Substack bios & the meaning of my entire life
How do we introduce everything we are in a couple of sentences...spoiler alert, I offer only thoughts, not answers.
You may or may not have noticed that my bio on Substack is very vague. I’ve never really clarified for myself, let alone any potential audience, what it is I’m here for.
A recent chat with Katherine Clements who you can find over at The Inkwell reminded me of this fact and the two broad but real reasons anyone might have for being on here.
One, it’s a link to their ‘main’ business or means of income, be it writing or something entirely different, like for me it could link to my work as a professional photographer. It becomes a means of promoting my expertise, expressing opinions or thoughts, sharing tips and guidance with others and potentially, hopefully, it’s income producing I.e. paid subscribers here on Substack and customers for my photography services. The main string holding the above together regardless of the day job? Providing something of value to others.
Or there’s the second option, it’s a space simply to write & to share writing. A place to build the habit of regular writing and sharing, to try out thoughts and ideas and see both what works for us the writer and how it lands with readers. This alternative reason is perhaps more selfish because it’s not about providing something to others but to ourselves, selfish or not I think it’s equally valid.
The problem I have is I don’t know which camp I fall into, and without that clarity for myself I certainly struggle to give a clear reason for others to engage i.e. a clear bio, and that my friends is where my bigger, longer running struggle with ‘what am I here for’ comes stomping heavily into the room.
Photo credit: Karen Staniland-Platt
I am both constantly intrigued and constantly exhausted by my search for purpose. I adore the process of revisiting why I do the things I do and the impact I want to have. I’ve read ALL the books, seriously, ALL of them! I have human design charts, zodiac readings and birth charts galore. I love a journal prompt that explores personal values or a quiz that promises to highlight the careers for which my personality is a perfect fit.
This is however, totally and utterly paralysing because it stops me taking ANY action. For instance, I won’t start the podcast I’m desperate to start because I’ve gotta settle on a title and an explanation of what it’s all about…to be clear I have both a title and an explanation but I’m worried my purpose might shift and therefore that would change. I won’t publish on Substack because on any given day the thing I feel most passionate about writing changes and so to write a succinct bio is nigh on impossible.
So here I am, writing about it because it helps me to reach conclusions (at least for 24 hours) and my other main motivation for writing, to share an experience in the hope it helps someone else.
Back to the problem, how do we boil down what we’re writing about into a snappy short bio? I mean let’s be honest, we’re complex creatures aren’t we? Trying to cram everything we feel passionate about into a few snappy sentences IS a challenge because not only are we lots of things, we’re also always changing.
So my advice, and the advice I am following is to strip things back.
First off, what are you passionate enough about that you could write about it a LOT?
As we’ve already discovered I am passionate about a LOT of things.
Being a woman today. I mean that alone covers a lot of ground. Visibility of all women and the complexity of that given inequality, the patriarchy and our own inherited generational stories. Not to mention the invisibility of middle age, the media’s bias towards how we should look, behave, be and the inspirational women I meet every day that are railing against each of these things in their own rebellious ways. I could label all of this ‘feminism’ but that doesn’t really go deep enough.
Equality & equity, be it political, gender, neurodiversity, race, body shapes and abilities or legal rights, and the biggy for me, Class. This one is in my bones and I wrestle with the impact of it for me and others daily.
Books & writing. An unsurprising passion given my presence on Substack and the ever growing number of subscriptions I have. I could limit this by saying largely memoir and life writing, but of course books on any of the other subjects in this list figure highly.
Finding purpose. I draw your attention to all of the above.
Mental health, my own, the psychology of it and the depths to which our brain health impacts us and why.
Creativity, its power and yet the way society and particularly education doesn’t see its value
Motherhood. Another aspect of being a women today but particularly so now as a mother to a teenage daughter with increasingly complex needs….that strangely match many I had at the same age (and perhaps still do).
On any given day I will be thinking of words I want to write and share about any or all of these things. Sometimes the situation with my daughter is heightened and penning a piece around my feelings about that will pour out, as it did in my last post On Feeling Like I’m Losing My Daughter. The next day I will be grappling with whether my working class upbringing has stifled me academically or instead taught me valuable lessons that have made me who I am. And next time, today, I’m wrestling with something as seemingly ‘lightweight’ as writing a Substack bio.
I have no answers. Would I subscribe to something as chaotic as the above? Possibly not, but also possibly yes if I loved the style of writing, the truthfulness of it, the bare all vulnerability of it that makes me feel I’m not alone. For instance if we viewed our Substack as a magazine with many topics being discussed but with a particular reader in mind then this varied approach could work, so am I narrowing down possibilities by focusing on just one subject or is it still necessary to be a master of one to gain traction with readers.
With all this in mind I turn to the need to find a golden thread, something common through all of these interests…or the way I write about them. To go back to the magazine analogy, if you pick up a copy of VOGUE you know you’re gonna find fashion, lifestyle, home and wellbeing topics covered, but they will all have a certain ‘take’. For Vogue it’s golden threads, I guess, would be writing that is of the moment, embraces all cultures and has a luxury edge.
So what common theme or tone runs through ALL of your interests?
At first glance of my own passions I can’t see a common thread, it is after all harder to look from the inside out, so instead I turn to the writers I most admire as we can often admire in others gifts we ourself possess, or at least are keen to work towards . When I look to the writers I most enjoy and who have homes here on Substack there is a commonality between them I see first, one of a very truthful, authentic way of documenting life. They’re not afraid to go deep and to get personal. Writers like Clover Stroud & Caro Giles share so vulnerably and from the heart about their lives and I want to do much the same. Equally, I love writers that challenge the status quo like Poorna Bell and Dr Jess Taylor and how they aren’t afraid to confront current issues.
So far this gives me threads like raw vulnerability AND a desire to challenge and confront. These begin to fit quite neatly across the passions I have AND the way I’m naturally drawn to write. It’s a kind of courage, to be seen and accepted for who we truly are, a courage to share truths no matter how brutal. So could this be the beginnings of a SUBSTACK bio and a way to move forward whilst still embracing all of my passions?
Which kind of brings me full circle, with one outstanding question. Am I hear simply to share or to advise?
When I look at the writers I named above I’m not reading them to gather information or tips, I’m devoted to their writing because it makes me feel something. It can make me feel less lonely, or more angry. It can make me feel braver and at the same time more at peace and this connection is what I desire in what I read and in what I write.
So here I am. Clarity on why I’m here and it’s as simple and as huge as mere connection.
Do I have a word perfect bio yet? No I do not but I feel I’m headed in the right direction now and also I’m curious, what makes you subscribe to someone’s content on here? And particularly what makes you pay for that content?
For now, it’s back to the bio.