Must successful writers be content mills?

What's a "healthy balance" between creativity and content production?

Since I started writing on Substack (and other, more shallow social media platforms), I’ve experienced a constant, overwhelming pressure to produce more and more content. The issue is, of course, that pushing out as much content as possible is typically a quantity > quality equation, where artistry suffers for the sake of production. If you’re a writer on Substack, social media, or freelance work platforms, I’m sure you’ve felt this same pressure.

It’s exhausting, isn’t it?

Photo by Mike Setchell on Unsplash

With the ever-growing amount of content out there (and the evidence suggesting that more frequent posting = more followers, likes, comments, and shares), it’s difficult not to get sucked into the scarcity mindset that, in order to grow, you must push out something rather than the right thing.

Writing to develop a never-ending stream of content not only makes me feel like a robot, but it proves that I’m a really bad content-generating AI. Frankly, a decent AI model can produce far more surface-level content than me in way less time. Writing more, more, more not only feels like swimming against the tide, but it rapidly leads to burnout - a serious problem for authors trying to make a living off of their writing.

There’s definitely a balance to be found here; you obviously can’t produce nothing and expect to become a successful writer. How can people read your work if you don’t put anything out there? My point, though, is that there are readers who don’t want to be overwhelmed with empty content day after day. There are real people on Substack who understand that human creators are behind each post. These special readers know that, oftentimes, less is more.

My ideal audience - and likely, yours too - values quality over quantity with every single post.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my writing to be chock full of meaningless content. I want to make each post on Allegory Landing worth a reader’s time - I want the words to mean something to the reader because they actually meant something to me when I wrote them.

What’s a “healthy balance” between creativity and content production?

So, what is the healthy balance you’re looking for? I’m not trying to be wishy-washy with my answer here, but the right “balance” depends a lot on you - your level of dedication to posting, what you have to say, the amount of time you want to (or are able to) spend on writing, etc. However, here are a few things that everyone should consider in finding their “healthy balance”:

1. What’s the focus of your publication/writing portfolio? That is to say, what’s your niche?

2. How much time do you have to dedicate to Substack and/or platform writing and posting per week?

3. Considering that amount of time, how often do you think you are able to post each week? Don’t forget to account for the time it will t

   ake you to research, write, and edit your posts. Also remember that it takes extra time to gather images, create and edit video, and/or add audio, should you decide to include any of these in your posts.

4. Is the amount that you’re able to post too frequent? Don’t overwhelm yourself or your readers by posting Substack articles on a single page five times a day. You might have the time for it right now, but this isn’t sustainable - you’ll run out of things to write about, grow tired/burned out, get busy, and/or annoy the heck out of your readers. Remember, they have limited time to read your work, just as you have limited time to write it.

5. Does it feel like the amount that you can post is too infrequent? You may be right - your posting schedule may be on the infrequent side, but that’s okay - just make sure you’re clear with your readers that you aren’t posting your articles, stories, poems, etc. super frequently. Be sure to understand that you may not gain subscribers as quickly if you post rarely. If you’re on Substack for the art, creativity, and community, though, it’s not something to worry about!

6. Consider revealing to your audience a pre-determined day and/or time that you’ll post - this gets your readers pumped to read your quality work by letting them know when they can look for new posts. Stick to your posting schedule so your readers know they can count on you! I personally was super bad at this when I first started writing on Substack - I was working a full-time job and hadn’t decided on a concrete niche for my page. Now that I’ve decided what I want to write about consistently, twice per week doesn’t seem too overwhelming for me. So here’s my posting schedule - I post substantive/advice articles Mondays, funny/semi-substantive articles Fridays, and release a short story once per month! I also add my substantive/advice articles to my blog on emmagracewrites.com, my writing website where I book clients for memoir, war story, and love story writing and editing jobs.

I hope these tidbits were helpful! Remember, if you’re a quality-over-quantity type of writer, Substack is a great place for you! This is the perfect platform for you to share your art. Take advantage of the opportunity to work here and have some fun with it! 🤩

Thanks for reading today’s post! What helps you produce quality work over falling into the content mill pattern? Let me know in the comments below!