The one thing I’ve noticed during the course of this yearly Substack journey, is that no month on Substack is the same. Sometimes we have realisations that alter how we show up with our newsletter, other times we’ve had really positive months in different ways. And there are times, like this month, where we feel a bit more negative towards the platform.

Actually, negative is the wrong word. Maybe flat would be a better one? We know there are great changes happening on Substack, and they are happening at speed, and sometimes these changes have an impact on our creative mindset. Even though, rationally, we know it’s for ‘the greater good’.

We promised ourselves we’d be open and honest about our Substack journey and it can’t be all unicorns and sparkles every month. But this month we are a little flat. But, like I said in the episode this might be because of where we are at this point in time and actually, nothing to do with Substack at all!

Let us know in the comments if anything we say resonates with you. I’ve been on Substack now for fifteen months and Claire since the end of January this year and it has been a rollercoaster. But how has it been for you?

Our Substack Story is a podcast about our progress on the relatively new medium of Substack. What works, what doesn’t. How we grow, the mindset issues we struggle with and how we hone in on what we want to write about. Plus the often icky subject of money and charging for subscriptions.

Helen has been on Substack since June 2022. And Claire launched her Substack in January 2023.

We are both coming to Substack from different places. Helen has around 15,000 followers on Instagram, a small YouTube channel and a previous mailing list. Claire has a smaller Instagram with no previous newsletter.

We want to share how we get on with Substack, how we use the platform, how we use it as a place to share our writing, how we grow subscribers, create a community, and hopefully make an income. At the same time as writing our books and, in Helen’s case, creating videos on YouTube.

If you are launching your Substack, or thinking about it, or if you’ve been on here for a while we would love you to join in and share your experiences.

Both Claire and I feel like we’ve had a necessary break. I say necessary because we needed that time to think. I don’t think either of us anticipated how much time we needed but Claire completely stepped back, including from Instagram, and I had a brainstorming session that led to a lot of mental processing…and we both came to similar conclusions for our Substack. Keep it simple.

In this podcast we talk about this keep it simple realisation. And also talk about what we’d like to do in the coming months.

Links we referenced

Helen mentioned:

* The Substack essay: Do you feel your writing is enough?

* The YouTube planning video (with aforementioned brainstorm).

* The Austin Kleon essay: The Four Points That Really Inspired Me from Show Your Work by Austin Kleon

* The non-fiction book club for September.

Claire mentioned:

* Down to Margate

* Travels with my daughter

* He's in fashion: reflections on Edward Enninful's 'A Visible Man'

* And that Ali Smith article: Frescoes in fiction: the writing's on the paintings on the wall

Our Substack Story is a podcast about our progress on the relatively new medium of Substack. What works, what doesn’t. How we grow, the mindset issues we struggle with and how we hone in on what we want to write about. Plus the often icky subject of money and charging for subscriptions.

Helen has been on Substack since June 2022. And Claire launched her Substack in January 2023.

We are both coming to Substack from different places. Helen has around 15,000 followers on Instagram, a small YouTube channel and a previous mailing list. Claire has a smaller Instagram with no previous newsletter.

We want to share how we get on with Substack, how we use the platform, how we use it as a place to share our writing, how we grow subscribers, create a community, and hopefully make an income. At the same time as writing our books and, in Helen’s case, creating videos on YouTube.

If you are launching your Substack, or thinking about it, or if you’ve been on here for a while we would love you to join in and share your experiences.

* Pausing paid subscriptions for the summer.

* Losing paid subscribers.

* Sending out newsletters with the ‘preview’ option.

* Helen’s one year anniversary on Substack.

* What to offer paid subscribers and lots more.

This is the piece about confidence I referred to when talking about losing paid subscribers:

Our Substack Story is a podcast about our progress on the relatively new medium of Substack. What works, what doesn’t. How we grow, the mindset issues we struggle with and how we hone in on what we want to write about. Plus the often icky subject of money and charging for subscriptions.

