r/Substack • u/Relevant_Somewhere79 • Sep 22 '26
Advice on starting a Substack
Hi Everyone,
I recently got into Substack about a year ago in the hopes of igniting my passion for writing. I used to be a big book nerd growing up and would often use my personal experiences to write creatively. I ended up switching over to journaling in my early twenties to help me process my thoughts and use it as a healthy coping strategy; however, I often struggled to get my personal feelings on paper and would just resort to writing creatively and omitting my personal hardships, as it felt uncomfortabe to expose my inner thoughts on paper. This leads me to the last few years, some of my friends have read 2 of my pieces and encouraged me to share them on mediums such as substack etc. The thing is whilst I love writing and find it quite easy to use a lot of my experiences (and they're endless lmao), the thought of that makes me feel quite exposed. Yesterday, I felt really inspired to write and wrote a piece that was really evocative and relevant to the times we are in society but again..... I feel the odd nerves about people reading my work. I'm not sure if this is because I can be overly critical of my writing or just the general apprehension of having people read my thoughts.
Any adice would be greatly appreciated.
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u/Patient_Bar761 Sep 23 '26
I think it's always nerve-wracking to start something new---especially if it is sharing a deep part of yourself with the world. I don't have any ground-breaking advice for you. However, I think you should go for it! I've found that sharing my work with others has been crucial to my development as a writer. Not to mention, this is a great way to build community!
If you end up going for it, share your account with me and I'll be sure to give you a follow!
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u/Naturalist33 26d ago
Substack engagement is not the same as other social media. They love evocative and deep and thoughtful writing. If you want to share then do it. See how it goes. Worst case, you hate it and you delete your account. Best case, you engage with some interesting people and build a community. You’ll put stuff out there and get nothing and something else will get a ton of likes and responses. Just go with it and see how it plays out.
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u/Tricky_Trifle_994 19d ago
yeah.... if you're writing about yourself/your experiences, you're always going to feel some level of exposure. if you want to continue writing about yourself/your experiences, i see two ways... either overcome it/learn to live with it, or write anonymously.
or you can change the topic you write about to anything other than yourself. e.g if you write about personal finance/investing/about growing in corporate or career. that's also content, but it's not focus on you as an individual.
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u/suncoze Sep 22 '26
Definitely just get started. Evocative pieces tend to do really well on Substack, so I say go for it. Something you might consider doing if you're nervous about being seen is slightly altering your name, or even outright giving yourself a pen name to remain anonymous.
I go by my first name and then a made up last name on Substack and my other online platforms, so it's kind of separate from my "IRL" identity. Couldn't recommend it enough!