8 Questions for... Erica Drayton

Spotlight on Erica Drayton Writes

Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash

Erica Drayton

is queen of 💯 word stories. She says, “I started writing fiction almost immediately after my mother taught me how to read. The idea of words creating worlds fascinated me. I became a sponge for books and movies and television shows and art. At this stage in my life, I’m looking at my creative work as an extension of myself; the kind of self that is being immortalized in digital form for you and others to read. No longer are my words and worlds kept inside a notebook and ultimately discarded over time. My dreams are becoming a reality with each passing day, and every one of you who make the decision to subscribe and read my work is a part of that reality, a part of my dreams.”

1. Why Substack?

It’s hard to believe that it’s been over 3 years since I found Substack. It honestly feels like it was only yesterday until I look at just how much my Substack has changed from Day One to today. I joined at a time in my creative life when using Mailchimp just wasn’t cutting it for me. I was actively looking for someplace else to move my work, my emails, just everything. I had Patreon but that place always seemed like what you use after you’ve built up the fanbase and can easily direct followers there. Mailchimp changed its business model to be more about the marketing of email and less about their user base. As I’ve never made any kind of real financial dents with my creative work to afford paying Mailchimp for their services I knew I had to jump ship. Only problem was that most every other Mailchimp copy was exactly the same, each with their own level of “free” that was worse than the next. Then one day I happened to see an advertisement for a free webinar where one of the discussion panels would be interviewing Elle Griffin, who would be discussing Substack (among other creative social platforms). At the time I had never heard about Substack. But my quick typing took me to Google and within the next 24hrs I had managed to export my list from Mailchimp and import it to Substack. At the time, Substack didn’t have nearly as many bells and whistles as it has today which was something I loved. It seamlessly took three platforms that I used independently and combines them all into one place: WordPress (blog), Mailchimp (email), and Patreon (paid subscriptions). At the time, I was honestly looking for a place to move my email list where I didn’t have to worry about having to pay if my list got to a certain size. I never imagined that the place I found would also allow me the freedoms to combine my blog and paid subscriptions all into one place! It was the single best decision I could’ve made for my fiction writing and I can honestly say I have written more fiction these last three years than I had in the ten years before Substack.

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

In many ways I feel like I am still trying to find my groove. I think that’s because Substack is still trying to find their groove as well with all the new features they are constantly adding and small tweaks they are making. Every time a new Substack Feature is announced I ask myself “should I use it?” And if I answer ‘yes,’ then I try to decide how and what impact that will have on what I’ve already been doing. Lately, my answer has been ‘no’ to their features just because I still haven’t found my groove! And I know I need to! I can’t allow myself to be distracted by every bell and whistle, otherwise I could fall into a trap of producing less content. Would it be nice to incorporate vertical videos along with my stories? Sure. But what would I be sacrificing of my creative process that was doing just fine before this feature came along? Too much! Right now I would say my groove is found in my consistency. When I was on Mailchimp I was only sending out one email per month giving an update on the work I was producing on my blog (WordPress) and longer fiction I shared with my paying patrons (Patreon). All of that juggling was difficult to manage and I wasn’t as consistent as I would’ve liked. But now that I’m on Substack I’ve had three years of being consistent. Sure, I’ve started new projects and ideas that I didn’t see through to completion but that is the life of a creative person. Constantly pushing ourselves beyond our own expectations. Something that is only possible because of Substack giving me the space to do it all in one place.

3. How has it changed you? 

I am much more intentional now. The timeline between when an idea comes to me and when I send that idea out to my email list is much faster. There is less time spent wondering where I should write my idea, who should see it, how will I implement it. When everything can happen under one roof, more things can happen. I also think that because I’m writing more, my storytelling ideas have vastly improved. I don’t think I would ever have taken the bold step to write a 100 word story every single day (until the end of time at this point) if not for Substack giving me the ability to do it without regrets about where to share it and who may or may not see it. Now I look forward to putting all of my ideas on Substack first and that’s it. The element of “where else” should it go has completely left my thinking process. I am just being creative and who knew Substack was all I ever needed.

