usually far more organised with my letters to Terry.
4. Having ongoing 'stories' within a series of correspondence is really lovely. With my one-off Saturday posts there isn't an obvious thread of a story running through them all, week to week, but there is an element of continuity within my letter series - for a while we were comparing notes on the state of British roads (we called it 'Puddlegate'), and since meeting in person for the first time last month - a situation which had led to a spillage of coffee and an unintentional flinging of frothy milk all over Terry - we have been having a giggle about tea and coffee culture.
5. It gives me a chance to exercise a different voice. Terry and I have a similar sense of humour, and it's lovely to get to play with that at bit more than I otherwise would!
Thank you so much for sharing so many lovely links - I'm looking forward to checking out everyone you've linked to.
Oh fascinating!! I ADORE hearing about the creative process and I can tell how special this partnership is to you both. Really really beautiful! Do you have an end point in mind? It was hard for Sarah and I to wrap ours up - felt like we could have continued for ever. ✨
What had started as a three-week, six-letter project last December is still going strong, although we're now writing on alternate weeks instead of every week. 😊
It was so great to have had the opportunity to meet the man behind the letters - and he's been kind enough to have not (yet!) sent me his dry-cleaning bill in respect of the cafe spillages for which I was responsible...! 🤣
I’m loving the whole community and collaboration on Substack and was invited as a guest on Hannah Ashe podcast which will be out soon, can’t wait to see how that goes and the possibilities of leads too.
I still feel a bit like I’m not fully invited to the party with it all, if I’m honest!
I have started bringing my postpartum stories here ❤️ I’ve got loads to share but also an invite for people on here to share theirs with me too. I’m hoping people will be more open to that once I’ve shared a few more and they can get a feel for what it is
I get this feeling SO much too, thank you for sharing so honestly!!!! Your topic is one very close to my heart as well, maybe we can talk about doing a collab of some kind in the new year? I would be happy to email you to talk more =)
Aww yeah, I’d love that ❤️ it’s Zoe@postpartummatters.co.uk
Going to follow you now! I started my Substack last month as a result of healing from my PPD journey. I'm covering tough parenting topics (gearing up to share PPD thoughts I have been emailing myself for 2 years, coming soon on my content calendar) as well as self development. I also empathize with not being invited to the party yet! Since I'm only a month in, I don't feel established enough to belong. But trying to learn and grow and start relationships here!
Thank you 🙏 ❤️ and what a wonderful thing to have. Have you read back through them? I have my journals and it’s hard going to look at sometimes. It would be lovely to share your experience over on our newsletter too - there’s a post there about postpartum stories and a link for filling in if you’d like ✨
I would love to share my experience! I started a gratitude journal to help with PPD and I can't read those early entries without crying and feeling like how I did then, even though the entries were all positive. I could see behind the words and how I was grasping onto these moments like life preservers. Or the days I only had one moment of gratitude with a note that I was too dark to see anything else.
🥹🥹 sending so so much love! ❤️
Oh I feel that ❤️❤️
When I first had my son, I wrote this little notes about what we did every day for the first year and there’s just no emotion in them at all, they’re all super factual. But then when you read them, you remember the reality and it is super emotional.
This is the post where I share my experience and it has the form to share yours - it’s very open ended because I want it to just be there to share whatever you need/ want ❤️ but also feel free to email me or chat on Instagram
https://postpartummatterscic.substack.com/p/why-is-our-postpartum-experience
Thank you so much for sharing this, and for writing it! ❤️❤️ Going to read now...
😍😍😍
Hi! I’d love to collab on postpartum stuff! I just subscribed and followed your IG (I’m https://instagram.com/brighterdays.darkernights). I’ve been meaning to write a post about what PP recovery can look like (I used a sleep and activity tracker through end of pregnancy and my first months PP so I actually have some data to share that I think is really interesting to kind of show the reality of it). Anyways, if that’s at all interesting as a possibility for a guest post I’d love to chat! I also just opened up a guest series on my publication, so if there is a topic you’d be interested in sharing about I’d be happy to talk about that, too!
