I gave myself a subscription to Writers at Work for Christmas and a New Year resolution. I'm gorging myself on replays and articles, and hoping I'll be able to stop at some point tonight so I can get to sleep. Now I have two more articles to go read.
💕💕 Sarah! From experience, I know you are a woman who speaks what is true and would never shout out someone who was unworthy. To hear you say, this about the teachings written over at Flight School, is the greatest gift I could receive. I have so much respect for you and what you’re doing here on this wonderful, and yet highly complex platform. Since I’ve been on here, it’s often felt like I was writing into an echo chamber, but I just kept at it. With your terrific support what I’m doing and how to manage the content is more and more clear. Keep up the great work advising us confused writers who simply want to write. And thank goodness for Substack that gives us so much support toward our endeavors.
Great tip! And thank you for the Junot Díaz recommendation, I've subbed. Also, I hadn't ever noticed before, but Writers at Work has a fantastic acronym with W@W.
Don't make them do the work for you. We want to do something for them. I love how you keep reminding us with this message over and over. It's so important and so easy to forget when we get wrapped up in "our" newsletters. It really is about community and you are showing us the way on here. Thanks for everything you do Sarah.
I truly don’t want to be a bummer, but as someone who teaches writing, it was heart-dropping to see the bullet list of “writers with chops” and the warning that many people are teaching writing “without the chops to do so.”
You are clearly a brilliant writer, editor, and Substacker. That said, there are writers whose work you may not be familiar with or whose names you may not recognize, and there are also writers who aren’t as established as the names you listed. Many of them are amazing teachers. I can attest to George’s incredible teaching, as he was my thesis advisor at Syracuse, where I got my MFA. But if you were to look at my Substack you may decide I don’t have the “chops” to teach others how to write. You’d be wrong- I teach writing at the college level, and I adore teaching the craft of writing at all levels. I learned a lot from my teachers! But very few people know my name. I hope that will change when my first book comes out in 2024! But it likely won’t. I know TONS of writers who are brilliant and wonderful and whose names remain unknown even by many other writers.
I’m wondering- can you uplift the writers you yourself know and love without putting down the rest of us teachers, or conflating name recognition with teaching and writing chops? If there’s a specific warning you’d like to give your readers, that makes sense to me. But implying that there’s some sort of cadre of unqualified teachers out there feels a bit irresponsible to me.
I hear you and it’s valid. None of this was directed at you or anyone personally. There simply are a lot of people out there charging money and heading new writers astray who don’t have the expertise to be teaching or mentoring writers. They know who they are. If that’s not you, then don’t worry about it.
I do hear you and will continue to warn against working with people who really don’t know what they’re talking about and help people discern between someone like you, who’s skilled, and someone who isn’t.
Thank you for hearing me, Sarah! I truly appreciate it. And it is so important for new writers to know the difference between a skilled and unskilled teacher. Some of the unskilled teachers are even familiar names, so it goes both ways. I’m sure you’ll continue to do a wonderful job of helping new writers find their voice (without getting ripped off, monetarily or psychically).
I gave myself a subscription to Writers at Work for Christmas and a New Year resolution. I'm gorging myself on replays and articles, and hoping I'll be able to stop at some point tonight so I can get to sleep. Now I have two more articles to go read.
Definitely none of that evil algorithm stuff going on here.
I love this, Sarah! Former NU English major here who's a couple of months into my Substack journey, and so happy to have found you.
Wow! So great to have you!
Great ideas in this post, thank you so much. I can really see how a few of these can work for me!
So helpful! I’m excited to continue the journey here on SS. Thank you for sharing so much knowledge.
You’re so welcome. I’m glad you’re here. Substack is the best.
Thanks so much for your excellent advice! I especially love the specific examples.
So glad to help!
This is so helpful. Thank you!
💕💕 Sarah! From experience, I know you are a woman who speaks what is true and would never shout out someone who was unworthy. To hear you say, this about the teachings written over at Flight School, is the greatest gift I could receive. I have so much respect for you and what you’re doing here on this wonderful, and yet highly complex platform. Since I’ve been on here, it’s often felt like I was writing into an echo chamber, but I just kept at it. With your terrific support what I’m doing and how to manage the content is more and more clear. Keep up the great work advising us confused writers who simply want to write. And thank goodness for Substack that gives us so much support toward our endeavors.
Yes! You deserve it. I was floored the first time I got to read your Substack. Such masterful teaching. Skip the MFA.
Great tip! And thank you for the Junot Díaz recommendation, I've subbed. Also, I hadn't ever noticed before, but Writers at Work has a fantastic acronym with W@W.
I love the acronym too but was weirdly afraid to use it. You’ve given me permission.
This is elite level advice
Thank you!
Don't make them do the work for you. We want to do something for them. I love how you keep reminding us with this message over and over. It's so important and so easy to forget when we get wrapped up in "our" newsletters. It really is about community and you are showing us the way on here. Thanks for everything you do Sarah.
Sarah, this post is 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩
Thank you so much for all your guidance 💙💙💙💙
Always!
I truly don’t want to be a bummer, but as someone who teaches writing, it was heart-dropping to see the bullet list of “writers with chops” and the warning that many people are teaching writing “without the chops to do so.”
You are clearly a brilliant writer, editor, and Substacker. That said, there are writers whose work you may not be familiar with or whose names you may not recognize, and there are also writers who aren’t as established as the names you listed. Many of them are amazing teachers. I can attest to George’s incredible teaching, as he was my thesis advisor at Syracuse, where I got my MFA. But if you were to look at my Substack you may decide I don’t have the “chops” to teach others how to write. You’d be wrong- I teach writing at the college level, and I adore teaching the craft of writing at all levels. I learned a lot from my teachers! But very few people know my name. I hope that will change when my first book comes out in 2024! But it likely won’t. I know TONS of writers who are brilliant and wonderful and whose names remain unknown even by many other writers.
I’m wondering- can you uplift the writers you yourself know and love without putting down the rest of us teachers, or conflating name recognition with teaching and writing chops? If there’s a specific warning you’d like to give your readers, that makes sense to me. But implying that there’s some sort of cadre of unqualified teachers out there feels a bit irresponsible to me.
Thanks for all the work you do, truly.
I hear you and it’s valid. None of this was directed at you or anyone personally. There simply are a lot of people out there charging money and heading new writers astray who don’t have the expertise to be teaching or mentoring writers. They know who they are. If that’s not you, then don’t worry about it.
I do hear you and will continue to warn against working with people who really don’t know what they’re talking about and help people discern between someone like you, who’s skilled, and someone who isn’t.
Thank you for hearing me, Sarah! I truly appreciate it. And it is so important for new writers to know the difference between a skilled and unskilled teacher. Some of the unskilled teachers are even familiar names, so it goes both ways. I’m sure you’ll continue to do a wonderful job of helping new writers find their voice (without getting ripped off, monetarily or psychically).
“Two is a choice. Three is a menu.” So good!
Sarah —I keep trying! Don’t care about subscribers…but hope for readers.
Good points in this post! Thank you, always welcome the reminders!
You're very welcome! So glad you're here.