I adore that story about making your friends with the farm. Stories like that are the best. And the poem. And the advice on stats. Yep, happy here today.
In the strange way the world works, this post just made me click "subscribe" after I unsubscribed from a whole bunch of others this morning, for the very reasons you outlined so well here. I'm still searching for my Substack footing, but this resonates: "I’m looking for a supportive community of readers and writers who genuinely enjoy and maybe even look forward to my posts each week. It’s like the difference between a giant mug of weak tea and perfectly brewed little cup." I'm looking for the writers whose posts I will always make time to open, and readers who feel the same way about mine. I think there's a bit of trial and error in finding those writers/readers.
"In the strange way the world works, this post just made me click "subscribe" after I unsubscribed from a whole bunch of others this morning..." Aha! My evil plan is working! Moohoowah ha ha! Just kidding! Welcome, Rita. I'm so glad to have you here for as long as it serves you. Thank you!
Tara, thank you. This post is a reminder of what we are here for: to share mindfully and thoughtfully the things in life that are most essential. It’s not about likes and subscribers, though that is what social media have taught us and Substack pressures us to believe. It’s about sestinas and baby lambs. Lovely, lovely post.
Thank you , Mary. I have an uncomfortable relationship with numbers. I don't count laps when I swim, I hate pedometers and only check my step count when I'm genuinely curious about how far I've walked on a given day. Keeping count, keeping track - it's just a joy killer for me. It's nice to know that people are reading my poems, but I am uncomfortable spending much time with statistics for fear of losing track of the important stuff, as you say: sestinas and baby lambs.
Hi Tara! It’s likely I’ve not read your work before. My work? Commenting on the posts of others, perhaps in a leech like manner. So many that I now frequently receive prompts to create a profile so others can see what I’m up to. An invitation to buy a megaphone or a bullhorn?
Since I can’t tout you with the bullhorn I lack, at least I can like ♥️ what I just read. A vivid account of meeting new friends in a picturesque setting. Speaking to the effects of lockdowns on the lives of so many. Some that linger still. Lastly, your poem “MY FRIEND SENDS ME SHEEP” evoked in me a strong reminder that our Universe is truly magical. Powerful.
Thank you for speaking to the concerns and needs of maintaining a core of those we follow, while rightly pruning some branches to allow time for the rest of our lives. Grateful.
Hi Gary! Welcome! I'm so glad you stumbled on this post and it brought you some enjoyment. Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. Much appreciated.
Fabulous poem Tara, love it!! Thank you also for your thoughts on subscribing and unsubscribing etc. I too am struggling to focus keeping up with everything on here and also think about what to write myself. Often, for me at least, the draw towards numbers can be suffocating, especially to newbies like me with hardly any followers, I wonder what the point is if nobody is reading, or cares what I write, then I remember that I started this in the first place as an outlet for my poetry and so, does it really matter? Probably not! Thank you
It's so easy to get sucked down the drain of stats, clicks, likes, etc. Suffocating is exactly the right word for it. I always tell myself that it's the poems that matter, even if nobody reads them. Writing them is the important part. Sharing them is great. But that feeling when you write something that you know is good, that you know captures - or comes really close to capturing- that thing that made you pick up your pen in the first place, that feeling is so much better and purer than any amount of excitement over recognition. Everybody likes to be liked, everybody enjoys praise. But that's not why we write. At least that's what I tell myself. So glad you enjoyed the poem, Lisa.
As a writer with just 34 subscribers, every subscriber counts so much that I myself wouldn't unsubscribe from a small newsletter like my own. I can't read it all, but I don't feel guilty, and sometimes I just click through the emails to open them to improve those numbers, too. I do most of my Substack reading through the links that pop up on Notes, though, so it doesn't mean I didn't read them. I don't know, I'm just trying to give another perspective. I'd rather people stayed but just didn't feel guilty lol. But I don't think you should feel guilty either way! I agree that it is heart-breaking to see all this great stuff streaming by, knowing you can't possible read them all.