A guest post would be lovely 🥰 would it be easier to chat over Instagram?
Sure!
I’d be delighted to share mine with you Zoë, and I relate to the “not fully invited to the party”, and find great beauty in your honesty babe xx
But if I say it here, perhaps I’ll have to do it Claire and that feels really scary?!!! ... ok here goes: I would love to collaborate with other writers, creators and artists to contribute their own Creative Prescriptions to my Substack. To share their creative exercises, prompts and ways of dealing with common ailments such as imposter syndrome, the inner critic, overwhelm, uncertainty and all the other things we as creative people secretly battle with in those quiet moments with our work. Then I’d love to create live workshops where we get to play with these exercises and reflect together.
There ... I said it out loud. Feels nice to have shared that dream with you!
Thanks for another wonderful inspiring post as always and I shall enjoy reading through all of you recommendations.
Count me in!!! ✨✨
Yay!! 🤞🏻
Hey Georgie, I'd love to do something with you, I do lots around helping creatives with self-belief, it's just amazing to unlock that confidence isn't it?! if you'd like to talk you can get me on sarah@sarahlynas.co.uk 🌟
Sounds great, I’ll definitely email you Sarah 😀. I’ve been reading some of your Substack posts and we share a lot of interests!
oh yay!
I have a yet-untaught workshop I created around the idea of connecting to place as a form of self care that I’d love to contribute if this idea resonates with you! It follows my story of overcoming burnout as a marketing exec and finding my path through Nature into birth work, and then some circadian and quantum biology around how specifically the connection to place can nourish.
I’d love to hear more Nikko! If you want to chat more feel free to email me info@georgiestclair.com 😀
Me too. This sounds amazing.
Awww thank you! I’d better put my imposter syndrome aside and get my plans into action 😀
We all feel like imposters, I promise.
If you're still looking, I'd be interested. I'm new to Substack but have many years as an arts professional, artist, curator of a gallery, and art professor. I've seen, and probably felt, it all!
Count me in too I ADORE this idea and have so much to say about creative prescriptions!
Yes!!! I’m so thrilled to see more and more collaboration happening on Substack 🙌 I just published my second interview in my Women In The Thick Of It series with the lovely Lauren Barber and cannot wait to share more of these insightful conversations...
Looking forward to seeing even more sparkle in the coming weeks and months ✨
It's a great post Ashley! I'd love to collaborate with you sometime, you have such a juicy topic going on there 🌟
I’d love this! Flick me an email hellointhethickofit@gmail.com ✨
I’m heading to your inbox love!
This is lovely! How have you been finding guests for your series so far? I have published 3 guest posts and am still finding it a little awkward to reach out to people for this. + Here’s the link for anyone else who wants to pop over and read Ashley and Lauren’s piece: https://open.substack.com/pub/inthethickofit/p/women-in-the-thick-of-it-lauren-barber?r=bz03m&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
Thanks for sharing! To be honest, I’ve just been cold-emailing/DMing on Instagram and the response has been 100% positive! I think people are usually really happy to collaborate if you have content that is aligned and you provide some information as to the value the joint venture will offer. I feel super lucky to have connected with some amazing people on Substack, so even just leaving comments on articles has helped in the initial approach ✨
Ok, that’s reassuring because that’s the same thing as I have been doing and I’ve also been having positive responses! But I’m always looking for ideas to do things better. The value pitch is great. My first outreach was all to people I know and I was asking in the context of helping keep my publication going while I was on maternity leave. Now that I’m back, I am finding that I still want to keep doing the collabs so now I want to explore new ways to think frame it.
Hey Ashley! Think I said this on another thread but loving your work, now subscribing and more than happy to contribute! Xx
Thank you 🙏 and always up for more contributors! Email me at hellointhethickofit@gmail.com ✨
Thanks for sharing my series and website, Claire! I’m excited to publish your Substack piece in a couple of weeks, then I’ll be sharing a Substack themed Inside Story letter with subscribers. I hope it will help to bring folk over to the platform, as readers if nothing else.
