8 Questions for... Anna Schott

She's Gone Chilaquiles

Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash

Anna Schott

writes the Substack She’s Gone Chilaquiles where she is attempting to serialize her memoir. She is the author of The End by Fanny Middleton.

 

1.     Why Substack?

I started writing about ten years ago but was interrupted by motherhood, menopause, and the pandemic. Last year my kid started school and I found myself with the time and energy to write again. I started sharing little things here and there on Facebook--which felt good, but didn’t get any traction. My cool young niece Torre suggested I try Substack. “Why don’t you use Substack?” she asked, annoyed. “Sub-who?” I replied, old. But I signed up, hoping it would be something to hold me accountable––a way to encourage myself to write regularly, and, with any luck--to be read.

2.     How long did it take you to find your groove? 

A year. I guess a groove for me just means writing and posting as it comes. Not worrying too much about it. Not forcing anything. Yeah! Free flowing, easy-sleazy. Initially I didn’t quite know what I was doing or what to make of the response. I worried I would fuck it up somehow. It took about a year to relax enough to have this more comfortable attitude. 

3.     How has it changed you?

I feel much more confident about writing. When people first started reading and commenting I actually thought it must be …a mistake? I couldn’t make sense of it. I’d submitted stuff to lit mags hundreds of times without being published and it was demoralizing. But on Substack people were reading my shit and liking it! I remember saying “it’s because I put a good photo on my profile,” to my husband and he was like “no, it’s because of the writing,” and I was like “that doesn’t make any sense.” Just super jaded. Before I joined Substack I had taken my self-published book of essays to the local bookstore hoping they’d agree to consign it, but as I was leaving I overheard one clerk telling the other “I guess I’ll check it out but I can already tell it won’t be good.” Fuck! But I don’t care about that clerk anymore. And I don’t care about being published anymore. I mean, it would be nice, but I get the validation I need from writing on Substack.

4.     What mistakes have you made?

All of them? At first, I posted too often. Then I started comparing stats. Then I became obsessed with likes. Okay, I still am.

5.     To pay or not to pay?

Pay if you want to or can. I’m happy paying for a few Substacks. They are valuable to me and I wish I could pay for more. Of course when it comes to my own writing it feels beyond audacious to ask people for money, but I did anyway and it’s ok! I haven’t yet been fired or run out of town.

6.     What artistic and technical choices have you made?

I’m technologically challenged so just swinging by the pants of my skin. Or the hair of my teeth. Or something. Early on, I talked to the wonderful Sarah Fay, who gave me a few invaluable suggestions about setting up my profile, but other than that it’s pretty much been balls to the wind. 

7.     What’s been the effect on your writing?

It’s better, I hope. It’s easier. I’ve been learning to edit (requires sending out a newsletter first) and sometimes I literally take a step back––like actually move away from the writing and look at it as shapes on the screen––and move paragraphs around, which always feels like magic. 

Before I started writing I was a musician. I learned to play music by ear and that’s how I write––by ear and by mimicry; my writing tends to take on the cadence or tone of whatever I’m reading--which usually just means it sounds like Wodehouse, don’t you know. But since joining Substack it’s been all over the place, because I'm reading so many different authors all the time now. I feel a little like Eric Carle's Mixed-up Chameleon. 

8.     In it for the long haul?

      Yes ma'am.

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