Were this to publish on the next available Monday, per my promised schedule, it would show up in your email on Christmas day. So consider this an early Christmas present! The last edition of 2023!
At the beginning of this year, I set up some benchmarks in my 2023 Substack Goals article. I’m going to frame my review by going through those. The goals were as follows:
Continue to reliably post something every Monday, like clockwork.
Maintain a focus on technology.
Reach 100 subscribers.
So, how’d I do?
1. Reliably Post Every Monday: A-
I’m going to give myself a pretty good grade here. Not perfection, but still impressive. On some holiday weekends, I posted on Tuesday. That seems permissible. The quality of the posts did have some fluctuation, from week to week, but I’m still reasonably satisfied with all of them.
There was one weekend in the fall where I missed entirely. I beat myself up pretty good for that, but I’m not sure anybody even noticed. All in all, I did respectably well at publishing on-time, and consistently - especially considering I was operating with no “safety net” of stockpiled, pre-written, unpublished articles.
I very much enjoyed publishing an article per week. There was rarely a week where there wasn’t something on my mind to write about.
At the same time, while I’m not a full-fledged perfectionist, it bothers me a lot to ship things I absolutely know are flawed. I’m sure most of the articles I published this year could have gone up a significant level of quality if I just sat on them for a week. There were a lot of preventable errors: wrong uses of “there,” “their,” and “they’re,” over-use of particular words (such as, “particular”), even entire missing sentences, essential for added context, which I struck in editing, forgetting their original, intended utility.
All that stuff bothers me quite a bit. However, as they say, one ought never to allow the perfect to become the enemy of the mediocre. Better to ship a flawed piece, than none at all.
I’ve never written this prolifically for this long. Having tried it, I like it and want to continue. As a realist, though, looking at the schedule the George G family has lined up for 2024, I’m going to need to borrow from that bank account of writing time, and channel time toward more pressing, practical, logistical life challenges.
On the other hand, I’m not going to say, “I’ll pause writing for 6 months, and then come back when things slow down,” because, for one, I know things won’t slow down, and two, writing’s pretty good for me. The time spent organizing my thoughts and nurturing my creativity, pays dividends in my work and family life.
So instead of entirely shelving this for 2024, I’m going reduce the commitment to publishing monthly. On the side, I’ll work on innovating with my schedule to see if I can write faster and/or carve out new time slots for writing. I want to get back to that once-a-week commitment for 2025, but I need to get more efficient before that can happen.
2. Maintain a Focus on Technology: C
This was a mixed bag. I did a better job of focusing on technology during the first half of the year. Getting attention on an episode of MKBHD’s podcast (albeit for deliberately non-tech related reasons) was an encouraging start. While it translated to zero subscribers, it was good for morale, as an aspiring tech writer, to get sort of shouted out on what I consider the best tech show.
With that momentum, I went through a phase where I had new devices on hand that I could review, and this was, for a moment, shaping up to be a real tech blog. But it got tiresome for me, for two reasons.
I simply don’t have access to a steady flow of the coolest tech toys. Tech writing would be a lot more of a passion project for me if I were within arms reach of cutting-edge, interesting stuff. But I’m just not. I can rarely do an actual review; mostly, I need to write opinions about current events in tech. Since I’m not any sort of credentialed, bona fide tech expert, I’m not finding an audience there. Furthermore, I don’t always feel like writing about tech news. It’s often forced for me, and that’s never a good recipe for results.
My one area of particular expertise is Chromebooks, but I’m convinced that’s a dead-end for writing. People don’t want to read about Chromebooks, and I can’t blame them. As I mentioned in an article a few weeks ago, there are two main Chromebook journalism outlets, and they are both in darkly comical obvious, public crisis. Many advice columns will encourage you to write about something that is a in a niche, but apparently, that Chrome OS niche is too small to find even 100 people on Substack.
As the year went on, it became clear that my tech focus was not leading to an accumulation of tech readers. It also became clear to me that my writing was better when I bent my rules, and wrote a little off topic. I took more satisfaction writing articles where I granted an exception to my tech rule, such as the one about the late Stinky (RIP, buddy), my WFH rant, or the California Severe Weather Update.
Obviously, I do occasionally get genuinely excited about the topic, but not enough to carry a year of work. I enjoyed writing more when I had greater freedom, and I think the results were better too. And so, I’ve drifted further and further away from that tech focus, and will drop it for 2024. I’m not sure exactly how to categorize this Substack next year. I guess “humor.” Or “complaining,” maybe?
3. Reach 100 Subscribers: D-
This should technically be a fail. Seems like a pass/fail class to me. But I’m upgrading to a D- because, in retrospect, I followed through nicely on a Substack blueprint that ought to deliver 100 subscribers.
I posted consistently, and frequently, at the recommended 1 per week rate.
I found an area of interest/expertise, and hammered away with relevant articles.
I engaged other writers on social media. Mostly Substack, and also on Twitter/X/Twix. In fact, I had daily quotas for interactions, and left fairly well thought-out comments on Substack, quite regularly. Also searched for similar publications to subscribe to and support.
I wrote quality articles, if I do say so myself. My writing is organized, and original. There are typos and stuff, as I mentioned above, but overall, I think my default, pre-programmed, out-of-the-box writing style is above-average.
I certainly was myself. “Be yourself” they say. While so many Substacks consist of the mere curating of other articles, my newsletter consistently delivered more than that. I think it was clear that none of this was written by an AI. I had my authentic “voice” and I’m proud of my own work.
All of that should have yielded results, in theory. Though there are no guarantees, I checked all the appropriate boxes to put myself in the best position to accumulate subscribers on this platform.
So that’s an interesting point. Any other struggling writers out there, let it be known; you’re not necessarily “doing it wrong.” You can follow the template to near perfection, and not move the needle. It’s just a recommended template, and not magic.
One thing that *may* have held me back from accumulating readers, is the fact that I’ve kept this project fairly private. I could probably go out and get another 50 subscribers in a week or so by flipping my Facebook back on, and posting a plea to follow me. But I prefer not to mix this blog up too much with my family and professional life. Otherwise, how am I supposed to gossip about family, friends, and the workplace on here?
I’m fairly easily doxxed; it’s never been my aim to be untraceable, and I don’t write anything severely controversial or inappropriate here. I’d just rather this Substack not be the first, second, or third thing potential employers find when they Google my full name. There’s also something I like about the idea of winning over complete and total strangers.
Bottom line, 100 subscribers was a goal, but fortunately, I do enjoy the writing for its own sake, I appreciate if even one or two people get enjoyment from this, and I would do it all again, knowing the results.
4. Bonus Goal: No Writing About Writing: F -
Last year’s 2023 article concluded with one, final, bonus goal:
“I’ll add Goal Number 4 right now: for the rest of 2023, no more writing about my writing!”
Well, crash-landing here with a full article indulging on writing about my writing. Total fail! But these introspective writing-about-writing articles actually travel pretty well on Substack, so who knows, maybe this will end up getting highlighted by the Substack powers that be.
Anyway, it’s been a lot of fun writing this thing, and hearing back from you throughout the year. Grateful for each reader, and looking forward to improving the publication in all aspects, over time. Merry Christmas, and I’ll be back next year!