ONE goal! Hmm. I’m going to say switch on my paywall because it is time 🤩
LOVE this goal for you, Sarah!✨
Me too!!
It IS time for you Sarah I can feel it in my heart!
I love the idea of collaboration! I'm hesitant to reach out though, it seems that some people are adept in 'pitching' who they are and what they do, whereas I am more of a splurger! I'd love to do guest articles for people, or join in on delivering a workshop - I have 12 at the ready all based around different feelings. I'd also love to have guests to write on my Substack for my subscribers - anyone who has used poetry as a way to express the unexpressable and is passionate about helping other people do that, anyone who is keen to debunk the medicalisation myths of mental health and remind us that we are sentient beings and anyone who would want to write a guest post for my 'permission to feel' series where I take a feeling each week and give psychological insight into how to use that feeling as a helpful signpost and how to process it.
Jacky!! I need to introduce you and Zoe! She’s in this comment thread!
Yay! Will have a look x
https://open.substack.com/pub/bloomingsundays/p/4am?r=506nf&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
As someone who gets approached to do collabs fairly often, I can tell you that at least for me, it's always welcome. I might not be able to say yes every time (though it's very nearly every time), but I am never annoyed at being asked -- in fact, I'm grateful people reach out, and I've made some wonderful friends this way.
Same Sarah!!
Thank you! And how do people reach out to you? Is it on notes or email or something else?
Email. Either they reply to my posts or email my Substack address.
Hi Jacky! I have to check out more of your work ...I am defiently NOT a poet by any means, but my grad degree is in psych..and my whole mission/goal is to support mothers in priortizing their mental health..so really excited to dive into your page! =)
Ah brill! Thanks! 🫶
I would love to do a piece on 'permission to feel!' Jacky. I am learning to regulate my nervous system again after years of shutdown and in retrospect can see I was depressed for about 7 or more years after the deaths of my son and brother. I didn't take medication as it frightens the life out of me and I have had a lot of other help but mainly the work I have done on myself.
I'm grateful for you replying and love the title of your Substack. Would be an honour to have you share your story of permitting yourself to feel for my readers ♥️
I am still learning how to reach out to people, too! I’ve had 3 guest writers so far. I write about peripartum mental health and bring in the research around how Nature, sunshine, darkness and earthing tie into this topic. Not very poetic, so maybe not the most relevant for your audience? But I did have a contribution accepted to Moon Seeds this year alongside many more poetic women: https://www.moonseeds.love/?ref=nikko. Anyways, would love to chat if you are interested in finding some potential for a collab :)
Yay Nikko thanks! Going to make my Substack admin day so will come back to all this then. This is exciting!
My goal for November is the same as usual: Growth. I've only been here a couple of months.
I have not yet collaborated with anyone because it is difficult to find topics I'd like to collab on. It seems most people are into "writing habits" or "inspiration." I like concrete stuff lol. I'd love to collab on something travel related.
My friend Beth loves travel writing (The Adventure started with you) and I have met another pal here who writes about her adventures in their 4x4 - there are folks here I think it just takes a while to set things up... the timing will be right when it’s right won’t it? The picture of collaboration feels more possible because of the way we consume Substack I think? Eg using notes and expanding conversation in comments? ✨🙏
Totally agree. I'm still in the shallow end and using my time here to look around and find what resonates.
What a lovely space to be in Kristi! ✨✨💜
Your comments on this post, Kristi, have sent me straight to your newsletter - new subscriber right here! I love everything about it! 🙌
I love this place 😁 Such a great community!
How would you feel about collaborating on something around overcoming adversity Kristi? It's a thought I've had for a some weeks and you cam e to mind? No pressure though. Only if it feels right. :o)
I would totally be on board with that. Overcoming Adversity could be the title of own memoir lol.
Why don't you send me an email and we can chat further?