Helen has been on Substack since June 2022. And Claire launched her Substack in January 2023.

We are both coming to Substack from different places. Helen has around 15,000 followers on Instagram, a small YouTube channel and a previous mailing list. Claire has a smaller Instagram with no previous newsletter.

We want to share how we get on with Substack, how we use the platform, how we use it as a place to share our writing, how we grow subscribers, create a community, and hopefully make an income. At the same time as writing our books and, in Helen’s case, creating videos on YouTube.

If you are launching your Substack, or thinking about it, or if you’ve been on here for a while we would love you to join in and share your experiences.

I was thrilled to chat to Trona about all things social media, finding a community and being online. I had an idea of what questions I wanted to ask her pre-recording but it was so lovely to chat to her we basically just had a conversation and went where it went.

We talked about how we both started blogging and how terrifying it was, our struggles with Instagram, why Pinterest is a great platform to try out (though you won’t get the dopamine rush!) and lots more.

LINKS

Trona on Pinterest

Trona’s Website

Trona’s Pinterest Course

Trona on Instagram

Our first attempt at recording the podcast was abandoned two minutes in as we were all over the place! We both agreed that this was because we’ve had positive months and it was strange not to have negative issues to structure our chat.

I’ve had a wonderful Substack month in the sense I found my thing. I’ve found articles that resonate, that fill me with joy and that have also helped grow my reach and my subscribers.

Claire has also had a good month. She’s been featured on the Staff Pick section of Substack Explore and is continuing with her self-discovery journey as a writer. We both think Claire has reached a significant point after realising she needs more time to “look at the clouds” and allow herself time and space to think.

It’s been wonderful catching up with each other and taking the time to reflect on our achievements before we push on into the month of June.

This is the piece by Claire that became a Staff Pick.

I mentioned my one year anniversary here on Substack and the special essay and live session I’ve got planned for the 7th June. You can read more here:

The three posts of mine that have led to a spike in subscribers during May are:

Our Substack Story is a podcast about our progress on the relatively new medium of Substack. What works, what doesn’t. How we grow, the mindset issues we struggle with and how we hone in on what we want to write about. Plus the often icky subject of money and charging for subscriptions.

Helen has been on Substack since June 2022. And Claire launched her Substack in January 2023.

We are both coming to Substack from different places. Helen has around 15,000 followers on Instagram, a small YouTube channel and a previous mailing list. Claire has a smaller Instagram with no previous newsletter.

We want to share how we get on with Substack, how we use the platform, how we use it as a place to share our writing, how we grow subscribers, create a community, and hopefully make an income. At the same time as writing our books and, in Helen’s case, creating videos on YouTube.

If you are launching your Substack, or thinking about it, or if you’ve been on here for a while we would love you to join in and share your experiences.

If you enjoyed this podcast please do share it and let us know. We’d love to hear from you.

Hello and welcome to our fourth episode of our podcast about our Substack journey.

Today we are talking about (and it’s another bumper one - we do like to talk!):

* How we have both got on on Substack during the month of April.

* How we learn from the art of doing.

* We quote a number of times from Austin Kleon’s Show Your Work.

* How we focus on the disappointments or the ‘failures’ when, in reality, we’re doing so much better than it feels. (And they’re not actually failures - but lessons we can learn from.)

* Claire talks about feeling grief when she released her last post to the world. (It was this one.)

* We also discuss the pressure Claire has put on herself and how she will be changing that going forward.

* Helen, after struggling with pain for much of the month, wasn’t happy with her April masterclass and is considering re-doing it. We discuss pressure we put on ourselves when we’re not fully up to it.

* We talk a little about marketing our Substack. How can we do this in a way that suits us and our creativity?

* And the launch of Substack Notes. How do we feel about this additional feature?

Plus lots more.