Jennie, I appreciate the perspective. And you've touched on something that I've noticed but didn't formulate well enough to communicate. It is much harder to unsubscribe from a small 'stack, but it's also less necessary, because I find so much more engagement and back and forth with the authors of smaller newsletters than I do with the bigger, higher subscriber number ones. Which is not to say that I don't enjoy the higher traffic posts. But when it comes time to weed my list, I'm far more likely to bid farewell to well-known folks with tons of subscribers (unless I some important connection to their work) because, on balance, I feel less engaged there. Thanks so much for reading and responding.
Hi Tara. I loved your post and your writing style - particularly the sentence you used to describe how we all felt during the pandemic. Of being unmoored is exactly what it felt like. I am lucky enough to live in Herefordshire, another beautiful part of England, a couple of hours drive away from Somerset.
As a Substacker with 176 subscribers after posting regularly for almost 3 years, I am with you about the numbers game. I started my Substack, Rosy’s Ramblings, to force myself to complete a novel. I did just that and my cosy crime novel, The Mysterious Disappearance of Marsha Boden, is being published in May. I feel such a sense of achievement and it really is a dream come true. I am now focusing on what really matters to me which is writing novels.
Sadly, there are too many shouty people here who want quantity not quality. It’s not about the numbers but about good quality writing. I’m so glad I found you.
Rosy, how completely fabulous that your novel is being published! Congratulations and good for you for so intentionally building a community to support your writing. I'm so happy this post resonated for you and that you found me here! And lucky you for living in such a beautiful place. I feel like I could take endless trips to England and they would all be different. What a remarkable place - so many different and beautiful landscape in one country. Thank you so much for reading and engaging!
"My friend sends me sheep /and the bits of conversation I overhear /as she and her husband walk the pastures /are so close to my ear I almost reply, /forgetting the distance, and then I miss them."
This. This is what so many of those early months felt like. Distant. Almost. Miss.
Talking subscribes and unsubscribes, I started here on Substack simply because I enjoyed it as a platform for sending out my author newsletters. So it was interesting to learn about the drive to collect subscribers that exists in some of the strata. (Although totally understandable.) But I simply enjoy Substack for how easy the platform is to use. And, the bonus is meeting people who are friendly, kind, creative, and interactive with Adventures and posts. I'm glad you are one of those people, Tara. (Although please feel free to unsubscribe from me at any point. 😂) Numbers are kind of a forgotten thing for me. Connection can't be counted.
Those dear sheep. Those dear friends. I hope you did tour them round your garden once the peonies were in bloom. (The friends, not the sheep.)
Tara, I saw the Note you mention and felt nothing but sympathy ... though I admit I also scooted over to my stats page to see if you were still subscribed to me. :-D (You are! With stars! I'm honored and grateful!) In that same vein, I've recently added columns to my Subscriber list so I can see who reads my 'stack via email and who reads online, and I've been quietly unsubscribing people who haven't clicked on any post at all in six months or so. No hard feelings; I figure that their good-will and optimism added me to a list that's gotten unwieldy, and me shortening it for them a tiny bit is a kindness.
Wait, you can add columns to fine tune your subscriber data?? I had no idea. That is very clever and I really like your "quiet unsubscribing" campaign for inactive subscribers. Seems a perfect solution for everybody. I am delighted to be one of your subscribers. Honestly, it's posts like yours that feel I'm never spending enough time with that have pushed me to unsubscribe to others that feel like less of a good fit. Fewer 'stacks, more time to spend with them. BUT.... then I come across a new one and worry about hitting subscribe for fear of finding myself up to my back pockets again. There are worse problems than too much good writing, though. Thanks so much for being here.
Love the poem, the story about your visit and the sheep, and your remarks about connection that matters!
Thanks, Mike! Really appreciate you reading.
I adore that story about making your friends with the farm. Stories like that are the best. And the poem. And the advice on stats. Yep, happy here today.
