my journey as a writer & tips for substack writers (150K QnA)

| finally answering all your questions related to writing, life, art, etc.

I think as a person who loves to express their emotions via writing, be it through letters, poems, prose, articles, texts, etc, the worst thing you can ever do to yourself, is lock yourself in a cage made of self-limiting beliefs, and be scared of your own potential.

I have struggled with inferiority complex a lot in my life, and truly, writing on Substack wasn’t some sort of task or project where I expected to even gain a readership of 50 people, let alone the current count of 180K+ which is honestly insane to me. I tend to belittle my own achievements but this.. istg this is something truly special and I can’t put it into words how utterly grateful I am, to have my words read by so many lovely people on the internet, I love you all sm.

So I asked yall to send in your questions related to writing, life and more for this 150K QnA (some questions are from when I had crossed 80K 😭 and I couldn’t answer them then, pls bear with me), and I’m gonna try my best to answer all of them <3

Q1. What do u do for living?

Am currently a student pursuing my bachelors in Economics, am in my last semester rn. I also earn as a freelance study-creator on Instagram (theminimalstudies).

Q2. How do you find the increase in followers affects your writing? do you ever find that you lose touch with authenticity? (i hope this doesn’t sound accusatory, that’s not my intention haha i’m just curious)

That’s a good question ngl, I tend to wonder about this too sometimes & I think from my perspective, gaining more subscribers and the growing size of the readership has in-turn given me even more freedom and confidence, to express all that I want to with my articles, because all of the kind individuals on here have proved it, that there’s someone out there waiting to read your article, and finds comfort and a sense of reassurance in a world full of brainrot.

However, yes, I do feel like the pressure of writing more “profound pieces” is something that tends to hold me back, and I am trying to work on it, by writing more articles that come more from the sense and perception rather than just the brain. As for authenticity, I think I grew more into it and also stopped comparing myself with other great writers on this app, and really, authenticity is just a fancy term for you being unapologetically you, so BE YOU!

Q3. do you ever feel unloved everytime? and how to deal with it?

YES, though not everytime. And I think its important to realise that, this feeling is pretty common, though with varying intensities, I think everyone feels unloved at some point in the year or month. As for me, I tend to remind myself that no matter what the world around me, aka people from college, people on the internet, and anywhere on this planet, is saying or doing, I know that I am always gonna be there for myself, because the ‘self’ is the only thing that stays with you, through the tides of time. So self-love for the win.

And not to forget, being grateful for the closest friends and family who always have my back, is also an important thing, because it really re-enforces the brain to believe that yes, I do have my people, who will love me no matter what. Doing things that you love, for example a hobby that you used to love as a child, restarting it in adulthood or teenage will make your inner child feel safer and more loved than anything.

Q4. How do you feel when you consider about your 1st day ( with 1 subscriber)and Today (girl it is 80K! )

Omg, first of all AKSKSSKKSK yeah it feels surreal, and tbh I genuinely didn’t think my writing was worth reading, I never considered myself a writer, at max I was a notes-app poet, but truly this platform has given me the golden opportunity to connect with, inspire & be inspired by so many people.

I also at a point of time had imposter syndrome back in April-May 2025, and just couldn’t get out of the writer’s block that had caused me to not write for almost 2 months, but Kshitij, one of the first few people who read my articles from day 1 aka 4th March 2025, and truly complimented my writing, also helped me see, that I was very much deserving of all the praise and appreciation that I got for my writing, and I truly can’t thank him enough for that.

At times, life does get busy but writing on substack made me realise, how important it is to get back into the whimsy, and truly put your work out there no matter what the judgement is. And am so so grateful to have sucha supporting and loving audience. Thank you so much for being here.

Q5. Did you ever feel like you should stop posting? If you did what kept you going?

Yes, as mentioned in the previous answer, I do tend to get busy, have creative slumps and writers block but I guess its in the art of writing that just urges you to randomly get back into it, and without knowing you’ve written 3 drafts on a random Tuesday.

Something what keeps me going however, is certainly my impulsiveness, as I tend to get struck by an article idea or some inspo for my drafts and I just devote 1-2hrs in just making it come to life & posting it here at the weirdest times like 10:43pm lmao. I think people who feed into your creative ideas and truly make your vision come to life just by having a chat or bombarding them with 5 voicenotes are also essential, and who better to thank for than my good friend Siddharth Singh Bapna , love u man, keep slaying.

Q6. What made you decide to start writing on substack? What made you discover this app?

Okay true story, I was prepping for my second year finals in late February this year, and had freshly deleted Instagram, and I came across Anna Howard’s youtube video where she mentions Substack, her fav writers and how she has also been writing here since a few months. As someone who wanted to consume content but in a more non-brainrotty and intellectual way, Substack sparked my curiosity and 10 days in, I knew I wanted to start writing here too, not to be seen by a lot of people or to gain a lot of subs, but truly just for my own love for expressing things in words, and I still remember writing and publishing my first ever essay after coming back from my AEC exam on 4th March, 2025, and just like that my Substack journey had started.

Q7. What made you decide to finally start penning down your thoughts so that it can be guide or a diary for you?

Hmm, I think most of my writing has been a kinda guide to certain problems that I’ve faced on a daily basis in my own life and its also because that’s what comes naturally to me, either poetically expressing the things I see or experience or gently guide someone on a problem by providing them with solutions while making them feel seen and heard. Back in March this year, the overwhelming amount of things I wanted to say via my writing here, was what made me finally wanna pen it all down and I am so grateful that I took that step.

Q8. Any advice you would give for dealing with writer’s block/perfectionism/struggling to start writing even if you have an idea? x

Q9. What’s the biggest struggle you find here?

I’d like to answer both these questions collectively. So the biggest struggle for me certainly is perfectionism, and even if I have an amazing topic and sub-topics for my article, I still sometimes tend to procrastinate on writing it all down, because of the nauseating fear that someone in the world won’t think this topic or what I have to say about it is at all relevant, and even if I do write it all down, the urge to keep on re-phrasing things, so that it sounds even better, just kills the whimsy of the writer. But I do have certain advices for writers on substack, and they’re as follows:

• Your art doesn’t have to be perfect, make it exist first and you can improve it later.

• Please please please use catchy but whimsically intriguing titles that makes people wanna read your work. And if possible make your audience feel seen and heard through your work, this builds a mutual trust between the writer and their audience.

• Whenever in a writer’s block, talk to your creative friends, understand their perspective, how they see and feel about their art and how they passionately express themselves through their art.

• Also, pls do journal about your thoughts, as you sure as hell can't write an article if your brain is upset at the fact that someone in your class criticised your outfit (honestly to hell with that person lmao).

• Try going on poetry-watching solo dates, where you just take a walk or sit at a park, and observe people do their mundane tasks, but through a lens of poetry, and then try to write or describe the scene in a poetic or descriptive format. I tend to do this whenever on my way back home from college.

• And at the end of the day, take rest, sometimes our brain and body are just so exhausted, that you just don’t possess the energy to think of the creative stuff and the process of it all. So please be gentle on yourself and don’t overthink the numbers, your audience will find you one day, just keep writing.

Thank you so much for all the lovely questions, am so thankful to have such loving people read my articles, tysm for existing.

Remember you’re always loved <3

xoxo

Shreya