Here's The Best Advice I Can Give A Younger Writer

Finally, an excuse to pontificate

There’s nothing a writer likes more than having their ego fed. So I was elated when a young writer named

Max hobinson

, whose Substack, PhiloInsights, I invite you to check out, reached out to me with the following note: 

Hi Carlos,

I am a new writer on Substack and wanted to ask for some advice from you as I genuinely enjoy your posts. I do not know where to start or how to get my first few followers, do you have any advice for this? I really appreciate your writing and want to be able to write for a living in the future as I am only 16 years old. I have a YouTube channel and an Instagram page for my substack where I hope to create a fanbase on all three platforms. I enjoy writing but sometimes I struggle finding things to write about. Any tips you have on how to gain a following would be much appreciated, thank you in advance.

His message could not have come at a more opportune time. I was already riding a high from having one of my McSweeney’s pieces featured in a live event of the NPR show Selected Shorts, hosted by

Andy Borowitz

, where my work was read aloud by THE John Cameron Mitchell. So, like any writer with a tiny taste of success, I was craving an opportunity to pontificate, and lo and behold, the opportunity landed in my inbox in the form of Max’s kind note. 

I’d like to think I’m self-aware enough not to write the same self-congratulatory advice that I see all the time (and have rallied against) on Substack. But, my brain is still coursing with dopamine and serotonin and oxytocin and probably all of the other feel-good brain chemicals (I don’t really know how brain chemicals work), so I can’t exactly be trusted. Either way, I figured I’d share what I sent Max, and if you find it helpful, great. If you don’t, don’t blame me, blame dopamine.

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Letter to a Younger Writer  

Hi Max,

In response to your note, first let me first assure you that you are not alone. Your questions – How do I write for a living?, How do I gain a following?, How do I find things to write about? – are questions you’ll be asking yourself for years. I know this because these are questions I’m still asking myself every day. The good news is, you’ve already successfully taken the first step to being a writer, and that’s deciding to take the plunge! Welcome! Yes, I know the water feels cold right now, but you get used to it. Sort of.

It’s important to understand that there is no sure path to being a writer. If there was, we’d all be following it. You should also know that I’m not an expert on writing for a living, because I’m still figuring out how to do that. In fact, I feel wildly unqualified to be giving you advice at all. But I’ll try my best to explain what little I’ve learned so far. Because, as you’ll soon learn, writers love giving advice. Practically half of Substack is writing advice. I think writers love giving advice because it’s the only thing we can actually give anyone since we don’t have any money. Kidding. Sort of. 

What to Write About

A good first step is to ask yourself, What are the things going on in the world that I get the most excited about? What do I find the most frustrating? I’ve found that my best writing stems from the things that either fascinate me or frustrate me. So look for topics you find yourself thinking about and feel strongly about (whether positive or negative). There’s a good chance you can offer your readers a way of looking at those topics in ways they may not have thought about, or hadn’t been able to articulate themselves.   

You can do the same thing with your personal experiences. I coach high school students on their college admissions essays, and students often feel like they haven’t lived interesting enough lives to be worth writing about. But you don’t have to climb Mt. Everest to have a good story. You just need to take some time to look back on all the little moments in your life that have stood out to you. Jon Krakauer already wrote the definitive book on climbing Everest. But you know what hasn’t been written about before? The time you found that stack of old vinyls in your dad’s closet. Or the time you read a book that gave you a totally new appreciation for physics. That’s way more interesting than climbing a tall rock with some snow on it.

Maybe the best way to find things to write about, is to get into the habit of observing the world around you and finding the details that other people miss. Writing is the art of noticing. Comedians find jokes in the daily rituals the rest of us take for granted. Poets find beauty in that strange smell of the sidewalk after it rains. Learn to pay attention and you’ll find things to write about everywhere. Think of yourself as an alien secret agent sent to Earth to spy on humanity and report your findings. Overhear an unusual conversation at a coffee shop? Jot it down. Meet a new coworker who’s a complete jerk? Remember him. He’s the villain of your next novel.