Claire and I are feeling our way forward with the Substack platform and could talk about it for hours. Do let us know in the comments how your Substack journey is going or how you feel about some of the issues we’ve mentioned.

If this podcast has inspired you to start your own Substack then use the button below to create your Substack and connect your publication with THE RED FERN 🌿 By Helen Redfern

Links to items we mentioned:

January Podcast #1

February Podcast #2

March Podcast #3

Helen’s piece that refers to her car accident and her piece about Substack Notes.

Claire’s piece about Ali Smith.

Our Substack Story is a podcast about our progress on the relatively new medium of Substack. What works, what doesn’t. How we grow, the mindset issues we struggle with and how we hone in on what we want to write about. Plus the often icky subject of money and charging for subscriptions.

Helen has been on Substack since June 2022. And Claire launched her Substack in January 2023.

We are both coming to Substack from different places. Helen has around 15,000 followers on Instagram, a small YouTube channel and a previous mailing list. Claire has a smaller Instagram with no previous newsletter.

We want to share how we get on with Substack, how we use the platform, how we use it as a place to share our writing, how we grow subscribers, create a community, and hopefully make an income. At the same time as writing our books and, in Helen’s case, creating videos on YouTube.

If you are launching your Substack, or thinking about it, or if you’ve been on here for a while we would love you to join in and share your experiences.

If you enjoyed this podcast please do share it and let us know. We’d love to hear from you.

Hello and welcome to our third episode of our podcast about our Substack journey.

Today we are talking about (and it’s a bumper one!):

* How we have both got on during the month of March. It’s definitely had its ups and downs.

* Claire asks can we take days when we don’t post now we have paying subscribers?

* How consistent does consistency have to be?

* We are honest about our frustrations which often revolve around growth - although we acknowledge how it feels different to wanting to grow on Instagram.

* Our realisation that we no longer hide under our desk when it comes to our creativity.

* Helen’s Substack re-launch.

* Claire having a weekly Substack content cycle and Helen deciding on a monthly content cycle.

* Thinking about paid subscriber benefits. And the different strategies for free and paid subscribers. Plus the difficulty of asking to be paid in a noisy online world.

Plus lots more.

Claire and I are feeling our way forward with the Substack platform and could talk about it for hours. Do let us know in the comments how your Substack journey is going or how you feel about some of the issues we’ve mentioned.

If this podcast has inspired you to start your own Substack then use the button below to create your Substack and connect your publication with THE RED FERN 🌿 By Helen Redfern

Links to items we mentioned:

January Podcast #1

February Podcast #2

Helen’s Monthly Summary

Helen’s Substack Re-launch

Claire’s Substack

Our Substack Story is a podcast about our progress on the relatively new medium of Substack. What works, what doesn’t. How we grow, the mindset issues we struggle with and how we hone in on what we want to write about. Plus the often icky subject of money and charging for subscriptions.

Helen has been on Substack since June 2022. And Claire launched her Substack in January 2023.

We are both coming to Substack from different places. Helen has around 15,000 followers on Instagram, a small YouTube channel and a previous mailing list. Claire has a smaller Instagram with no previous newsletter.

We want to share how we get on with Substack, how we use the platform, how we use it as a place to share our writing, how we grow subscribers, create a community, and hopefully make an income. At the same time as writing our books and, in Helen’s case, creating videos on YouTube.

If you are launching your Substack, or thinking about it, or if you’ve been on here for a while we would love you to join in and share your experiences.

Hello and welcome to our second episode of our podcast about our Substack journey.

This is a podcast about our progress on the relatively new medium of Substack. What works, what doesn’t. How we grow, the mindset issues we struggle with and how we hone in on what we want to write about. Plus the often icky subject of money and charging for subscriptions.

Helen has been on Substack since June 2022. And Claire launched her Substack in January 2023.

We are both coming to Substack from different places. Helen has around 15,000 followers on Instagram, a small YouTube channel and a previous mailing list. Claire has a smaller Instagram with no previous newsletter.

