A Year Later

My Goals Remain The Same

I will use this platform to be a Light of Positivity✨

“We all are part of the human community and have the responsibility to benefit that community. We should take a more active role in helping society by employing whatever talents and abilities we possess to help others. For if the human community is happy and at peace, we all benefit.” -Bhiksu Tenzin Gyatso

This week will be my one year anniversary on Substack🥳. And let me tell you, it has been a life changing experience! I’ve grown in so many ways during the past year. And instead of a Year End Review highlighting some of my older posts, I want to share with you some of the things I’ve learned. Yes, there will be some nods towards some of my earlier work below. But I’ll be using them to show you the growth I’ve made, not sharing them because I now have a hundred times more subscribers.

Those early posts are not as good. They’re not the same quality as I’m putting out now. And that’s okay. I’m supposed to be growing. I’m supposed to be getting better. So, while it’s tempting to go back and change or update them, I’m not going to. I’m going to leave them just as they are.

The Courage to Write was my very first post. It’s highlighted in my Welcome Email(which we’ll discuss later). I also submitted it to this week’s The Stories from the Jukebox song prompt, Vienna. And I must admit, there’s not much I’d change about it. Maybe just where it says ‘mj’s substack’ in the subscription message.

What’s in a Song? was my second post. It was the inspiration for my second publication, Stories from the Jukebox. One of these weeks I’ll choose Stone, by Whiskey Myers, as our song prompt, and I’ll update and republish this essay there. Notice in it how I’d not yet learned how to use the “Quote” button — those quotes are just in the body of text, and not being highlighted or showcased in any way. But at least I capitalized MJ in the subscription message this time. And I’d still not updated my profile or added my bank account yet. I do have that done in the next post though, Blue Bird, which remains my favorite essay to date.

In the next post, A Billion Dollars, I added audio — narrating the essay myself for the first time. Boy 🙉 I’ve gotten much better at that too!😂

I noticed something just now, I wasn’t liking my own post yet back then — I mean if you don’t like’em, how can you expect others to?

My first poem, Who am I Kidding? was published on February 24th, 2025. And I’m getting better. I’ve added Share buttons and a message of gratitude at the end. I also see some familiar Likes down there, and I wonder if this is where I connected with some of you🙂. I still haven’t found the “Poetry or Quote” buttons, though.

Wow, so it looks like I made big strides in the very next post! Orange, was also my most successful to date. And I remember just how excited it made me to see that others really did like my writing. I didn’t realize until listening and reading it again just now, that I was also beginning to get more comfortable sharing my writing voice you. And I’m sure that had a lot to do with the response it received.

Entering March, 2025 — I’d been on Substack for about 75 days. And this is where things really started to take off for my writing. I published Fiction for the first time, ever. And y’all liked it! I was blown away at the response The Merchant Marines short story series received. That gave me a lot of confidence. And I made big strides in both my writing — those are some excellent essays, and in formatting the newsletters. I gained my first 2 Paid Subscribers during that period, found the “Quote” button, and began mentioning other writers too!

It’s funny to see where some of these other writers are now — some are still here, and some have faded. And a couple have really made it big!

I highly recommend that you go back and read my work from March and early April. That whole stretch from, It’s Witchcraft to Tempus Fugit, will be worth your time. I was still working out my Paywall back then, and some of these may have been hidden behind that $ wall not long afterward.

By April I’d grown comfortable with my writing, and decided to really pursue more copy-writing ventures.

I created my Copywriting Page, published my first Testimonial Essay, and began to go after local newspapers — two of which allowed me to publish their articles here. And while my copy-writing has really taken off of late, I’ve still not been able to break into the newspaper industry. They are all so used to losing, I’ve not yet found the right newspaper partner. If I could just get one, to get behind their Substack publication — really commit to it, I’m confident that it will provide them a platform that will build their customer base. Something that that industry hasn’t seen in more than a decade!

Do you know of a newspaper that could benefit from this online platform? Let’s partner up.

I’m not going to continue dissecting my newsletters, as at this point I’d pretty much figured everything out. Working as a Newspaper to Substack Editor, I quickly learned the ins and outs of this platform. This is also the time I discovered what a great tool I’d missed in the Welcome Letter.

If you haven’t done this yet, you’re welcome😉 It’s a game changer imo. The Welcome Letter may be the only thing that New Subscribers ever see! And you do not want to spoil this opportunity. Here is a copy of my first rewrite, back in May. Isn’t that a gazillion times better than the, Thanks for Subscribing – Download our app, generic email that most New Subscribers get off the rip?

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I’ve since added two more publications:

• Stories from the Jukebox, I’ve already mentioned. That’s where each week myself and other writers across Substack tackle a writing prompt inspired by song. So if you’re a Writer, or Reader that loves music, you’ll find a treasure trove of prompts and reads there. Join us!

• And my latest venture is a partnership with two other amazing writers, and will soon be open to more! We are the Southern Writers’ Guild: a deliberate assembly of stubborn scribes — poets, novelists, essayists, playwrights, journalists, and songwriters — who stake our claim on this tangled South, by blood or by choice or by some inexplicable pull that won’t let go.

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I’ve also published my first book, The Ugly Duckling, on Amazon-KDP.

And let me tell ya, there’s a big learning curve when it comes to book publication. I have learned SO MUCH during that process! I was just speaking with a fellow writer earlier today, and said, “The Ugly Duckling, that you read was at least the tenth draft. A dozen beta readers have read it and given feedback.” And that was before I started getting ready to publish.

Since then, there’s been numerous edits, and tasks — from reformatting it to match Amazon/Kindle’s accepted style, to working on cover art. Which if you’ll notice closely, is missing the author name on the eBook cover. The printed version will be correct. And I still am not happy with my back cover🙃.

This is getting pretty long, so I’ll wrap up by thanking all of you 🙏 my readers. Without you, none of this would have been possible. This past year will be hard to beat, and you all have been a major part of it.

Just as I promised you a year ago on my About Page-

“Unlike other copy-writers that may be on this platform, I will not be posting tons of content hyping up ‘what I can do for you’.”

I’ll continue to let my Creative Writing speak for me. It clearly shows what I am capable of. And if I can be of service to you in anyway, please don’t hesitate to message me.

My Editing Services include:

• Substack Consultant Services

• Proofreading

• Copy-editing

• Developmental-editing

• Newspaper to Substack Editing & Consultant Services

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Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing it and clicking that ❤ button, and I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Oh and if you’re an email reader, just hit reply — I want to hear from you too! Out of all I’ve published over the past year, which was your favorite?

Don’t like commitments, but still want to support my writing? You can make a one-time contribution here.

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Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash