I’ve been sitting on a blank SubStack for months, reading all the articles, watching all the videos, making mind-maps and ambitious plans, trying to decide whether to nail down a focus or break the stack into sections… and I’m not even trying to monetise the bloody thing.
I think my problem is that I genuinely think the SubStack model represents the future of publishing — even if you want to publish traditionally in the longer term. Therefore, I’ve built it up to be a thing that has to be perfect before I can consider a ‘launch’.
In all those months, I have 11 views and two subscribers (thank you!), which of course is hardly surprising since I’ve never published anything. However, realistically that likely won’t increase much unless I put serious effort into promoting the thing. So, for now (and with apologies to my two subscribers), I might as well just have fun!
1. Here Goes Nothing!
Here’s the deal. I’m a poet and writer. I’ve had several poems published and I do spoken word shows and stuff. I’m also a terrible businessman. Despite having none, I struggle to care much about money. As a result, the vast majority of my writing sits about in books and file folders gathering dust, having never been read, and with little chance of publication.
Sure, I’m working on some actual Projects, but my complete lack of organisation and rational strategy means that I also have a teetering mountain of prose, poetry and even academic essays looming over me, like an angry baboon seeking its place in the Universe.1 It occurred to me that this body of work might provide a viable foundation for the stack, especially since most of it is short-form.2
2. Messing Up the Paintwork
It seems to me, that the problem is ‘blank page syndrome’. By this I refer, of course, to the block which many writers experience while looking at a blank page and trying to work out how to move the wonderous visions inhabiting their head-jelly out into the world where other peoples’ eyes live. More specifically, I refer to the dilemma of trying to do this in a new notebook that you particularly like.
I’m sure I’m not alone, especially amongst writers, when I confess to having stacks of beautiful notebooks which lay empty, awaiting a project worthy of their splendour. I may even be in good company with the handful I began to use, writing slowly in beautiful copperplate as befits their station, only to make a spelling mistake halfway down the first page. Even if you are better than me, unless you’re a 13th Century monk the chances are that trying to keep your books looking perfect will negatively impact creativity.
I have found that the best way to overcome this — aside from leaving all the pretty notebooks pristine and writing only on old beermats — is to dive in with both feet and make a complete mess of the first page.
The moment this deflowering — this vile desecration — is complete, you can relax and enjoy having a cool notepad that is also a workhorse. Furthermore, once you’ve truly chilled about it, your scribbled notes and doodles might actually start to look kinda cool, by dint of their very presence in such a classy tome.
So, I figured perhaps I can use the same principle on SubStack. If I write a shoddy, unplanned blog post as the inaugural page, maybe it will evolve into a platform I’m more willing to use and abuse in creative ways, which may be more worthwhile in the end than carefully planned out and professional presentations. And, well… if not, perhaps the nameless mass of doodles and scribblings will at least look kinda cool.
3. So What Is ‘The Magick Temple’ All About
If you were paying attention, you would have noticed that the subtitle to this article is ‘How to launch a SubStack Without a Plan’, so how do you expect me to tell you what it’s about?
I should be less belligerent right? OK — it will evolve organically, but to begin with it will likely involve articles, reviews, poetry, short stories, and maybe even some academia. It will likely have no rational focus, and will meander wildly. But hey, it’ll be free, and I’ll do my very best to make it fun, interesting and worth your time.
Fiction will likely comprise Sci-Fi, Magic Realism, Horror or Modern Literature. Poetry might deal with themes of time, aging, neuroatypicality, pacifism and politics, Articles and academia might cover literature, punk rock, absurdist philosophy, and book or music reviews. Some of the poetry might be previously published — the rest won’t.
You might even get excerpts from my mysterious Projects. These are unfinished longer form works that I hope to publish in the future through more traditional media. They currently include a biographical memoir of a remarkable man, a Science Fiction novel, and an epic narrative folk-horror ballad.
It’ll be a mess — but if this sounds like a mess you’d like to roll around in, please consider restacking and/or Subscribing. It may spur me on to greater things!
It only now occurs to me that perhaps a post about said actual Projects would have been a better place to start, but never let it be said that I made a sensible commercial decision. Plus, it gives me something to write about in the future!
Again, this would obviously have been the place to source my launch post. I’d like to say that hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I’m actually adding these footnotes as I write the first draft, so I have absolutely no excuse.
Get on with it, some people have got to get a bus.
Congratulations on launching, this may very well be the first Substack I have ever read, my (f)ailing memory makes it hard to say, but seems like a perfectly honourable way to start to me! Maybe I should think about publishing my (unfinished) novel here too?