We want to share how we get on with Substack, how we use the platform, how we use it as a place to share our writing, how we grow subscribers, create a community, and hopefully make an income. At the same time as writing our books and, in Helen’s case, creating videos on YouTube.

If you are launching your Substack, or thinking about it, or if you’ve been on here for a while we would love you to join in and share your experiences.

Start writing today. Use the button below to create your Substack and connect your publication with The Red Fern By Helen Redfern

Let us know who you are by leaving a comment below so we can discover your writing.

A couple of weeks ago I made the sad decision to stop running The Confident Creative Club. I talk about the reasons behind it and what I hadn’t taken into consideration when starting the Club.

I also share how I constantly worry about running out of time and how I don’t value investing time in the marketing of my work.

So much to unpack in this episode. The good, the bad and the ugly. I am slowly coming out of burnout and this episode is my attempt to process what has happened to me over the last three months.

I would love to hear about what lessons you learned during 2022. If you’ve written about it or created a video or podcast please feel free to share the link in the comments.

I mentioned the book: Burnt Out by Selina Barker*.

*affiliate link

You can read more about my burn out journey here:

You can also watch the video:

The podcast with Claire Holden about our Substack journey can be found here:

If you enjoyed this podcast please do share it and let us know. We’d love to hear from you.

Today we are delighted to share the first episode of our podcast about our Substack journey.

Helen has been on Substack since June 2022. And Claire launched her Substack in January 2023.

We are both coming to Substack from different places. Helen has around 15,000 followers on Instagram, a small YouTube channel and a previous mailing list. Claire has a smaller Instagram with no previous newsletter.

We want to share how we get on with Substack, how we use the platform, how we use it as a place to share our writing, how we grow subscribers, create a community, and hopefully make an income. At the same time as writing our books and, in Helen’s case, creating videos on YouTube.

If you are launching your Substack, or thinking about it, or if you’ve been on here for a while we would love you to join in and share your experiences.

Start writing today. Use the button below to create your Substack and connect your publication with The Red Fern By Helen Redfern

Let us know who you are by leaving a comment below so we can discover your writing.

This is a solo episode, a rather chatty episode where I talk about an issue that has been pressing on me for a few months: what am I all about? Specifically, what is my Substack all about?

And I think I’ve cracked it thanks to journaling it out for this episode and:

Beth Kempton’s book: The Way of the Fearless Writer

And an episode of Sacha Black’s podcast. I forget which episode but she’s got great insights so subscribe to them all!

I refer to The Confident Creative Club in this podcast. You can find out more here: https://helenredfernwriter.com/the-confident-creative-club-join

I also refer to my writing journals. They are a fabulous source of inspiration for me. If you fancy watching my video on how I use my writing journals then my latest video is here:

I do hope you enjoy this chatty, lengthy episode where I veer off on tangents every now and again. But it all comes together in the end - I think ;)

I was so thrilled to interview Beth for my podcast to celebrate the launch of her new book, The Way of the Fearless Writer.

In this interview we talk about:

Writing a non-fiction book proposal.

Trying to control the outcome of our writing.

Beth’s new book, The Way of the Fearless Writer.

Self-doubt.

The creative process.

Waiting for permission.

The three states of writing: gaseous, liquid and solid. And how Beth’s fear comes from the ‘solid’ state.

PLUS - Beth gives me advice on my own book proposal!

Links

The Way of the Fearless Writer by Beth Kempton

Freedom Seeker by Beth Kempton

The Book Proposal Masterclass

The Fearless Writer Podcast with Beth Kempton

bethkempton.com

Photo of Beth by @hollybobbins_photographer.

If you’d like to follow my book proposal journey you can read about it by becoming a paid subscriber.

To receive writings about my book proposal journey consider become a paid subscriber.