4. What mistakes have you made? 

Oh boy, mistakes are my bread and butter. Without them I wouldn’t know what works! But I will share what I think was my first mistake and one I wish I knew before I started on Substack: Putting all of “me” in one publication (aka basket). When I started on Substack I created, I think it was 9 different publications? And that was because, at the time, Substack actually had a cap on how many publications you could create. They don’t now. I wanted to have my 100 Word Stories separate from my monthly updates, and my serial or short stories separate, and then there was my love of Star Trek and gaming. Everything had its own publication. And at the time I thought that was best. Don’t confuse people. But it ended up confusing me more than anything! It took me about a year before I realized all of those things are me and therefore should all be together. Let the reader decide what they do or don’t want to see, instead of asking them to subscribe to multiple newsletters. After all, Substack has Sections for this very reason and I’ll admit I wasn’t using them properly in the early stages. But since then, Substack has also added Tags and created another level of organization that I now make sure to take quick advantage of. And any time I come up with some new hobby of mine that I want to write about, I am not so quick to create a new publication. I just create a new Section under my main Substack and do it there. Which leads me to my second biggest mistake that I notice other Substack users do as well and that’s not organizing my Substack better from the start. Sure, there are some new features that I’m constantly going back to implement to past posts from time to time. But on the whole, things like Sections, Tags, and Pages should be buttoned up from the start. But I’m impulsive. I act first and think later. That doesn’t always work in every aspect of being a creative person. Sometimes it’s worth it to sit on an idea and make sure it’s the right decision first before just implementing it and regretting it later. Playing devil’s advocate a little on myself, at the same time, nothing ever came from standing still on an idea. What makes Substack so great is that it allows us to make mistakes but never shoot ourselves in the foot with it. We can just keep on as we have without fear of losing subscribers or an audience.

5. To pay or not to pay? 

When I started on Substack I was squarely on the “not to pay” bandwagon. I just didn’t see the point. Personally, I was in that camp because I was having way too much fun having this new outlet that was letting me play and be creative in ways I never experienced before. But after about 18 months of fun I realized my fun was still amounting to a lot of work too. I also noticed that there were others around me also producing content and having fun but what separated them from me was their paid subscriptions were on the whole time. I sometimes wonder if I waited too long to make this transition? Would I have more paid subscribers if I had it on right from the start? I’ll never know. But what I do know is that now I am on the “to pay” bandwagon 1,000%. Now, whenever I come up with a new idea that showcases my storytelling I immediately know it will go behind a paywall. And I don’t feel guilty about it like I used to. I try to keep a healthy balance of my work available for newcomers to discover but the parts of me that are the most time-consuming go behind the paywall. Another great metric I like to use when deciding what goes behind the paywall and what doesn’t is whether or not I intend to do something more with what I’m putting out. Meaning, if my short stories will eventually become a book I’m going to sell online, then it will go behind a paywall. Versus my non-fiction tips and topics emails about my writing journey which will always just remain on Substack. These kinds of emails can be free-for-all. 

6. What artistic and technical choices have you made? 

I’m not artistic, at all. This is evidenced by my ever-changing logo and cover photo and word mark on Substack. I’m just never satisfied and therefore I’m always changing it. I’m also not very good with color schemes at all. And on the technical side I am a work in progress. I am always trying to stick with my motto of “less is more” and trying to figure out a way to make my Substack less cumbersome for newcomers. It’s not easy to do, especially with how often I create new Sections, but I’ve seen it done by others and know it’s possible. One change I’ve made recently, specifically about Sections, is whenever I create a new one, I uncheck the boxes that pertain to adding my list to this section or adding any newcomers to this section as well. I do this because I know that my Ideas may not appeal to everyone and may just annoy them. Instead, I will make an announcement about the new Section and instruction on how they can Opt-In to the Section if they want to follow me on this new journey. It means that I’ll only have a few dozen or so who receive that email in the beginning, but that’s okay. If it’s a Section I feel is going to stay, I can always go into the back-end and change the settings so that my full list and any newcomers receive these emails later on down the line.

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

I would say I write way more than I ever have because of Substack. The level of freedom I have to come up with an idea in the morning and by the afternoon have it written and ready to hit the “publish” button is unlike any other time in my life that I can remember. Looking back when I first had a newsletter, my only frame of reference for it were other authors who typically only sent out monthly updates (if that) but never their actual fiction writing. I always thought fiction was meant for a blog and that’s it. But ever since Substack, I see a space where I can combine my blog with my updates and now I do 100% of my writing on Substack.

8. In it for the long haul? 

For now, I am. I say for now because I know that all things are fleeting. Substack is a safe haven, especially for the tight-knit fiction community, but for how long? Is it possible they could end up going the route of Mailchimp and force me to leave? Yes. I think about that all the time and this fear made me create an entire back-up of Substack on my personal website in case that day should come. In the meantime, I’m working on building community within the Substack echo-system for fellow fiction travellers, such as myself, who are looking to be seen and read. I’m in awe of just how many of us there are and having the opportunity to discover the many fiction writers as often as I do because of the tools at my disposal from Substack, is worth the time I spend here. So, as long as Substack remains on this path, I am willing to continue my creative journey here too.

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Erica Drayton