Hi Kristi, sorry for very long delay..... A lot going on. 😁 I thought I had an email address for you. Can you let me know what it is please? Thanks
Sure, you can reach me at kristi@writtenbykristi.com
Thank you!
I am putting together a series of features and preparing them is really lighting me up. Some amazing collabs. I wanted to do this after other writers on here featured me too, such a joy to pay it forward, celebrate each other, highlight each other's work. ✨
Oh 100% yes!!!
I love the spirit of collaboration in the air at the moment! Collaboration is always been something I have been drawn to in my work in PR, I love bringing people together, drawing out stories and offering their beauty into the world. I have two opportunities at Story & Thread currently, INSIDER which is a deep dive into our experiences of home as places to nurture, create and anchor us to our surroundings. And as you so generously mention ATELIER, a new collaborative interview exploring our creative spaces, processes and rituals - it was an honour and a pleasure to feature your insights Claire for the first one (and thank you for sounding out my ideas with me!).
I am also starting to write for other publications and it is such a joy to be asked and to work with others on a shared creative vision! Here's to connecting, collaborating and celebrating each other xx
Yes here’s to that! I didn’t know you had a background in PR! How fascinating!! ✨✨
I’ve just got a taste (thanks for the shout out) and I want MOREEEE. So keen to do as many collabs as possible !!!
YES! Love your speakeasy vibe Erica, so different to mine (cosy kitchen table I think... still working on mine 😘) but I'd totally be up for doing something fun with you!
I just stalked you I feel like we could totally make some magic!
I’m so here for some conscious stalking of each other’s spaces!!
Oh how exciting! I’m not sure I ever had a stalker before Erica and sooo thrilled it’s you 😘 You’d be so welcome in my inbox love - find me just here… sarah@sarahlynas.co.uk
LOVE this idea of collaboration 🌞🌀🌷 thank you for showing us what's possible!!! I'm still fairly new to the Substackian universe but this has given me many tingles and much food for thought 〰️
Yay Gwen! Welcome. You’ll like it here! ✨🙏
Hi, it's been great to have co-working sessions with you here, even if I may have to replay them. I came into Substack arena with the idea of working through the book I'm writing. It is actually a collaboration with my deceased husband, using his papers and family history to tell our two stories to each other. But first I wanted a place to land everyday and write so I started Writers Daily Dive on Substack so a bunch of us could write together every day. It is only a few weeks old. Some days they are just two of us, but sometimes there are five. And I have 3 paying subscribers! I guess thats not bad at all for 3 weeks in. I cant wait to get more engaged with the community. I have realized that you can't really promote yourself here without promoting others. It's that way on Etsy as well, where I have been a vintage seller for over 10 years. It's all about joining the community.
So, I just typed a really long reply and then lost it!😂
Can't redo it, so will summarise...
Loved my collabs with Caro Giles back in August, and am still beaming she accepted the invitation to chat all things caring and creativity...
Have been so nurtured by the IRL pen-pal relationship I've been building with Stephanie Jucar Cooley recently, when I replied to her call-out.
Absolutely loved the invitation to think richly about my writing practice for Sarah Roberston last week... We express ourselves in unexpected ways when responding to others' brilliant prompts.
Right. Goals... Before the end of the year, I aim to collaborate twice more!
Ooo I love that - do you publish that or is it private?
Say more, Claire! What are you thinking?
Loved having you, Lindsay!
My goal this month is to watch all of Sarah Fay's workshops and... put into practice her advice about writing less. (This will have to be a work in progress for me because wow, do I write a lot.)
I've collaborated a lot with other Substackers and have done interviews with children's book authors and illustrators once a month for awhile, all of which I've found fun -- but in a recent survey, my subscribers let me know those are their least favorite posts, so I decided to cut back on them. (It's always a balance between what *I* like and the feedback I get.)
Oh interesting how many people voted?
It was written feedback, not votes — iirc, I asked something like, “What do you like the least about my newsletter?” And the most common answer was guest posts and interviews.