Oh, I'm so delighted this was a happy read for you today. That's lovely news.
In the strange way the world works, this post just made me click "subscribe" after I unsubscribed from a whole bunch of others this morning, for the very reasons you outlined so well here. I'm still searching for my Substack footing, but this resonates: "I’m looking for a supportive community of readers and writers who genuinely enjoy and maybe even look forward to my posts each week. It’s like the difference between a giant mug of weak tea and perfectly brewed little cup." I'm looking for the writers whose posts I will always make time to open, and readers who feel the same way about mine. I think there's a bit of trial and error in finding those writers/readers.
"In the strange way the world works, this post just made me click "subscribe" after I unsubscribed from a whole bunch of others this morning..." Aha! My evil plan is working! Moohoowah ha ha! Just kidding! Welcome, Rita. I'm so glad to have you here for as long as it serves you. Thank you!
Tara, thank you. This post is a reminder of what we are here for: to share mindfully and thoughtfully the things in life that are most essential. It’s not about likes and subscribers, though that is what social media have taught us and Substack pressures us to believe. It’s about sestinas and baby lambs. Lovely, lovely post.
Thank you , Mary. I have an uncomfortable relationship with numbers. I don't count laps when I swim, I hate pedometers and only check my step count when I'm genuinely curious about how far I've walked on a given day. Keeping count, keeping track - it's just a joy killer for me. It's nice to know that people are reading my poems, but I am uncomfortable spending much time with statistics for fear of losing track of the important stuff, as you say: sestinas and baby lambs.
Hi Tara! It’s likely I’ve not read your work before. My work? Commenting on the posts of others, perhaps in a leech like manner. So many that I now frequently receive prompts to create a profile so others can see what I’m up to. An invitation to buy a megaphone or a bullhorn?
Since I can’t tout you with the bullhorn I lack, at least I can like ♥️ what I just read. A vivid account of meeting new friends in a picturesque setting. Speaking to the effects of lockdowns on the lives of so many. Some that linger still. Lastly, your poem “MY FRIEND SENDS ME SHEEP” evoked in me a strong reminder that our Universe is truly magical. Powerful.
Thank you for speaking to the concerns and needs of maintaining a core of those we follow, while rightly pruning some branches to allow time for the rest of our lives. Grateful.
Hi Gary! Welcome! I'm so glad you stumbled on this post and it brought you some enjoyment. Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. Much appreciated.
Fabulous poem Tara, love it!! Thank you also for your thoughts on subscribing and unsubscribing etc. I too am struggling to focus keeping up with everything on here and also think about what to write myself. Often, for me at least, the draw towards numbers can be suffocating, especially to newbies like me with hardly any followers, I wonder what the point is if nobody is reading, or cares what I write, then I remember that I started this in the first place as an outlet for my poetry and so, does it really matter? Probably not! Thank you
It's so easy to get sucked down the drain of stats, clicks, likes, etc. Suffocating is exactly the right word for it. I always tell myself that it's the poems that matter, even if nobody reads them. Writing them is the important part. Sharing them is great. But that feeling when you write something that you know is good, that you know captures - or comes really close to capturing- that thing that made you pick up your pen in the first place, that feeling is so much better and purer than any amount of excitement over recognition. Everybody likes to be liked, everybody enjoys praise. But that's not why we write. At least that's what I tell myself. So glad you enjoyed the poem, Lisa.
Absolutely!!
As a writer with just 34 subscribers, every subscriber counts so much that I myself wouldn't unsubscribe from a small newsletter like my own. I can't read it all, but I don't feel guilty, and sometimes I just click through the emails to open them to improve those numbers, too. I do most of my Substack reading through the links that pop up on Notes, though, so it doesn't mean I didn't read them. I don't know, I'm just trying to give another perspective. I'd rather people stayed but just didn't feel guilty lol. But I don't think you should feel guilty either way! I agree that it is heart-breaking to see all this great stuff streaming by, knowing you can't possible read them all.
