ENTICE:What if you had a crystal ball showing you what your Substack readers want?

You do. Just look inside ... YOU ... with this practical exercise

This is not a theoretical exercise. It is based on one principle: you, as the author of your Substack, write about what you value and attract readers who also hold those values. This simple exercise will help you clarify your own values in a method far different from what you may have experienced before … and related directly to your writing here on Substack.

Turns out M.E. Rothwell offered us a perfect playground in his  “Call for August’s Subscriber Writing! He invited Substack authors to submit their best post simply as a link and a one line description written in third person. The comments section for this post turned into a goldmine of inspiration.

Here’s the exercise

1. Go to the comments section of the above call to writers.

2. Have a document open that you can cut and paste into.

3. Cut and paste the entries that interest you enough that you might want to read them. (Don’t read them now!) Be fairly inclusive but true to your own interests.

4. Review the ones you chose and note why you chose them. What value do they promise?

I did this exercise when there were about 32 entries and chose 9 that particularly interested me. Wound up reading 3 and fell in love with 1 which I subscribed to.

The underdeveloped writing skill and the ladder: writing about what we write about

You’d think it would be easy. We’re writers. We write. We mold words into sentences and paragraphs that deliver stories and information that make people see the world in different ways, make them think new thoughts, experience new emotions, sometimes even change their ways.

“So, what do you write about?” someone asks. And we stammer.

Our Substack coach says write a brief description that shows what value you bring to readers. And, suddenly there is no lead in our pencils. 

“Ok,” our coach says, trying to be helpful, “tell us about you. Why should readers read what you write?”

Now, not only has the ink has run dry but our screens have gone black and won’t reboot.

It actually makes perfect sense. What we write comes out of a mystic cavern; describing what we write comes off of whiteboards in florescent-lit offices.

For most of us, our only real choice is to plagiarize those whiteboards, borrow the words and make them fit our needs. Fortunately, it’s a skill that can be learned.

Let’s try. Once again M.E. Rothwell at The Books That Made Us comes to the rescue with 35 whiteboards all gathered together in Subscriber Writing Roundup. This is the post developed out of all those comments you looked at in Part 1 … brilliant and generous work … Thank you M.E.

First, on a blank piece of paper or computer screen, write your Substack Title, bio-profile, and brief description. Here’s mine as an example (and, by the way, this exercise made me rewrite mine and it is still nowhere near “done.”

Next: Start reading through the Roundup entries. Since he was generous enough to include mine in this Roundup, I’ll use it as an example.

Title: gratitude mojo and Substack Field Guide

Bio-profile: Reading opened my door to the world; writing is how I process what comes through. Gratitude is the energy that makes sense of it all. And, curiosity and generosity activate my vision that, together, we can create a better world.

Brief Description: Substack Field Guide, posts, and weekly Study Group discussion threads explore the integration of Substack elements with a simple marketing and growth process. (Wednesday). Gratitude tips, insights and stories. (Saturday).

CAVEAT: I am not an expert at this but I have had a LOT of practice. I started out years ago when I discovered that artists tend to be handicapped when it comes to writing about their own art. And, btw, my bio-profile still sucks.

Next: as you read how the author wrote about their own entry, think about how it works for you as a reader. Does it pull you in? Do you get a sense of what the post is about? Are there any words or phrases that you think could describe what you’re writing about? If so, copy them onto your open document.

Try not to get caught up in the content … just look for ideas or descriptions that might be useable for you. And, jot down everything that strikes you … don’t worry about whether or not it makes sense. If it calls to you at all, add it to the list. This is a form of brainstorming.

*** You will probably hit a prompt that calls to you. Write it down with *** but do not succumb to the temptation to run with it. Keep going through the list.

*** Once you finish the list, go back through it and expand on at least 5 prompts that would work for you.

---

Here’s the beginning of my Whiteboard Borrowings and the ones I expanded with ***

Childless woman

Experimenting, variety

Vulnerable, landscape, tackling, darkness

Freaking world

Forgiveness

Mysterious ways

Recent loss, hopeless anger

Challenge my destiny

*** Idea: Raised in the flat center of the Universe, I have been progressively challenging my destiny and hope to help you do the same.

Transformed by virus

ephemerality, the mercy in moments, finding a way through

Clown class

mothered by a mother who was never mothered herself

the club no-one wants to belong to

school dropout 

created his own

*1**Why would: Why would writers want to read other writers? Because that’s how we grow in our own writing. (possible idea)

*2**People are the art: People are the life models of a writer’s art

haunted by a work of art

*3** short rides through the desert: I’ve lived through many short rides through the desert of not writing. I don’t intend to go back. (could be useful)

carrying the meaning of life all along

resonance

inner world

*4** gritty: gritty, gutsy, grace gives me gratitude (?)

different plumbing

*5** London's dead famous: While I’m not a cemetery groupie, I would love to visit Jim Morrison’s grave in Paris.

compelled to continue

searches for solace

drainpipe speakeasy

where we start to become what we surround ourselves with

that almost went really wrong

incredulous that there is another side

bond with geriatrics 

murdery books

With the beginning of these Whiteboard Borrowings, I think this was a great return on about 30 minutes of reading/thinking and finding some new ways to talk about my writing. Plus, some of these may become post prompts.

If you do this exercise, I’d love to hear how it worked for you.

PS. This exercise brought me to a new bio-profile … version 237:

Raised in the flat center of the Universe, I repeatedly challenged my destiny and hope to help you do the same. Writer was nowhere in my cards, but, at 45, I became a published author; at 61, a gallery artist. Who knows what's next ... for any of us?

In the meantime ….

The unexpected wisdom keeper for today is Elvis Presley:

“Values are like fingerprints.

Nobody's are the same

but you leave them all over everything you do."