#Substack for Writers

[mehmetyildizmelbourne-blog]

Free December Gift for Freelance Writers

Creating a Plan and Strategy to Boost Your Newsletters A Free Video and Audio Book Presentation of Substack Mastery Book for Your Enjoyment Dear Subscribers, Happy December! I hope this post finds you well. This month is very busy for me as I am helping our editors, updating all submission guidelines, and creating a new onboarding pack for 2025.  I will publish it soon as so many new writers…

[malusokay]

What's the point of a diary if you're not lying in it?

On Anaïs Nin, literary self-mythologizing, and why personal writing should always be slightly dishonest. (from my substack)

If you’re not lying in your diary, you’re just journaling, and journaling is for people who don’t know how to edit.

A diary is not a record of events; it is an act of creation. The best diarists know this instinctively. Anaïs Nin knew it better than anyone. Her diaries were not mere confessions but performances, half-lit mirrors where the truth shimmered, distorted but no less real.

Nin understood that life is not lived in a single register. Her diaries are a study in contradiction—one moment, she is in love; the next, repulsed. She is independent yet wholly consumed by those around her. But contradiction isn’t falsehood; it’s literature. She rewrote and edited her diaries, sculpting herself into the character she wanted to be. And is that really so dishonest?

People love to be outraged by the idea of a diary that is not entirely factual. But fact is not the same as truth. Diaries, at their best, are emotional truths, shaped by mood, by desire, by the need to impose a narrative on the chaos of daily life. Nin was not interested in being objective—she was interested in being immortal. She once wrote, “We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection.” But why stop at tasting? Why not rewrite, reshape, embellish? If we can curate the lives we present to others, why should we not do the same for the versions of ourselves we leave behind?

Nin herself was a master of this. She edited her diaries before publication, removing, refining, turning herself into a protagonist. She blurred lines, shifted timelines, made herself more alluring. She called it shaping reality. Others call it lying. The truth, of course, is that all personal writing is selective. Even in confession, there is curation.

The danger, of course, is that history will take the performance at face value. That the diary, once private, will harden into biography. But this, too, is a kind of truth. A diary is not a static object. It lives, it breathes, it deceives, but always in service of something larger than the mundane details of existence.

[theoverstimulated]

"You might think that because you’ve had COVID-19 and lived through it that repeat infections will impact you similarly, but “reinfections aren't harmless. As cases continue to rise and more variants arrive on the scene, infectious-disease experts are warning that repeat infections could have cumulative, lasting effects.”

...If you want to maintain your current level of health and avoid potential damage to your body & organs (up to and including your brain & your heart) and/or want to live as long as possible, taking precautions to prevent COVID-19 infections is crucial."

[official-trainwrecks]

HEY, YOU. Are you a fan of Friends, Community, or Heartbreaker? Do you love romance/romantic plotlines? Do enemies-to-lovers and will-they-won't-they scenarios keep you on the edge of your seat? Are you starving for more diversity and mental health rep?

Then you should read Trainwrecks, a FREE online serial following the lives of six Seattle-adjacent best friends from 2004-2015!

Meet the Cast!

Art by mangomangoj on Instagram.

Luna Cruz: (15) A nerdy and artistic girl who's had enough of being bullied about her weight. Her dream is to become a fashion designer. Or an ASL interpreter. Or both!

Dimitri Hale: (20) The most charming genius-turned-bag-boy you'll ever meet. He likes alcohol a little too much, but better booze than heroin, is he right??

Sebastian Velasquez: (17) The only thing keeping Seb from a life of debauchery is his best friend Dimitri, who he happens to have a crush on. Singing, dancing, and playing the guitar are his hobbies.

Jasmine Nolan: (17) Jasmine had the baddest reputation in her high school until she met Jesus. Now He's forgiven her, but she's having an awfully hard time forgiving herself.

Duke Kingston: (15) Duke might be one of the best friends you'll ever have! But if you're a bully, he's going to beat the shit out of you. No questions asked.

Victoria Hale: (15) Victoria's just moved to the U.S. from London, and she has her sights set on Juilliard. Beware her ADHD rage: She can go from 0 to throwing furniture in seconds.