Jennie, I appreciate the perspective. And you've touched on something that I've noticed but didn't formulate well enough to communicate. It is much harder to unsubscribe from a small 'stack, but it's also less necessary, because I find so much more engagement and back and forth with the authors of smaller newsletters than I do with the bigger, higher subscriber number ones. Which is not to say that I don't enjoy the higher traffic posts. But when it comes time to weed my list, I'm far more likely to bid farewell to well-known folks with tons of subscribers (unless I some important connection to their work) because, on balance, I feel less engaged there. Thanks so much for reading and responding.
True, that's a very good point.
Hi Tara. I loved your post and your writing style - particularly the sentence you used to describe how we all felt during the pandemic. Of being unmoored is exactly what it felt like. I am lucky enough to live in Herefordshire, another beautiful part of England, a couple of hours drive away from Somerset.
As a Substacker with 176 subscribers after posting regularly for almost 3 years, I am with you about the numbers game. I started my Substack, Rosy’s Ramblings, to force myself to complete a novel. I did just that and my cosy crime novel, The Mysterious Disappearance of Marsha Boden, is being published in May. I feel such a sense of achievement and it really is a dream come true. I am now focusing on what really matters to me which is writing novels.
Sadly, there are too many shouty people here who want quantity not quality. It’s not about the numbers but about good quality writing. I’m so glad I found you.
Rosy, how completely fabulous that your novel is being published! Congratulations and good for you for so intentionally building a community to support your writing. I'm so happy this post resonated for you and that you found me here! And lucky you for living in such a beautiful place. I feel like I could take endless trips to England and they would all be different. What a remarkable place - so many different and beautiful landscape in one country. Thank you so much for reading and engaging!
My pleasure.
"My friend sends me sheep /and the bits of conversation I overhear /as she and her husband walk the pastures /are so close to my ear I almost reply, /forgetting the distance, and then I miss them."
This. This is what so many of those early months felt like. Distant. Almost. Miss.
Talking subscribes and unsubscribes, I started here on Substack simply because I enjoyed it as a platform for sending out my author newsletters. So it was interesting to learn about the drive to collect subscribers that exists in some of the strata. (Although totally understandable.) But I simply enjoy Substack for how easy the platform is to use. And, the bonus is meeting people who are friendly, kind, creative, and interactive with Adventures and posts. I'm glad you are one of those people, Tara. (Although please feel free to unsubscribe from me at any point. 😂) Numbers are kind of a forgotten thing for me. Connection can't be counted.
Unsubscribe from you and risk missing out on the next February Poetry Adventure?? Never!! 🤗
😊
Those dear sheep. Those dear friends. I hope you did tour them round your garden once the peonies were in bloom. (The friends, not the sheep.)
Tara, I saw the Note you mention and felt nothing but sympathy ... though I admit I also scooted over to my stats page to see if you were still subscribed to me. :-D (You are! With stars! I'm honored and grateful!) In that same vein, I've recently added columns to my Subscriber list so I can see who reads my 'stack via email and who reads online, and I've been quietly unsubscribing people who haven't clicked on any post at all in six months or so. No hard feelings; I figure that their good-will and optimism added me to a list that's gotten unwieldy, and me shortening it for them a tiny bit is a kindness.
Wait, you can add columns to fine tune your subscriber data?? I had no idea. That is very clever and I really like your "quiet unsubscribing" campaign for inactive subscribers. Seems a perfect solution for everybody. I am delighted to be one of your subscribers. Honestly, it's posts like yours that feel I'm never spending enough time with that have pushed me to unsubscribe to others that feel like less of a good fit. Fewer 'stacks, more time to spend with them. BUT.... then I come across a new one and worry about hitting subscribe for fear of finding myself up to my back pockets again. There are worse problems than too much good writing, though. Thanks so much for being here.
Lovely, lovely writing. Thank you.
Beautiful, as always, Tara. This poem is so heartwarming and melancholy, which is one of my favorite poetry combos.