You can also watch me working on my book proposal here:

Today is a solo episode. I share my experiences of ‘chasing the sparkly’ where I look at other writer’s and creative’s success stories and feel that I should follow their ‘formula’ for success and that I should follow the ‘internet rules’. I’ve been down rabbit holes convinced there is a right way of doing things - only to find this rabbit hole search leads to frustration, exhaustion, a feeling of failure and yes, a little bit of embarrassment.

Inspired by Sarra Cannon’s Kanban board process on her YouTube channel called Heart Breathings I discovered the tiny post it. And that, alongside my writing journal, changed my writing and creative life as I knew it.

The Substack post I refer to is this one: Planning for a Productive October

The Bite-Sized Course is this one: Using Your Journal & Planning for Productivity

And the YouTube video is this one:

If you’d like to sign up to my newsletter go to: helenredfern.substack.com

If you enjoy this episode then do please share to spread the word.

The Red Fern By Helen Redfern is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

I talk about:

My Substack experience and how much my subscriber base has grown.

How my mental health affected my writing and the pivot I made for joy and comfort.

YouTube.

My previous podcast interviews (episode numbers 1 to 4).

If you’d like to sign up to my newsletter go to: helenredfern.substack.com

If you enjoy this episode then do please share to spread the word.

The Red Fern By Helen Redfern is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Deborah also writes contemporary fiction as Georgina Troy and psychological mysteries as Ella Drummond.

Deborah is inspiringly prolific for a writer who was too scared to put herself out there (and still is). I gained so much from this interview.

Writing is “a constant battle with yourself. Do I want to write this book?… Do I want this? Right, I must sit on my bum and make myself write some words.”

Links

The Beekeeper’s War by Deborah Carr

Finding Love on Sunshine Island by Georgina Troy

The Darkest Summer by Ella Drummond

Deborah’s website: https://deborahcarr.org/

Deborah on Instagram: @ofbooksandbeaches

Deborah on TikTok: @georginatroy_deborahcarr

Deborah’s book recommendation: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

This podcast is brought to you by my Substack, The Red Fern. To subscribe for free and receive monthly newsletters or to become a paid subscriber and receive weekly writing as well as bite-sized courses (the first one is about writing on Medium) then sign up at helenredfern.substack.com/subscribe or by using the button below.

If you enjoyed this episode please consider sharing. I’d be incredibly grateful.

I’ve known Zoe online for many years, but this is the first time we’ve chatted directly (via Zoom) and I found her incredibly effervescent, wise and inspiring.

Zoe credits investing in a writing course with changing her life and marking the stage where she decided that it was ‘her time’. Soon after that, she found an agent and her debut, If He Wakes, was published.

More recently Zoe has been studying TikTok and has been fascinated by how it can help sell books. Marketing is often not easy for writers and creatives - but Zoe has thrown herself into it and now credits TikTok with giving her confidence.

“When I realised no-one cares what I did…FREEDOM!”

Links:

If He wakes by Zoe Lea

The Secretary by Zoe Lea

Zoe on TikTok and Instagram is @zoeleawriter. She also has an experimental page on TikTok with page flipping @zoeleabooks.

Zoe’s book recommendations:

The Ugly Truth by L C North

The Beach Party by Nikki Smith

Story Genius by Lisa Cron

This podcast is brought to you by my Substack, The Red Fern. To subscribe for free and receive monthly newsletters or to become a paid subscriber and receive weekly writing as well as bite-sized courses (the first one is about writing on Medium) then sign up at helenredfern.substack.com/subscribe or by using the button below.

If you enjoyed this episode please consider sharing. I’d be incredibly grateful.

Well, interviewing writer Carla Calvert was an absolute joy. Carla is one of the original members of The Confident Creative Club and I find her incredibly wise, thoughtful and hugely supportive. As I was editing this podcast I nodded my head in agreement with Carla’s words throughout.

Carla describes herself as a chronic non-finisher with her novel writing projects. But this year something rather magical happened. Despite being utterly terrified, Carla decided to spend some time writing on Medium to feel the achievement that comes from finishing a project.

