8 Questions for... Ingrid Haring Mendes
The Tears of a Painter
In TOAP, writes around the world of fiction. She is working on a serialized novel called The Tears of a Painter here on Substack, which is about the life of a painter in the late 20th century East Africa. She also writes about what she’s currently enjoying in the world of books, culture and celebrating fellow writers.
1. Why Substack?
Writing can get lonely, especially if you’re working on something longer like a novel. I’m a slow writer. It takes me a couple of years to get to the point where I feel comfortable sharing a draft, and then another couple of years were the novel to get picked up by a traditional publisher. I had so many people asking me where they could read my work? I was at the point where I needed to put myself out there and share what I had created. Now I can just direct them to Substack.
Plus, I must add, I’m all for creating and encouraging multiple ways a writer can publish their fiction. Not everyone for whatever reason makes it past the gatekeepers. Does that mean the world doesn’t deserve to read their work? Absolutely not. I was thrilled to discover Substack. I wish I would have found it earlier.
2. How long did it take you to find your groove?
I don’t think I’m at the point yet where I can say: yes, I’ve found my groove. I’m fairly new to Substack and still experimenting— especially when it comes to fiction. Serializing a novel on Substack is challenging; chapters aren’t stand alone pieces. A new reader has to go all the way back to the first chapter to fully understand the story, which means they need the time to read. I’d say that is the biggest challenge.
3. How has it changed you?
Writing on Substack has made me a bolder person and writer. But— at the same time, it’s nerve wracking. When you’re writing a novel, in the beginning, the only people who read it are your writing group and the beta readers you send it to. On Substack, as soon as you hit publish, you’re in the hands of basically anyone. Now, I’m sharing my work with the rest of the world. For me that’s pretty life changing.
It’s exciting too: with fiction on Substack, there’s the possibility of instant feedback. If a reader has a question they can easily ask it. I like to add that into the footnote of my emails: ask a question about the characters, the story or the setting and I’ll try to build it into my next chapter.
4. What mistakes have you made?
I wouldn’t really call them mistakes, more a case of trial and error or trying to figure out what works best.
On the mental health side: and I would call this one my biggest mistake, the one I hope no one else makes— being overly consumed with how well my pieces were performing. I’m new to Substack. I came to the platform without any imported subscribers. I’m writing serialized fiction. It goes without saying my growth would be slow. Readers wouldn’t just magically discover me. However, I didn’t see it that way. Whenever I published a piece, I’d check every five minutes for how well it was doing; who liked it; was it being restacked. Even when I did get a subscriber or complimentary messages from a subscriber on how much they enjoyed my work, I’d celebrate for a minute before moving on to the question of why I wasn’t growing fast enough. Please don’t make this mistake. If you take just one thing away from reading today’s 8 questions, please let this be the thing. My mental health definitely took a turn for the worse. It was childhood trauma replaying itself all over again. Luckily I talked myself out of it. Now I try to publish and then walk away. I still check my stats, but not obsessively. The important thing, for me at least, is that I’m writing and shipping. May I recommend a book by Seth Godin here: The Practice— Shipping Creative Work.
5. To pay or not to pay?
I firmly believe artists should be paid for their work. At the same time, I understand that if you come onto Substack without bringing an audience along, you have to build one, which means you can’t start paywalling your posts on day one. For now, I’ve given my readers a choice. My posts are free, but if they’d like to support me, they have the option of becoming a paid subscriber.
6. What technical choices have you made?
I’ve learned a lot of what I’ve implemented in my newsletter from going through this Series of 8 Questions and seeing what other writers of fiction do. If you’re new to writing fiction on Substack, it’s an excellent resource.
I'd say keep the post under 1000 words, but I often find that hard to do myself. When writing, I look at the "how long does it take to read" tab and start to panic when mine shows more than 5 mins. I try my hardest to trim it down. If I'm interviewing a writer it's often longer. My weekly updates are shorter, and fiction is somewhere in between.
And— write as though you're sending an email or a letter to someone.
7. What’s been the effect on your writing?
It’s made me a more consistent writer, although consistency is a work in progress for me, not so much with writing, but with publishing. I sometimes still go into utter panic about publishing a piece, then I’ll wait a day or two as I talk myself into it. I’m also a terrible perfectionist. Forcing myself to put work out there, helps me come to terms with knowing that no work will ever be perfect.
8. In it for the long haul?
Yes! I can’t wait to surprise my readers and myself for that matter with what’s to come. I know where my fiction is going, and I can’t wait for my readers to follow along. There’s some important history coming as a backdrop to the story that might not be so commonly read about. But I’m also openly curious about the non-fiction I plan to write.
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Another excellent interview. Such a good point about keeping posts at or around the 5 min mark. Attention is so hard to grab … and hold.
Thank you, Ingrid, for your insights. I must take note, especially of the mental health part!