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Asha Sanaker's avatar

This was great. Thank you, Amanda! One of the things I really appreciate about Substack as a platform is the opportunity to consider and then comment substantively on the writing of writers I love and admire. And now that we can share those comments more widely, its a win-win.

For instance, for more than a year after she started publishing Dear Sugar on here, I read Cheryl Strayed's newsletter religiously. And her writing always makes me think deeply, so I found myself responding-- not to accomplish anything necessarily other than to just be part of the conversation. Then I went to a workshop with her-- my first-ever writing workshop-- and I went up and introduced myself. I felt a little ridiculous, honestly, but I told her who I was, that I always commented on her newsletter because it moved me so much, and she instantly responded, "Oh, I know you! You're wonderful!" It just about knocked me over. She then became a subscriber to my newsletter and I've gotten any number of subscribers through my comments on her newsletters, and it all feels very authentic rather than forced, which is always my problem with marketing. It feels so calculated and forced. Focusing on storytelling, as you describe here, feels totally different.

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esther, probably's avatar

Thanks so much for this – to me, it's further confirmation of what I've come to realize over the past year: no matter the outcome, I'm learning to not care who reads my writing or when, to write purely for the sake of it, because it keeps me alive and sane, because there are words I need to let go of that won't ever leave me if I don't do the work to tease them out and let them go.

So, accepting that I'm not ready (not now, maybe not ever) to consciously *do* anything to help my writing spread. I'm hardly even reading others' writing these days (other than reading novels to my kid) because I'm so focused on just getting my words out.

I know my writing is *fine* and has substance, but believe it's often too much to digest – which is also fine to me right now, because my priority isn't subscriber count but my own personal evolution via my writing, which often requires me publishing more than my mind thinks is "smart" to publicly let go of, and/but I know that'll change over time, with practice and refined discernment.

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