About the Series

Trainwrecks: Season 1 (2004-2005) is now complete on Substack, and Trainwrecks: Season 2 (2005-2006) premieres March 3, 2025! Each week, subscribers receive both a narrative chapter and a social media chapter in their email inboxes. This entire story is free to read, but paid subscribers will receive four pieces of bonus content a month!

Curious about the characters? You can browse this blog or follow the link in the bio to the official website for bios, Spotify playlists, and more information!

Thanks for reading!

[notbecauseofvictories]

I would say 98% of the time, I think of a partner as a "nice to have." Like a cleaning service, or takeout, or sending dirty clothes out to get them laundered---you can get through your life without it, and I do think sometimes people use it as a band-aid for deeper problems. That's not to say that things like partners/cleaning services/takeout/laundry aren't wonderful, positive additions to your life! Just that you don't actually need these things to....you know, live.

....but that remaining 2% of the time? My apartment feels very big and empty.

[soulmaking]

from orchid woman summer

[rissareee]

the vibes of my substack in memes … you’re welcome <3

[ieppiq]

COPPER HOME RELEASED

Itch.io Exclusive. Minimum Price: $1.00 | Suggested: $2.00 *All sales will be reinvested both in my University Tax and into my Self-Publishing Fund. Huge thanks in advance for viewing or buying and downloading the Copper Home PDF file!

IF YOU RUN INTO ANY ISSUES, PLEASE NOTIFY ME, PLEASE.

And here's a Funfact on this project:

Only Text Version At My KO-FI Shop, Priced: $0.22

Also! If the price page gives you trouble changing the suggested price to the minimum: delete until it shows $0.00, write $0.001000 and backspace, then enter to move on to the next page /or/:

tagging a bunch of folks (no pressure to interact): @moremysteriesthantragedies , @pluttskutt , @druidx , @cheerfulmelancholies , @talesofsorrowandofruin , @ettawritesnstudies , @faelanvance , @dustylovelyrun ,

@deerwright , @aalinaaaaaa , @chauceryfairytales , @surroundedbypearls , @soupy8lowfish , @misswriteress

[sensualterrors]

✥ SINNERS REVIEW ✥ snippet:

[spoiler free]

✥ “This is a movie about music and the outsized, beautiful, devilish role it can play in your life. Most people center their summary of Sinners on the outlaw twins, Smoke and Stack, who have mysteriously traded life in the big city (Chicago) for their old haunt of Mississippi once more.

✥ I immediately took note of how the events of Sinners occurs in the Delta region — known to many Black people, especially Southern Black folks, as the birthplace of sorts for blues music — think legends such as Muddy Waters and Charley Patton, who is mentioned offhand in Sinners.

✥ As a hoodoo practitioner, I took note of the setting because oldheads, Southern scholars, folklorists and real blues fans also know that the Mississippi Delta is a nexus of paranormal activity.

✥ Legend has it that Blues guitarist Robert Johnson — a contemporary of Son House and Patton and Muddy Waters — sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads in Clarksdale, Mississippi.”

🩸 READ MORE HERE 🩸

[the-almighty-gob-john-langley]

#America First, World Last? The Perilous Path of Trade Tariffs, and the potential 'New World Order.'

When "Making America Great Again" Risks Unmaking the Global Economy.

"This scenario is not far-fetched. The seeds of division are already being sown. The United States, under the Trump administration, has pursued a protectionist trade policy that has alienated many of its allies. This policy is based on the belief that America has been treated unfairly by its trading partners and that it needs to put its own interests first."

[prispls]

all because i wanted to see the good in you

i wanted to see you in a different light, and because of that, i find myself always making light of the words that you say and the things that you do. still trying and hoping to understand you a little better, to give you more chances to show me that you can be better and do better.

all because i wanted to see the good in you. but what good did it ever do?

each time i bare my heart out to you, you’d chew it up and spit it out or run from it, leaving me vulnerable and alone, stranded out in the cold once more.

but i guess it’s nothing new. fool me once, shame on you. fool me twice, shame on me. fool me a hundred times, i’m a goddamned fool, debilitated by my love for you.

[bynataliezubi]

hurt people hurt people.

cycles of abuse are perpetuated by those who are wounded.

everyone has free will,

but many live without seeing the larger context.

they're unable to grasp options beyond what they've been taught

through cultural conditioning and societal programming.

it's a shame, but it doesn't excuse their actions.

your feelings are valid, even if you've contributed to harmful cycles.

you were acting from your level of awareness at the time.

acknowledge this, and use it as a chance to grow.