Ooof always so interesting! So I’ll share because I think you’ll find this interesting but I get unsubscribes whenever I share guest posts over on Creatively Conscious - the topic is Big Dreams and Quiet Ambition and lots of my community adore them but I think for some their is an instant disconnect and I feel like that’s ok because the work feels very important to me and I want to support other writers...
Yes, I understand that. I get unsubscribes every time I post no matter what, so I’ve stopped using that as a metric that’s relevant to content — it’s more like people knowing whether my newsletter is a fit for them or not, and I’d rather they go then stay and not engage. But I’m still going to do guest posts and interviews from time to time anyway because I, too, want to support other writers.
Fascinating isn’t it! Off to read some now Sarah! 📖 I’ve worked with a few children’s book authors on various projects - they have a special place in my heart and actually picture books really brought me home to myself when I first became a mum.
Same.
My goal is to reach out and start collaborating more in Nov/Dec. My intention is to do a couple of 'A coffee with...' style written interviews with people whose writing I admire.
That a lovely idea Louise! I’d like to read those. ✨✨
I’d love to read them also! X
Such a valuable post, Claire - and thank you for sharing my own collaborative project! 💖
Although I love to write my regular Saturday posts, my every-other-Wednesday 'Letters to Terry' - and his replies in the alternate weeks - are an absolute highlight of my Substack experience. Here's why:
1. Having a letter to write to Terry means that I'm always on the look-out for things to write about, which gets me tuned into the world around me at a deeper level than I otherwise might be.
2. Having to respond to subjects that I would not otherwise be expecting to write about - ones which Terry has introduced in one of his letters - keeps me on my writing toes.
3. Having a deadline that isn't 100% self-imposed is really helpful. I tend to tweak my own Saturday posts right up to the minute before they're scheduled to go live... but I'm usually far more organised with my letters to Terry.
4. Having ongoing 'stories' within a series of correspondence is really lovely. With my one-off Saturday posts there isn't an obvious thread of a story running through them all, week to week, but there is an element of continuity within my letter series - for a while we were comparing notes on the state of British roads (we called it 'Puddlegate'), and since meeting in person for the first time last month - a situation which had led to a spillage of coffee and an unintentional flinging of frothy milk all over Terry - we have been having a giggle about tea and coffee culture.
5. It gives me a chance to exercise a different voice. Terry and I have a similar sense of humour, and it's lovely to get to play with that at bit more than I otherwise would!
Thank you so much for sharing so many lovely links - I'm looking forward to checking out everyone you've linked to.
Sparkle on! ✨
Oh fascinating!! I ADORE hearing about the creative process and I can tell how special this partnership is to you both. Really really beautiful! Do you have an end point in mind? It was hard for Sarah and I to wrap ours up - felt like we could have continued for ever. ✨
Thanks, Claire! Hmm, we haven’t discussed an end point. Do all good things HAVE to come to an end, I wonder? 😁
Ah so Sarah and I said we’d share for a year and we did slightly longer... we still sometimes send the odd pic...
I’m curious about picking up another long term creative exchange project which is why I asked... ✨
I love that you met IRL - Sarah and I haven’t yet but we have voice noted ALOT and zoomed!
What had started as a three-week, six-letter project last December is still going strong, although we're now writing on alternate weeks instead of every week. 😊
It was so great to have had the opportunity to meet the man behind the letters - and he's been kind enough to have not (yet!) sent me his dry-cleaning bill in respect of the cafe spillages for which I was responsible...! 🤣
There's an (almost accurate, very tongue-in-cheek) account of the big day right here, including pics: https://rebeccaholden.substack.com/p/103-a-letter-about-terry
Thanks Rebecca - saving to read in my reading slot! ✨
I’m loving the whole community and collaboration on Substack and was invited as a guest on Hannah Ashe podcast which will be out soon, can’t wait to see how that goes and the possibilities of leads too.
Oh perfect! I should have mentioned podcasts here but maybe it’s a whole other thing?!!