Why Medium? Because the finished result was so much shorter and quicker to write than a novel.

“Writing on Medium…has given me a freedom from the rules I create for myself.”

I needed a place for my words to land to start with…to push through the fear and the lack of confidence…”

“Because I’ve pressed that publish button thirty-one times on Medium I think I can press that SEND button on an email with my query letter to agents.”

Do listen to Carla’s calm and extremely wise words. And if you’re struggling to finish a big creative project why not try something smaller and shorter to give you that sense of accomplishment. Like Carla, this may lead to increased self-belief and you can carry that with you towards your bigger projects.

You can find Carla’s Medium writing here:

https://medium.com/@carlacalvert

And Carla’s Instagram is here: https://www.instagram.com/authorcarlacalvert

This podcast is brought to you by my Substack, The Red Fern. To subscribe for free and receive monthly newsletters or to become a paid subscriber and receive weekly writing as well as bite-sized courses (the first one is about writing on Medium) then sign up at helenredfern.substack.com/subscribe or by using the button below.

If you enjoyed this episode please consider sharing. I’d be incredibly grateful.

When fear of having no ideas and not understanding the steps to take can stop you from starting your creative journey.

“I know that I’m supposed to write…but I didn’t know what to write at all.”

~ Claire Holden

“What if I wasn’t as good? What if it isn’t your dream? You can’t be disappointed if you never try.”

~ Claire Holden

Welcome to my first full podcast episode. I am delighted to welcome writer Claire Holden as my very first interviewee. I am deeply indebted to Claire for taking a step out of her comfort zone and trusting me with her first podcast experience and for being my very first guest.

Claire has been part of my membership, The Confident Creative Club, since the beginning. The Club’s aim is to help writers and creatives who struggle with self-belief and corresponding action.

For the first few months, Claire would show up to the masterclasses, coffee chats and, later, the live writing sessions. She’d journal but was worried about her lack of ideas. She was encouraged to keep journaling, to allow herself time to explore and from February this year, she began to take action. Claire describes it as “taking her foot off the hosepipe”. I simply call it inspiring.

Claire has gone from being the writer who didn’t write to the writer who does. It was a joy to interview her.

You can read her writing on Medium:

https://medium.com/@clairemholden78

And follow Claire on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/its_all_about_the_words/

For more of my writing become a full subscriber to The Red Fern

https://theredfern.substack.com/subscribe

This is the very first, very short episode of Hiding Under the Desk, my brand new, and very first, podcast.

It gives you an idea about what my intentions are with this podcast and where I hope to go with it in the coming months.

My original thoughts were to publish an episode once a month by sharing an interview with a writer or creative who is taking steps towards making their creative dreams come true.

This may change as I progress on my podcasting journey and it may become twice a month or weekly. I’ve not given myself any rules other than to just start.

I’m creating the podcast through Substack, recording straight into Substack using the microphone in my mac and have no special equipment. I’ve even started with the remains of Covid still making itself known in my voice.

The idea is to not overthink, to not worry about spending hundreds of pounds on equipment. But to just do it before the doubts kick in, before the fears try to talk you out of it, before your lack of self-belief makes you pull the plug on the entire thing.

I’ve always tried to inspire by doing. So I hope you appreciate if the quality and sound isn’t perfect but just hear the message and maybe become motivated to start your own creative project.

It’s all about the tiny steps.

Coming soon…

The first monthly bite-sized course

Where to Write

Thursday 30th June via Zoom | 6.30pm UK time/1.30pm EST

* A workshop about where to publish your writing on the internet: Blogging, Medium, Substack.

* Which one is best?

* How do you start?

* Can you really earn money on Medium?

* Which one is best if you want to grow an audience?

If you’d like to upgrade your subscription to receive the audio of future podcasts and to receive the monthly courses and additional writing then you can do so here:

https://theredfern.substack.com/subscribe