"An Update on the Socks I Own"
Or, how not to write a Substack post when you're practically asleep
The following is based mainly on my experience. Your experience may vary. While I feel confident enough to publish this advice, I never feel so sure that I won't benefit from other advice. So I invite comments. 🙂
If you reach the point where you see “stocks” as “socks,” you probably shouldn't write a post for your newsletter.
Or at least you shouldn't click “Publish.”
If you feel compelled to publish, set the publication to 24 hours from now. Then set a reminder for 23 hours from now to unpublish, probably.
Maybe you can get away with posting while tired/inebriated/confused if you've previously established that your newsletter is silly or random. But many newsletters require accuracy, logic, care, etc, for which sleepiness is not helpful.1
Moreover, trying to promote your post on social media when you're not at your best can be a big mistake. Friends don't let friends tweet drunk.
What if you can't avoid being weary? For example, what if you have a new baby who wakes you to demand food every couple of hours? Or if you work 50 hours per week, and can write only when you get home?
And what if you usually publish on a regular schedule? Subscribers may expect a post at a particular time – what if you don't deliver?
You might want to have a post ready in advance. Something that will be timely no matter when you post it. (Even better, have a few posts ready.)
Or you can start a discussion. An open forum if you can't come up with a topic (or a coherent sentence about it). A discussion or open forum once in a while may be good for you and your audience.
Another possibility: you could sleep rather than write, publish, and promote! Does anyone truly need to see your post today? If not, then post another day.2 Building your newsletter, as the saying goes, isn't a sprint, it's a marathon.
Your audience should understand. Everyone experiences delay. They'll understand if you explain briefly tomorrow why you couldn't meet the deadline today.
Moreover you'll say what you wanted better tomorrow after you've gotten some rest. Your audience should appreciate your taking the time to write a good post, rather than wasting their time with a fast but low-quality post.
What do you think? What do you do with your newsletter when you're tired or just not 100%?
I'm not saying you should only write when you're at your best. Many writers have tiredness, distraction, time constraints, etc, and still write. The ideal time to write and revise might never happen. I'm suggesting not to do key parts of your work (such as writing most of your post or clicking “Publish”) at inappropriate times, such as when you're snoring at your desk.
If posting at a particular time is sometimes important, and you're not always able to write a post, then it may be time to look for a co-writer or two, who can take over in a difficult moment.
I've concluded that I should start a discussion thread next week about socks. 🧦
I'll host another sock discussion during Northern Hemisphere winter. 🧦
To be honest, I would far rather read an article entitled “the socks I own” than “the stocks I own”. You can learn a lot about a person by the kind of socks they were, and that would be a fun article. But everybody writes about stocks and that sounds boring to me.