Hello everyone. I have been giving a lot of thought to this newsletter over the last few weeks, and to life and work in general. I have come to the conclusion that I need to make some major changes because writing my Substack newsletter is taking up far too much of my week! I will explain what these changes will look like below.
When I started this Substack it was with little idea of what I was doing and what I wanted to write about. I just knew I wanted to write something, and I decided it was better to get started and figure things out as I went along. I think it is normal to feel pretty vulnerable putting any writing out in public, let alone unfocused and inexperienced writing. I felt, and still feel, a good deal of embarrassment, even shame, at the quality of the writing I have published on Substack so far, both in terms of the content and in terms of the final editing. However, there are a handful of pieces that I am pleased with. I want to write more posts like these.
One of the pieces I feel most proud of is one of the earliest posts I wrote, which many people haven’t read yet. I will link to it below.
Many of my longer, better written posts (like the one above) take me days to write, as in the writing process takes twenty hours plus. That doesn’t include the many hours of reading and note taking and research that I do. The shorter, lighter posts that I write take less time, obviously, but they still take many hours to put together, and I am not especially satisfied with the quality of them.
This is clearly not a sustainable model. I am spending much of my week on this, and I need to work on other things to try to earn some money! However, I do really love writing on here, and I do think I have something of value to offer. So this is my plan going forward.
Weekly Wanderings
This will be a weekly round up of things I have been reading, writing, listening to or watching, places I have been and things I have been thinking about. Just some interesting (I hope) snippets.
I think this will take me much less time each week. I should be able to take notes as I go through each day, and then transfer them at the end of the day during my ‘shutdown routine’.
I will be publishing this from next week onwards on Fridays at 5pm in the UK, which is 12 noon on the east coast of North America, 9am on the west coast and early Saturday morning in Australia.
Monthly book discussion
This is where I will put most of my attention for now. Something I have been discussing with my therapist recently is the importance of focusing on just a few things. We have been exploring my strengths and skills, and what I enjoy doing most. What I enjoy and what I think I am good at is close reading, particularly of fiction, and writing about that.
So, that is part of what I want to do here. I will spend a month exploring a book and writing about it for you. For the next year I am planning to focus on mainly British 20th century children’s literature, because I have a particular interest in that, but I am not ruling out writing about books from other times and places and for other audiences in the future.
Books that are on my list for the upcoming year include:
Charlotte Sometimes, Penelope Farmer
Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Joan Aiken
Moondial, Helen Cresswell
Thursday’s Child, Noel Streatfeild
The City of Ember, Jeanne DuPrau (an American author)
There are lots more books that I want to write about, but that list hopefully gives you an idea of the kinds of books I am considering. I am trying to make sure they are still in print and available in the UK and the USA. Hopefully those of you in other places will be able to find copies too. Please let me know if there are any books you would be interested in reading and discussing, or if any of the books I am considering are proving hard to find.
I would really love to make this section of my newsletter more than just an essay on a book by me. I want discussions about these books with other readers! Obviously there is the comments section on each post, where I enjoy reading and responding to your comments, but, in addition, I am thinking of posting some discussion questions for paid subscribers on the ‘chat’ part of the Substack app and website. Maybe some of us could meet on a video call to discuss the book? Let me know what you think! And please share this with anyone who you think might enjoy reading along with us and joining in a discussion on these books.
Later in the year
I also have other plans that I am still working on, but these won’t be ready until later in 2025. As tempting as it is for me to jump into things with both feet, I try hard not to take on too many new projects at once.
These will be things that are specifically for paid subscribers and that I hope will be useful for the writers among you. If you would like to make sure you hear about these plans, do make sure you are subscribed by hitting the button below!
Some housekeeping
In order to give my subscribers greater flexibility I have created some different sections for my newsletter. If you click the button below it will take you to my website where you will see different tabs. I have added two new ones called ‘Weekly Wanderings’ and ‘Book discussions’. This is where the relevant posts will be kept.
And, as a subscriber, you will be able to opt in and/or out of the different newsletter sections by clicking on the ‘Manage my subscription’ tab on the homepage, or by hitting this button.
If you have any difficulty with this, or find any links that are not working, please don’t hesitate to let me know and I will see what I can do to sort it out.
And, as a reminder, please add wonderingsteps@substack.com to your email address book, to avoid my emails being labelled as ‘spam’. And, if you no longer want to receive these emails, please feel free to unsubscribe. No hard feelings. No one likes email spam! Actually few people except me like actual Spam…
So, those are my plans for the coming weeks and months. I hope that this will make writing my Substack more sustainable for me, as well as giving me the opportunity to do work that nourishes me and allows me to write more of the higher quality pieces that I know I can produce. Here are some of the pieces I am most pleased with from the last seven months.
Let me know what you think of these plans in the comments section of this post. And, if you are enjoying Wondering Steps so far, don’t forget to click the ‘heart’ at the top or bottom of the post – I need the encouragement to continue!
Welcome to all my new readers! It is wonderful to know that so many people are reading and enjoying my writing. To learn more about me, to read the Wondering Steps archives, to manage your subscription and more, click the button below.
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Bye for now! Emma
Love the sound of monthly children’s lit essays Emma - what a nice thing to have to look forward to in 2025 😜 And props for assessing your capacities and adjusting accordingly. It’s a perpetual problem for me that I have way more ideas than I can realistically execute in a sensible time frame so I very much relate. PS I think your writing is already well worth reading so don’t be too tough on yourself eh x
I think the main thing is to work out what works for you. I like your writing and will watch with interest in the new year, but must admit to having limited interest in children's literature - even my grandchildren are now mid-to-late late teens, difficult as it is for me to get my head around that@