I didn’t expect… A year of writing

Squashing the imposter and launching something new

Photo by Aung Soe Min on Unsplash

The imposter in me is screaming DON’T POST THIS! It’s telling me that I have no right to celebrate being a Substacker (notice it won’t even let me call myself a ‘writer on Substack’). Who am I to big myself up? Which is pretty much how it’s gone since I started putting my writing out there on here one year ago. But I’m still here and it’s time to take things up a notch! Read on.

In October 2022 I released my first Substack post into the world. Until that point I had been writing on my business blog about nutrition as well as crafting social media content, but they were usually fairly factual posts. I craved writing more personal and vulnerable pieces but it didn’t really fit with what my website was trying to do (i.e. market my nutritional therapy services).

After abandoning the business and taking a salaried job back in publishing in 2021 (read all about that journey here), my working life changed and I no longer needed to write creatively in the same way. But I still had this yearning to write. I ended up writing a piece about why I quit the business and wanted to put it out into the world. My business website definitely wasn’t the right place, so I thought I’d give Substack a whirl.

I had a nice little email list from my business blogs so I migrated everyone over. I put the post out and then wrote another one on where to go after you’ve reset your life. I got good feedback and I liked my new writing home on Substack. But once my posts started to become not about my business or anything whatsoever to do with nutrition, I began to feel uncomfortable about emailing my old list. They had signed up to emails about nutrition, after all.

So I deleted everyone. Gulp! I had zero subscribers.

I started to pick up some new folk (hello lovely you, reading this now) and received some kind comments on my posts. Every time I get a comment I am bowled over and am so grateful to people for taking precious time to read what I write. Despite that, the imposter in me remained, saying that anyone can write about their life experiences, who am I to write about mine, my life is nothing special and it’s arrogant of me to assume anyone would read my words about it.

But I carried on writing regardless. 

I called this blog Life Unexpected. I’ve spent the last five years living an unexpected life in many ways. At first I was angry, bitter, and thought it unjust. Why me? But it has also opened me up to how life is FULL of the unexpected. Life is unexpected. We’ve just been taught or shown to expect certain milestones to happen at certain times, and to feel like a failure if we don’t reach them. When life throws us curve balls we panic and assume something is wrong with us. It’s often crap and hard, but sharing and being vulnerable helps us to see we’re not alone.

I have been toying with adding a paid offer to my Substack and have gone back and forth on this. As you can imagine, that little imposter is shouting ‘are you MAD? Who would pay to read some random person’s work? You’re not a proper author’. Yes, yes, I hear you, loud and clear. 

But I want to take my writing seriously. I’m curious to see where it goes. I want to connect with more of you on here, to explore our unexpected lives and how we navigate these as humans on the planet at this time. It’s calling to me. 

I also want to write my personal stories, which I have an unease about doing when they’re wide open for all to see. As much as I am drawn to sharing, I do want to put barriers in place. By adding a paywall to some of my content, I feel able to share a little more deeply with those who really resonate with my words and will hold a tender space for them. 

Summer weekend days writing in the garden

I am currently writing every week and aim to post something here most weekends. I do this around my full-time day job back in the land of academic publishing. I have no intention of going self-employed again, but to keep this ticking along, and to place a value on the time I spend planning and writing my posts, I will be opening up a paid level of content.

I know there are a gazillion Substack accounts out there now (and hallelujah for that and time away from social media), but we cannot pay for everything so I understand if that isn’t something you can do right now. For now, I’m just grateful if you have read this far and have been reading my work at all. 

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. 

But if you would like to support my work further, and have the means to do so, then you can sign up here (hit the Subscribe button and all should appear). There will continue to be free posts, but the juicy stuff will be paywalled for my close supporters. I am keeping the price point low since this doesn’t need to be my full-time work (and a little bit because that imposter guy is saying you can’t charge £50 for your writing!), but let’s see where we go!

And finally, if you’ve read this far, here is a 20% off launch offer as a thank you!