[malusokay]

Our Brains Are Rotting and Cicero Knew

On distraction, decline, and the intellectual rot Cicero saw coming. (from my substack)

O tempora, o mores—Cicero’s lament still echoes, like a parent sighing at their kid for putting the milk back in the fridge empty. He hurled those words into a world that thought it was collapsing, but honestly, Rome didn’t even know what real rot was yet. Cicero stood in the Senate, cloaked in self-righteous fury (as only Cicero could), accusing the guilty and clutching at virtues that were slipping through his fingers. “Iniquissima haec bellorum condicio est: prospera omnes sibi vindicant, adversa uni imputantur,” he said—history is cruel, always ready to share the credit for triumphs but quick to pin failure on a scapegoat. And oh, how disappointed he’d be to know his words, once etched in fire, are now buried in scrollable trivia, nestled between TikTok trends and threads about the dying sourdough starters.

Our rot is quieter and more subtle, almost polite, like water slowly ruining the foundation of a house no one even lives in anymore. It doesn’t come with swords or collapsing senates, but with screens. Flickering, endless screens. A thousand voices all talking at once until it’s just static, white noise buzzing in your brain. The kicker? We hold the wisdom of entire empires in our sweaty little hands, every speech, every scroll, every fragment of brilliance painstakingly saved by people who didn’t even have plumbing—and we just let it rot beneath algorithmic garbage. We traded Lucretius for lip-syncs, ars est celare artem for captions written by bots.

And Cicero? Poor Cicero, who believed so fiercely in the res publica, in the duty to preserve both morality and intellect—he’d probably choke on his wine to see us not just distracted but actively sabotaging ourselves. “Nescire autem quid ante quam natus sis acciderit, id est semper esse puerum,” he warned, because ignorance of history is the fastest way to stay a child forever. And, well, here we are: eternal toddlers in the nursery of civilization, sucking on the pacifier of whatever mindless content the algorithm spits out next. We’re not just lost; we’re willingly staying lost. It’s almost impressive.

Yet we think we’re clever. That’s the worst part. We think we’ve outsmarted the ancients, with our steady diet of soundbites and videos, each one shorter and dumber than the last. Meanwhile, Cicero would be rolling his eyes so hard they’d get stuck. “Legum servi sumus, ut liberi esse possimus,” he’d remind us—slaves to the rules we create, but these aren’t the rules of a republic. They’re the rules of a distraction economy. We call it freedom, but it’s more like gilded captivity. Every thought reduced to a trend, every story a fifteen-second flicker. What freedom is that? It’s like decorating your prison cell with fairy lights and pretending it’s cosy.

The rot isn’t just in the content. It’s in the way we approach it, like tourists in a museum, glancing at the masterpieces but never stopping long enough to feel their weight. We skim the Iliad, marvelling at its age but missing its fire, its warnings, its unbearable humanity. We quote the poets but only because it sounds sharp on a tote bag, not because we understand the exhaustion behind it. The ancients fought for words like these, polished them with the desperation of people who knew empires could crumble at any moment. And what do we do? We scroll right past, looking for something quicker, easier, something that sparkles.

We are exactly the people Cicero feared: writing tweets no one will read, building monuments to vanity instead of virtue, shrugging off the weight of history for the cheap thrill of now. The ancients taught us better. They polished their words like marble, made them heavy and sharp, meant to outlast empires. But we’re just tossing them aside to chase the next shiny thing. It’s not that we don’t know better—it’s that we don’t care.

And so, our brains rot. Not from hunger, but from excess. From too much noise, too much fluff, too much everything. The cry of O tempora, o mores isn’t dead, but it’s definitely hoarse. And the worst part? We’ve stopped listening. We don’t even notice the silence.

thank you for joining me on my little 4 AM Cicero brain-rot spiral. Usually, things like this stay buried in my notes, but where’s the fun in that, right? Lots of love, Malu <3

[schuylerpeck]

snippet from today’s newsletter — figuring out how to create in a virtual world of catching up.

schuylerpeck / instagram: hiitssky

[echoesoftheinfinite]

Echoes, Under the Starry Night

Read the full poem on Substack 🌙✨

[sleepforeverbabe]