Guys I had my first viral Note
And ok yes the benchmark of virality on Substack Notes is admittedly very low
Showing My Work
Some years ago, a good friend sent me a book called “Show Your Work!” by Austin Kleon. It was a very thoughtful gift, but I didn’t make it very far, because it was also the wrong time.
Fast forward to now — I've got this Substack, and I've got all kinds of projects going, some of which are directly relevant to said Substack — and suddenly it's the right time.
And also, I'm doing this thing lately where I don't read nonfiction books without actually trying to apply something from them. Otherwise they're just entertainment. In order for most nonfiction books to have any kind of real value, you have to take deliberate action based on their insights.
About halfway through the book, I hit something that felt like it deserved immediate application:
"Put yourself, and your work, out there every day, and you'll start meeting some amazing people." - Bobby Solomon
SEND OUT A DAILY DISPATCH.
...Social media sites are the perfect place to share daily updates. Don't worry about being on every platform; pick and choose based on what you do and the people you're trying to reach.
Rather than boring you with the details (a perpetual effort of restraint, trust me), I'll summarize thusly:
I made a plan to post more often on Substack Notes.
Another thing I did
is that I finally sat down and mapped out a structured publishing schedule.
What you might not know (and also might not even want to know, but yes I'm going to tell you anyway, here it comes) is that I technically preside over four different Substacks — this one,
, (a podcast I decided to move over to Substack a few months ago), and a blog for my company.Last week I published Dope Hacking, which described an important component of my efforts to get on and stay on this new posting schedule, and also happened to be one of the first posts in the schedule itself.
Which brings us to today
Today’s post, according to the almighty schedule, was to be some kind of summary of my Substack Notes from the preceding week.
Convenient, then, that yesterday I had my very first Note blow up.
Thanks to that Note, and a handful of others, Dispatches from Inner Space has grown 10% in a week.
I know, I know, super exciting. But also now I'm all nervous in front of all you new people who just showed up.
OK, now that I said it, I'm over it. You'll stay if you like, you'll leave if you don't.
Notable Notes
To those of you who are here because my Notes game has been so fire, I hope you'll forgive what follows. Thing is, the majority of Substack readers aren't on Notes. And if we hope to lure them in, we have to show them what they're missing.
So, to those of you who haven't spent time scrolling the wild wonders of Substack's Twitter clone social feed, here are my best hits from the last week (or so).
(PS "best hits" can also mean ones that didn't get as much attention as I now insisting they deserve.)
On Nicolas Cage…
Someone almost immediately flamed me for this, which forced me to reiterate how much I do actually love this man.
On the “audacity of earnestness”…
On social consensus of truth…
On, uh, politics…
And finally, on popcorn…
This is officially my most slept-on take.
Coming up next week…
By now, I’m sure it’s challenging to imagine a more thrilling, inspirational, life-altering email than the one you just read, but just you wait.
For the dozen or so people who have been paying close enough attention to my rantings, you may have noticed me hint at a couple of big projects. Well, next week I’m going to officially announce one of them. Honestly I’m so excited about it I almost popped the cork today.
But no. We must stick to the schedule. It is what separates us from the beasts.
The party is in the comments!
But unless you jump in and say hi, or something (really anything), it’s going to be one of those boring, quiet parties, where everyone mostly stands in the corners and stares at their phones.
Please don’t let this be that kind of party.
The very concept of virality has become so watered down over the years that it is a different beast entirely to what it once was. When something went viral, it went *viral* - millions upon millions of comments, arguments, posts, threads, and views, across multiple sites. This was when something happened and the entirety of the internet took notice - go look at "Star Wars Kid" or the dancing baby gif from Ally McBeal.
Then the term got watered down to mean a brief but significant portion of a website, or maybe a couple of websites, obsessing over something. I would still have expected the numbers to be eye-watering during this phase of the term, but it wasn't the same as the earliest use of the word.
Now? There have been many things which have allegedly been viral sensations, while I have been online and paying attention, that completely passed me by. This is probably a massive signifier of how stratified the internet has become, with large chunks inaccessible to passers-by (Discord, when it dies, is going to do so without leaving much of a mark on the wider internet), or behind paywalls.
The concept of something attaining true virality in 2023 seems almost impossible to me. Not in the same way that things used to be, anyway. I'm uncertain if this is a good thing or a bad thing, as there were a lot of potentially negative outcomes from some of the stories which took over people's lives back in the day. I'm curious as to the numbers which now qualify something as viral...
I do like the dark theme, which is a blessed ease on the eyes. Thank you. (I didn't know that this was possible, but I haven't really poked around in the settings much at all)
"Notes" is amazing and outdoes Twitter or X or whatever it's now called in spades. I love Substack. Life changing for me! I found a literary community here that has given me both hope and courage. Looking forward to engaging with you more, J.E. -- after all I found you a while ago. ~ xo Mary