Coming Up "C"

What fourteen months on Substack has taught me

Happy June!

I hope last month’s memoir focus was a blessing for you, fellow readers. Revisiting favorite titles was a joy to be sure, and the reading life is truly best shared with others.

For today’s post, however, I would like to shift from reading recommendations and move to something more personal. I’ve been writing on Substack for fourteen months now, two of those under the relaunch of Faith & Fiction, and I have learned much in that time. These past few weeks I’ve been reflecting on those lessons and my writing journey in general.

Simultaneously, I’m thinking about my next season, both metaphorically and literally. Summer brings unique challenges and time restraints, and I have some projects that need special attention before it concludes. In the fall, my MFA program will commence and that needs consideration, too.

So, today, I’d like to share a bit on each of these: lessons gleaned as a Substack writer, summer writing plans, and a brief glimpse at what comes next and how all three connect.

First, lessons.

At the risk of being kitschy, I’ve boiled down my key takeaways to words that start with C. This was not intentional. As I sought to encapsulate lessons in one word—they kept coming up C. I decided to roll with it. So, with no hierarchy of importance, beyond the last one, here are my C lessons on writing:

Courage and Conviction: I know I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s no less true today than when I hit submit on my first post in 2023. Everything I write, here and otherwise, tests my courage; writing has been the most vulnerable venture of my life. I often doubt and wrestle with insecurity. It turns out I’m in good company—this is a common confession among writers. Somehow, I thought I’d overcome this by now, but not so.

However, I’ve discovered courage is aided by conviction. Knowing that I’ve been called to this by the Lord and that I’m being obedient to his directive helps me be courageous. As a result, I’ve learned to write to the best of my ability, swallow my fear, and send my work into the world anyway. At this point, I’m not sure it will get easier. Thus, courage and conviction are essential.

Commitment and Consistency: When I finally surrendered to writing, I had no idea where I was headed. What I did know was that commitment and holding myself accountable to a regular rhythm of writing was necessary. I also needed to think about author platform. A Substack newletter seemed a providential answer to both.

From the start, I made a heart commitment to post every other Thursday. With the relaunch, that became every Thursday, and apart from my Advent sabbatical, I have followed through on every one of these self-prescribed deadlines—even when life circumstances tempted me to skip a week.

I hold no delusion that readers will be dismayed if my post doesn’t show up on a Thursday morning! But writing requires self-discipline and I knew I needed to grow in that virtue. Substack has taught me to commit and be consistent.

Content and Collaboration: I named my first Substack newsletter Holding All of It because I was tinkering with various genres and also interning as a journalist. I didn’t know where my writing would land. I held no singular focus, and as such, I would finish one post and then immediately start praying about what to write for the next. This was a tad stress inducing.

Yet, whether it was from something I read in the Word or something gleaned from books or conversations, or simply a flash of insight, inspiration came. Every time. The longer I’m in this, the more I see my writing as a collaboration with the Lord, and I’m learning that he is faithful to lead me.

Capacity and Contentment: Like all of us, my life is full. I am a wife and mom; I am a homemaker and a church member, a daughter and a friend—in short, I have responsibilities and relationships that need my attention. But I tend to be single-minded and can be a bit obsessive when it comes to writing.

Yet, there are days when I simply don’t have time to write, or I fall short on my word count goals. I struggle with the limits of my capacity. God has been speaking to me about contentment. Prioritizing is key and writing simply can’t usurp my focus on God, family, or relationships—sometimes it has.

I am learning to rest in the capacity he gives on any given day and to trust that my projects will get done as I order things rightly.

Christ: Writing can feel like a solitary and self-directed affair. But as all the other lessons imply, I am learning that God is over, above, in, and among my writing life. I certainly don’t want to take a path he hasn’t paved, and I don’t want to self-determine what I write. My focus can wander—so daily I need to direct my thoughts back to Christ.

So, where has all this reflection led? The answer leads me to the other focus of this post: summer writing plans and beyond.

When I launched Faith & Fiction, I had so many lovely ideas that I knew I had enough content to provide weekly posts. What I overestimated was my capacity. Looking back, I believe I jumped ahead of the Lord with that decision.

Three of my C lessons (consistency, capacity, and contentment) have led me to the conclusion that once a week posts, at least for the foreseeable future, are too much for me. I’m finding my current ambition does not match my capacity, nor my ability to keep going consistently—both in the summer months with the kids home and planned vacations, and in the fall when I will be returning to school and my seasonal work.

What’s more, while I’ve enjoyed crafting weekly posts, the work on my manuscript has suffered as a result, and I simply must finish this manuscript before my MFA program begins.

All of this to say, please expect a return to bimonthly posts going forward. I may add an additional post or two along the way as they come along organically and as time allows.

And speaking of my manuscript! I see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I just finished writing Chapter 25 and if nothing major changes (I try to stay flexible), I will have approximately seven chapters left to write. There are more edits to follow, and various other odds and ends, but my hope is to be done by early August. Exciting!

Lastly, and also connected to manuscript and summer plans, next week I will be traveling with my daughter to Michigan to see friends for a few weeks, and in the middle, I will be attending a writing conference in Chicago.

I’ll be learning from other authors, editors, and industry professionals, and I will also be meeting with at least one literary agent to discuss my book and gain advice about next steps. I would love your prayers.

And with that, I wish each of you a joyous start to your summer; may your dining be al fresco and your coffee iced.

See you in two weeks!

Tiffany