Just the other day we were chatting about reciprocity in being active readers/participants in our subscribers’ lives. We touched on the statistics part and I said I don’t really look at the dashboard because it makes me sad. I feel constantly that I don’t do enough, don’t read enough of your work. I owe you. Then yesterday I was ranting a bit here about having to push our stuff out… and whatnot:
After this just 2 days ago and after spending considerable amount of time writing notes and reading and listening, I wandered into my dashboard this morning again. Not to look at who read and opened what specifically, but out of pure curiosity. I checked how my subscriber and follower numbers changed lately. Here is what I found. In the dropdown section of new subscribers I found that half of you who joined me in the past three weeks, did so through my notes. There was someone through recommendation, but that site was also mine. And the other half came through ‘other’ means. Whatever other means. ;)
This made me think about what it is that I can give. What did I do this month that caught your attention. It makes me happy because I know the answer to that question. I know the motivation behind my actions.
I’ll continue lifting up and share what I find beautiful.
Thank you for the trust and patience and your support. All of you who subscribe to any of the publications that I am involved with and those who follow.
And to be true to one of my notes from yesterday: I’ll do a bit of a self-promotion on top of the thank you that I owe you all.:
This is what I told Sean after I shared Little boats on the sea of words,
which was inspired by a piece that I read and has been written by an author, who is here on Substack. It was a part of an online review that later I shared on Amazon.:
What it’s like (being bilingual) - I die for these moments.
“It’s like two different people in the same body. One is natural, the other takes more effort. But if I think about it, similarly with what I was trying to grasp here in this little snippet of writing, different styles of writing have different effects on me. Clearly I enjoy poetry very much and I haven’t read too many novels (classics) lately (in Hungarian), but poetry can hit that tender spot easier and faster maybe, though I had that heart-stopping feeling while reading poetry in English, too.”
”It's one thing for someone to express themselves accurately in everyday life situations, and it can cause another level of enjoyment when someone speaks so beautifully by choosing a wide variety of words to express themselves. That can cause me immense pleasure to listen to with the purpose of refreshing knowledge and learning from them.”
Yesterday I said: nobody is going to advocate for you unless you do it yourself first. I learned that lesson early on in life (not on Substack). And that’s why I always stood up for myself (even when it wasn’t popular - it rarely is), if I wanted to survive or God forbid thrive.
Later, even though I was in a disadvantaged position in most cases at the starting point, upon realizing them they transformed from being liabilities into assets.
Something that I’ve been doing subconsciously for many years, now I do it consciously.
As I said it in September: I am support.
Support for myself and support for as many as possible. And even though I might not be able to express myself in such a beautifully lyrical manner as you are able to (in writing or in spoken English), I’ll try. In the meantime I’ll bring your voice to the forefront through the publications I am involved in and through my different accounts. Because it causes me pleasure to read and I want all of you to feel that way, when you read these pieces, too. To share all the fantastic work, that I come across.
Thank you for teaching me something new continuously and causing me immense happiness with your writing and for being in my circles.
If you’d like to be around fantastic women and read from them in the forms of articles and poems, listen to/watch their lives, partake in friendly poetry competitions, please check out Women’s Perspective, our online magazine, discussing women-related subjects since October every week.
Team members are Annette Sharp Michelle Ried Emma Steel and Harriet at WP.
If you’d like to be part of a community that highlights short stories, our favorites (current or all time) from fellow Substackers, please look up Short Stories and Tales. A variety of stories have already emerged there in its short, approximately 3 weeks long life. It’s not about writing for a prompt, it’s a stage to get already written, beautiful pieces into the spotlight to shine, with some prizes each month.
If you just came across this article by accident, then please check out my home: HC Tales, where I have the majority of my articles and poems and novella available as well, here on Substack. Most of these published pieces are only accessible here, although my novella and a few poems are also available on my website.
As an integral part of me (my upbringing) is apologizing. So being true to myself I apologize: I am sorry if this post is a bit too long. I don’t do this often as I personally don’t like being in the forefront, but I felt I needed to thank all of you for all your hard work, your attention and patience and invite you to be part of both WP and Short Stories and Tales.
Please subscribe and hopefully see you (and your work) soon!
Next WP live is tomorrow, on March 21st, at noon Eastern Time. Please join to watch if you have time.
Thank you!
Harriet Corvine