💫 On Secret Substacks

and authenticity // vol. 7

With the last few weeks being more overwhelming than average, I haven’t had as much time to think. The writing habit I’ve been trying to build has been difficult to keep up with, and although I’ve seen some great tips on building creativity and writing habits from Twitter (love @thesephist!) and sources like Ness Labs, it can be really difficult to start them with little mental energy.

Linus @thesephist

How to build up a consistent writing habit from zero.

This got me thinking, though, about a writing project that I started last year. I created an anonymous Substack, didn’t share it with anyone, and began writing weekly reflections on just anything that was on my mind.

I was able to keep it up nearly every week that year, the longest I was able to stick to any writing habit ever (that is, until I started this 🤞). Looking back at some of the articles, I really enjoyed some of the ideas that I had wrote about. It felt much easier to get those thoughts out knowing that no one would know I had written them.

The combination of not having the pressure of external validation & the lack of limitation by topic space made the writing more natural and compelling. It was a weekly reflection I wanted to engage with. The fact that it was still publicly available on the Internet helped me stick with it. Even though no one would likely find it, it helped to be able to click the “Publish” button and get the satisfaction of knowing I made progress, however small.

With this Substack, my website, and future writing that I do, I want to try to emulate this spirit. Keeping writing natural even when sharing it with others is a skill. It can feel complicated by all the chatter about “growth hacks” and “creating your personal niche” on the Internet. The secret Substack, though, flipped all that on its head and I saw the quality of my writing increase because of it.

Although I haven’t continued with the secret Substack this year (and don’t have any plans for deanonymizing it), it was a successful experiment for me; I would highly recommend it! For this week, I decided to emulate some of my secret posts to be more like myself, and less like a polished Person on the Internet. So, enjoy!

💫 Updates

As stated earlier, this was an overwhelming few weeks and I’ve been trying to stay afloat with school. I did start journaling daily, though, and will see if that helps with some of the self-reflection that’s been more difficult recently.

💫 Digital serendipity

An assortment of fun things from the Internet this week:

1. This Tweet with very relatable (and edgy) humor.

   stephanie @isosteph

   can't believe i used to do 8 hours school 2 hours swim 4 hours homework every day now im more tired And more stupid

2. Joined Nivi Achanta’s Soapbox Project community! You can follow her newsletter to get an invite here. If you’re looking for easy steps to start tackling climate change, her newsletter is the place. It doesn’t hurt that her writing is personable and funny either ☺️

3. With all the study time these past few weeks, I’ve grown a liking for this specific lofi station on Youtube. It’s always fresh and gets me in flow faster than any other playlists I’ve found.

That’s all for this week! If you got this far, thanks for joining. As always, I’d love to hear what you think :)

—Vadini