Edition Sixty One

A peek at the process of writing my newsletter.

Where the magic happens. Sometimes.

It's Thursday evening, 7:41.

I'm sitting in front of my computer. The urge to write always gets stronger as the weekend approaches. It’s probably because I know the weekend is looming in the distance.

I was searching for the next topic of my newsletter. When nothing clicked I started feel a bit nervous. Thinking to myself: I still have plenty of time to find a topic, work on the post, get it ready and schedule it. More than enough time.

Right?

A behind the scenes newsletter might be interesting. How I find the topic. Where I go for inspiration and how it becomes a mad dash to get everything finished before the self-imposed deadline.

We open the Substack app and browse through our favorite publications but we don’t always consider the process behind the newsletter. What the writer does to get their work from an idea to a full fledged newsletter.

In this edition I walk you through my process from beginning to end and share how my newsletter takes shape from idea to a finished post.

Finding the topic.

Coffee is often a prerequisite for good thinking.

Finding a good topic is probably not as hard as we imagine. To convince yourself the writing is doing justice to the topic - is the hardest part.

The topic has to be relevant to the community I write for. It makes sense to start searching right in the backyard: Substack.

It is easy to find what your subscribers are reading and enjoying and what they don't Metrics aren’t a measure of quality but it is a measure of interest at very least.

I work through my subscriptions with a pen and notebook in hand. If nothing jumps out at me I move onto Notes. I might fall down a rabbit hole or two as I start going to the feeds of subscribers or reading other publications. It is always an interesting process but I need to be wary of it’s ability to keep me busy for too long.

My last stop is usually YouTube. It does have a bad reputation for being a massive time suck but if you stick to the goal (and a time limit) it can yield some good results.

When deciding on a topic I have two criteria.

1. It has to be relevant to people reading my newsletter. The part of the community I focus on are photographers, professional or hobby.

2. It has to be relatable to me. If I have no experience on the subject matter I can’t write about it. I could try but the lack of knowledge on it will shine through in my writing. Somewhere in the newsletter or Note I need to have a moment where I say “I know how this feels / how this works”.

With these boxes ticked I move onto the next part of the process which is putting some meat onto the bones of the topic.

Flesh out the topic.

This tends to be the busiest time during the process.

Handwritten notes convey my thoughts much better.

I start by writing out rough drafts. For this I prefer pen and paper. This puts me mind thoroughly into the zone when it comes to creativity. There is no CTRL + Z option. There is no auto-correct. I just write and make small sketches to help me figure out what goes where. Sometimes I use these handwritten notes as part of an article.

Next I transfer all this to digital format. I start writing on Obsidian or Google Docs. From there it goes into Substack as a draft. While in draft mode I tend to rework it quite a lot. There have been instances where I scratched a whole newsletter and rewrote it.

The timeframe here varies depending on the topic. It can be over in a single session or go on for a few days. During the week my time is limited and I only write for an hour a day. Saturday & Sunday tends to be my most productive in terms of writing.

As soon as I have the main outline for the newsletter finished I move onto the final stage of writing.

Polish it.

Cleaning up a topic, or planning to.

As soon as I have the draft ready I usually let everything sit for a day or two, depending on how much time I have before the newsletter is sent out. This gives me more objectivity on what I wrote.

I check for grammar and spelling mistakes and work on improving the flow of the newsletter. I read it though and make notes on what to change. I’ll put my writing into Hemmingway Editor and it gives me some suggestions on what might not be working in terms of grammar and sentence structure.

With this finished I start adding photos into the post. I don’t necessarily go out and shoot specifically for each newsletter. A lot of the time I will work through my photo archives.

Once the photos are in I give it a last read and then schedule it.

I don’t like to use the word perfect but I try to get as close to this idea as I possibly can. I want my writing to be good enough to add some value to the reader who gives their time to read my newsletter.

In closing.

Writing a newsletter isn't as easy as I thought it would be. But I prefer it to be difficult. When I write I enjoy the process and the reactions it brings. Negative or positive; it doesn’t matter.

Building a process around this is important. For the first few months of writing I spent lots of time on Substack and wrote quite a lot. For me it wasn’t a good thing. I prefer taking time when I write. I see it as a form of soft rebellion against the rush we find ourselves in during our day to day lives.

I have settled into a bi-weekly routine of publishing (more or less) which gives me the enjoyment of reading & writing and also allows me to focus on producing better writing than I did before.

If you’re reading this I thank you. Thanks for taking the time out of your schedule to click and read all the way to the end. I’d like to hear about your process and what you do when it comes to writing your newsletter.

Thanks for reading, I really appreciate it : )