It’s the Frysbetter Nysletter!
Listen, I’ve deleted nearly all social media off my phone. The only feeds I check now (on my phone) are YouTube and the Substack twitterlike feed. What’s it called? Let me check… I guess it’s just called Substack.
Probably because it’s comprised of mostly writerly people, the Substack feed is MOSTLY great! (It could just be who I choose to follow, but I suspect it draws a certain demographic).
But two things I see a lot of on there are:
Discourse about how to get more Substack subscribers
Complaints about too much discourse about how to get more Substack subscribers
I completely understand the desire for a following, the curiosity of how to do it, and the excitement when you start to find one. BUT…
It’s boring content. It’s always been boring content but it’s even more boring these days when SO many people have followings.
Most people that care about audience growth are people who are trying to get audience growth. Most other people just want something to twiddle their minds.
Talk about followers, growth, influencer careers, etc. is inside baseball stuff. YES, there are exceptions and seeing others succeed can make for good content. Also, talking about the popularity of certain things can be interesting context. But numbers themselves are usually kinda lame.
All of this discourse called to mind certain semi-conscious rules I try to follow when I make stuff. Some have been rules I’ve always followed, some have been absorbed as I’ve advanced in this weird career. First rule
Avoid content about content. Meaning, avoid talk about my own career growth or meta-analysis. Of course I break this rule sometimes. THIS VERY POST and many of my newsletter posts actually break this rule somewhat.
(But I tell myself that the newsletter can be whatever the hell I want it to be. It’s not my main thing.)
It’s tempting to talk about this stuff because this stuff is my life! Most creators of things are surrounded by the business of the thing they’re creating. It’s why so many Hollywood movies are about writers and actors and directors. And Oscar winners tend to be movies about Hollywood. It’s what the award deciders know the most about.
But it’s a snake eating its own tail. And I try to avoid it. And I fail often.Don’t rely on audience suggestions. This is certainly not the norm, from what I see. I see a lot of creators asking what to do next. I never do this. Of course, I read comments and take constructive feedback to heart, but I want to come up with my own topics, my own style, my own purpose on my own.
Why? I don’t want to go down the road of simply taking orders. I’ll lose myself. I’ll probably be unhappy because I won’t know what I even want to do. If I feel the urge to ask what to do next I take that as a sign that I probably need a break. I need to do some soul searching.
And if I’m just doing what the audience wants am I making any progress? I always thing about the anecdote, true or not, that in the time before the automobile everyone wanted a “faster horse”. You need an innovator to come along to give people what they don’t know they want.Pacing is everything. This may mostly apply to video editing, but I try to keep it in mind for newsletter posts and such, too. I won’t try to pad things out for runtime. I try my best to keep things concise and to the point. Get the info out as fast as is understandable.
I will leave in pauses and slower moments if it adds something. But if I don’t see a reason… I CUT IT!!!!
I see pushback against this these days. People love to complain about fast talking or about and the “decline of attention span” or whatever. Sure, I see things that seem annoyingly fast. But it’s a pretty high bar to get into “too fast” territory for me. I’m more often annoyed by things that are too slow, especially movies and TV shows.
A lot of youtube videos and podcasts get a pass because it’s usually a small team of people and an intense upload schedule. Plus, conversational pace is a nice way to convey realism and show that you’re truly unscripted. That’s a specific type of content. But for my main channel videos, I don’t want to be unnecessarily slow!Nothing’s original. I have to keep reminding myself this. I’ve made two identical videos about it.
I will sometimes fall into the trap of not doing things because so many others have already done them (or I have). That has ALWAYS been the case. Just do a new version. Or an old version. No one cares. (Well some care. screw ‘em.)
Those are the ones that came to mind. I probably have more but I’ll stop here in the interest of good pacing. I hope I twiddled your mind.
Craig
Thanks, Craig.
This content-centric content will really help me grow my audience.
Consider my mind twiddled.