I had a meeting with my Substack and this is what it said

I started my Substack only a few months ago but it’s already been working its magic on me.

I don’t mean that I’ve gained a lot of subscribers or made lots of money or received a lot of attention. I haven’t.

What I have done is unravel another layer of misinformation and malpractice within myself that needed to go.

This has been a 20+ year project, which began when I became a parent, has involved lots of tantrums and ‘I don’t want to change, you can’t make me’ moments, but has slowly worn me down, in a good way.

Over this last stretch of my life and career, I’ve closed down my online parenting business and my psychology private practice, and I’ve returned to my true love, writing.

Because I had a significant birthday. Because I’d had enough of lying to myself. Because it was now or never.

I starting writing my young adult novels, two written so far in a series. The process has been delightfully easeful, wildly creative, and deeply nourishing.

Then I received the inner nudge to start a Substack, a platform I’d been monitoring because of the intimacy and realness that seemed to be breeding here.

But what would my Substack be about? What would be its focus?

I had an immediate answer: Well, you hate being on other social media so this should be your space to create a platform.

And since you write YA, let’s support young writers. Remember when you were a young writer and you didn’t have the support you needed? Yes, I do. Well, there’s a need, you can help, use your psychology and your writing to help.

Great idea!

My Substack began as Hey Young Writers, focusing on helping young writers to understand themselves, overcome their writing blocks and unlock their creative potential.

It was great! Until, it wasn’t. I received the inner nudge that it wasn’t quite right.

Okay…so what should my Substack be about now? What should be the focus?

I had a session with Sarah Fay and we explored using my Substack to connect YA writers and readers.

Great idea!

My business parts loved that! They got busy. Let’s call it Hey, YA. You’re still building a platform for your books and you’re also providing a hub for YA writers and readers, young and adult. We’ll focus on writing, reading and wellbeing.

It was great! Until, it wasn’t. I received the inner nudge that my Substack wasn’t quite right.

By now, my business parts were getting frustrated. We came up with two great ideas and you don’t like them? What’s the problem!

Here’s the problem.

I started this Substack as a creative project. I wanted to return to my writing and I wanted to write shorter, non-book length pieces, and share them.

This was never meant to be a business project, not at its core. And that’s what I’d created - twice.

It was the wrong approach.

Time for a meeting with my Substack, which had been waiting patiently for me to make an appointment. I asked, what do you need from me?

My Substack said, ‘Wait, Jodie. Sit in the creative void and see what emerges. This is a creative project, after all. Just as you sit in the creative void when you write your books, you need to do the same here.’

Oh, really. Okay.

A week later, I had another meeting with my Substack, asking, what do you want to be about?

My Substack said, ‘I’m here to help you with that vision of yours to place healing at the heart of storytelling.’

Oh, wow. I love that.

A week later, I had another meeting with my Substack, asking, what do you want me to write, exactly?

My Substack said, ‘Create space for writing and allow the writing to flow. Don’t worry about thematic categories and a colour coded content calendar. Trust and allow.’

Great! I can do that.

That’s what I’m doing right now, sitting on my balcony on a spring afternoon, surrounded by bird song, writing this piece to share.

About making space for a creative spark. About the importance of listening to our creative projects and honouring what they need from us. About writing for creative and not business purposes if that’s what’s requested.

All good, we could proceed.

But then I had dinner with a dear friend and she pointed out how amazingly vibrant and clever my business parts are. Don’t banish them, she said. Just allow them to work more harmoniously with your writing parts.

Of course!

Time for another meeting my with my Substack and this time I needed to invite in my writing and business parts too.

Okay, so my Substack is about helping to place healing at the heart of storytelling. That means that the writing can be story based. Instead of explicitly teaching about healing, we can weave stories.

Oooh. That’s when my business parts got excited. They hadn’t realised that we were switching over to a new modus operandi.

In the past, we’d done so much explicit teaching - creating programs, running workshops, giving keynotes. We knew how to do that. We were good at it.

But this was a new direction, a different way. My business parts got it instantly!

Yes, of course storytelling is powerful. Yes, of course, that’s what you’re already doing with your novels. So yes, of course, it makes sense to do a version of that here.

So that’s what we’re doing. My Substack is now called Hey, You, and it’s about placing healing at the heart of storytelling.

Because that’s what my Substack is. Because that’s what my Substack wants to be. Because, it’s absolutely, unquestionably, categorically time.