Jeffrey! I won't be "in shape" for this Camino on Day 1 but I know the walk itself is what will shape me. My biggest concern is leaving my Substack, and Substack itself, alone for a week! I am in the middle of my 2023 journey over there and of course I think it is fair to readers and to myself to take a week away from that series but I am just not sure how to let readers know that I am gone and will be back. A note the week ahead? A super-quick newsletter while I am out? I mean I don't even want to be checking the app for replies, comments, etc. I welcome your thoughts (in a DM if more appropriate).
All concerns to address, knowing that some things we can plan for while others we cannot. How about writing your post in advance and scheduling it to go live at the same time as always? This way, life will appear to go on like normal, even though there are few things normal in walking the Camino!
Ahhh Jeffrey you don’t know (or maybe you do! You must certainly do!) know what it takes for me to produce one of these posts! It is maybe 20 hours of thinking, feeling, writing, letting it sit, revising, letting it sit some more, revising, digging, deepening. In other words: time! And work!
I thought I would get about 5-6 posts ahead (ha!) and right now I have just 2.5 banked. In order for me to do the entire France trip (I leave Aug 25) and have the buffer time afterward to not race to get out a post, I wanted to get at least 5 done. So I will have at least 3. The 4th will be one of the harder ones I write which is why I can’t just write it. 😢
I think maybe I will do a post about being on pilgrimage the week we are actually on pilgrimage, and then rerun one of my older topical posts the following week.
I Hope not to lose people. I hope that being transparent about all of it, including the fact that I will be offline entirely the pilgrimage week, will keep up the goodwill.
My subscribers and most regular readers/commenters have been so loyal and generous and just so good to me … I hope and believe they will understand. Everyone needs a break, after all!
I do know what those posts take. Anyone who reads your writing can see the 20 hours in them.
Here is what I notice in your plan, though. You have already solved it. A pilgrimage post during the pilgrimage week, an older piece the week after, and the honest truth to your readers about being offline. That is not a compromised schedule. That is a writer telling her subscribers the truth about her life, which is the thing they subscribed to in the first place.
The readers who have been loyal and generous will not leave because you walked. Some of them may be quietly glad to see someone actually take the rest they keep not taking themselves.
One thing to hold as August 25 approaches. There is a quiet irony in writing 20-hour weeks to protect the schedule so that you can go take a rest. The walk is not an interruption of your writing life. It is the time for yourself that made you want to walk at all, and it does not need to be earned in advance. If the 4th post does not come before you leave, it will still be there when you return, and it may be a different, better post for what the walking gives it.
Bring less than you think you need. That includes banked posts.
Thank you. I don't know why I needed to hear that from someone else but ... thank you. (And thank you for your validation of the time involved in writing! I know others do this as well, so I know that I am in good company.)
Jeffrey! I won't be "in shape" for this Camino on Day 1 but I know the walk itself is what will shape me. My biggest concern is leaving my Substack, and Substack itself, alone for a week! I am in the middle of my 2023 journey over there and of course I think it is fair to readers and to myself to take a week away from that series but I am just not sure how to let readers know that I am gone and will be back. A note the week ahead? A super-quick newsletter while I am out? I mean I don't even want to be checking the app for replies, comments, etc. I welcome your thoughts (in a DM if more appropriate).
All concerns to address, knowing that some things we can plan for while others we cannot. How about writing your post in advance and scheduling it to go live at the same time as always? This way, life will appear to go on like normal, even though there are few things normal in walking the Camino!
Ahhh Jeffrey you don’t know (or maybe you do! You must certainly do!) know what it takes for me to produce one of these posts! It is maybe 20 hours of thinking, feeling, writing, letting it sit, revising, letting it sit some more, revising, digging, deepening. In other words: time! And work!
I thought I would get about 5-6 posts ahead (ha!) and right now I have just 2.5 banked. In order for me to do the entire France trip (I leave Aug 25) and have the buffer time afterward to not race to get out a post, I wanted to get at least 5 done. So I will have at least 3. The 4th will be one of the harder ones I write which is why I can’t just write it. 😢
I think maybe I will do a post about being on pilgrimage the week we are actually on pilgrimage, and then rerun one of my older topical posts the following week.
I Hope not to lose people. I hope that being transparent about all of it, including the fact that I will be offline entirely the pilgrimage week, will keep up the goodwill.
My subscribers and most regular readers/commenters have been so loyal and generous and just so good to me … I hope and believe they will understand. Everyone needs a break, after all!
I do know what those posts take. Anyone who reads your writing can see the 20 hours in them.
Here is what I notice in your plan, though. You have already solved it. A pilgrimage post during the pilgrimage week, an older piece the week after, and the honest truth to your readers about being offline. That is not a compromised schedule. That is a writer telling her subscribers the truth about her life, which is the thing they subscribed to in the first place.
The readers who have been loyal and generous will not leave because you walked. Some of them may be quietly glad to see someone actually take the rest they keep not taking themselves.
One thing to hold as August 25 approaches. There is a quiet irony in writing 20-hour weeks to protect the schedule so that you can go take a rest. The walk is not an interruption of your writing life. It is the time for yourself that made you want to walk at all, and it does not need to be earned in advance. If the 4th post does not come before you leave, it will still be there when you return, and it may be a different, better post for what the walking gives it.
Bring less than you think you need. That includes banked posts.
See you soon.
"it does not need to be earned in advance."
Thank you. I don't know why I needed to hear that from someone else but ... thank you. (And thank you for your validation of the time involved in writing! I know others do this as well, so I know that I am in good company.)
That sentence is easy to say to someone else and nearly impossible to say to ourselves, which is most of why we need each other.
Yes, the hours are real, and the company is good. In two weeks, we get to walk together instead of type.