How to Write for a Living

Speaking of work, there’s virtually a 100% chance that, before you can earn a living from your writing (or, at least, writing that excites you), you will have to work several other non-writing (or writing that doesn't excite you) jobs to sustain yourself, possibly for many years. You can look at these jobs in one of two ways: 1) endless drudgery that you have to endure until you can finally achieve the French Riviera, gin-and-tonic-sippin’ writing life you’ve always wanted, or 2) a free source of writing material.

Personally, I prefer option #2 as I find it’s way less soul crushing. Part of being a writer (or an adult, for that matter) involves spending a lot of your time doing things you’d rather not be doing (especially the dishes. Being an adult is basically just doing dishes 24/7). Just remember that time spent not writing isn’t wasted – writing is 5% writing words, 95% gathering the words.      

When you do get free time to write, make sure you’re spending that time writing something you actually enjoy. If you try to write based on what you think will make a lot of money, you’ll burn out long before you get good enough to write anything that will make a lot of money. Instead, find the thing that tugs at you so strongly that you can’t not write about it. That’s the only way you’ll regularly carve out those little bits of time when you’re not doing dishes (which will be almost never) that it’ll take to get good at writing.  

And trust me, it will take time. As far as I can tell, the number one thing that correlates with good writing isn’t how intelligent you are, or where you went to college, or how interesting a life you’ve lived. The thing that matters most is how much time you’ve spent writing. I know lots of people who wanted to be writers, and who were way more talented than I was, who are excellent lawyers now. The best way to be a writer is basically to just outlast everyone else. The longer you keep writing, the better your chances.

How to Gain a Following

It’s great that you’re already on Substack and YouTube and Instagram trying to get your writing out there. Just know that it takes a long time to gain traction on any of those platforms. So try to be patient and focus on showing up consistently rather than getting caught up on the numbers (easier said than done, I know). Because, again, all of this stuff takes time.

Figuring out Substack is tough. It took me over a year before I started to get any sort of handle on things. And even then, I still get frustrated (ironically, my rants about Substack have been my most-read work). Thankfully, there are some great publications, like

Writers at Work

,

Sparkle on Substack

, and

Unstack Substack

that help demystify the platform and provide a place to meet other writers. I also recommend

Remy Bazerque

's brutally honest and pragmatic guide to getting your first 100 subscribers.

Posting on Notes and engaging genuinely with people can help get your work out there. Just keep in mind that the Notes algorithm is still an algorithm so your results may vary based on what you post, the time of day, what you ate for breakfast, your astrological sign, etc. So don’t be discouraged if it takes a while to see results, but also understand that you may never see results. Algorithms are fun that way!

Advice about Advice

My last piece of advice is that every writer who has ever given writing advice suffers from a massive case of survivorship bias (especially me) so take all writing advice with a grain of salt!

Be Free 

Oh, and also, absolutely none of what I’ve told you will guarantee success. I realize that sounds negative, but I hope you’ll instead look at it as freeing. Because one of the hardest things for me as a writer is dealing with the constant feeling that I’m not doing enough, or that I’m not popular enough, and that all of that lack of “success” is a sign that writing isn’t for me. But, while I’d love to get a $5 million advance for my next book and finally stop worrying about money, I try to do my best to remember that the things that keep me writing are the things that have nothing to do with money.

I can safely say that, even if I never make another dollar from my writing (and I haven’t made that many dollars to begin with), this pursuit has still enriched my life immeasurably. Writing has helped me achieve catharsis in the face of tragedy, made me a more introspective and curious person, and helped me forge lasting friendships. It’s made me a happier person, and a better person. And getting to do this in any capacity, whether as a career or a hobby, has been a gift.

So maybe the real advice is that, whatever happens, even if you decide that writing for a living isn’t for you, never stop writing. Something drew you to writing in the first place, so keep feeding that hunger in any way you can. At the very least, writing will give you something fun to daydream about while you’re doing the dishes.

Best,

Carlos

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Comments

Have I bummed you out or have I bummed you in?

Any other writing advice you’d like to share? (writers, this is your chance to pontificate!)

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