Celebrating six months of Midlife Without a Map
And behind the scenes of writing it
This month, I am celebrating a Substack milestone. It is six months since I launched Midlife Without a Map and committed to sharing my writing every week.
I know six months isn’t a big milestone, but, for me, it feels significant. I’ve written a piece every week for six months—that’s 30 posts and around 45,000 words. And people have read, liked, commented on, shared, and even paid to support me and my writing.
That’s great progress. So instead of moving on to the next story, I wanted to pause, just for a while, and look back at how far I’ve come.
Years ago, when blogging was the ‘in’ thing, I never found the time to post every week. I’d go months without sharing my work. There was no consistency, and although writing was important to me, I let the busyness of life take over. I realise now that by doing that, I wasn’t taking myself or my work seriously. And if I’m honest, perhaps my doubts and fears were the root of my procrastination.
This time, my mindset is different. When I committed to publishing a piece on Substack every week, I knew it would be a challenge. Life gets hectic, and with a menagerie of geriatric pets to care for chaos never seems too far away. But no matter what comes my way, I fit writing into my week. It’s non-negotiable, and I am determined to keep writing, keep sharing and get my work out into the world.
I launched Midlife Without a Map on 17 September 2023, not knowing much about Substack, the tech behind it, what I would write about, or if anyone other than my mum and aunties would read it.
The main thing was to start.
It was a chance to grab a small corner of the internet and say this is me. This is what I do. I was excited to give it a go and see what happened.
My past blogging failures had taught me that if I was going to succeed, I would need a schedule, sharing my work on the same day every week. Ideally, it would be nice to share it at the same time every Sunday, but given the madness that is my life, it always seems a small miracle to get it out at all.
To meet the weekly deadline, I knew I’d have to plan my writing time and make it a priority. A lot of work goes into the publishing of my Substack, and I couldn’t adopt a bash-something-out-at-the-last-minute approach.
It also couldn’t take over my life. It had to be sustainable, juggling it alongside work, looking after the horses, walking, running, spin classes, spending time with family and friends, and all the unexpected life chaos and admin. I was hoping for a balance.
I’m a morning person, so, Monday to Friday, I write between 5am and 7am, before the world has woken up. It’s not always easy to spring out of bed so early, but it is always worth it when I do. And if I don’t, there is no other time for writing in my day.
I also write at the weekends. My husband, Chris, takes over the morning horse care so that I can write (thank you, Chris!). On Saturday mornings, I go to the gym for a spin class, then shower and have a late breakfast before settling down for a writing session. The first thing I do on Sunday is to make a cup of tea, then grab my laptop to finish and publish that week’s piece.
After 25 years of writing for my day job, I can write and type quickly, bashing the keyboard at quite a pace. Chris calls it ‘angry’ typing because I’m heavy handed and loud. So ferocious, in fact, that a few of the letters on my keyboard have faded. I’m missing an N, B, V, C, O, L, I, F, S, E, and the D and K are looking a little shady. As I write this, I’m thinking I should probably buy a new keyboard, but I’m fond of the old one and my fingers instinctively find the right letters.
When it comes to measuring writing progress, some writers record the number of words they produce in each session. I prefer to record the time I get to write. For me, the problem is not getting the words onto the page, it’s shaping them into something that makes sense, and to do that, I cut lots of words, so counting them is ridiculous. Â
I love Stephen King’s rule that the final draft of a story should be the first draft minus ten percent.
To produce my Substack, or any other piece of writing, I usually write four drafts. The first draft is to get all my ideas onto the page, and I try to write this as quickly as possible. It may be messy, but at least I have something to work with.
After that, I start a new Word document for every draft. I weave the words together, deleting some, keeping others, trying to make them better. The story takes shape in draft two. Draft three is about making it tighter and cutting words, and the final draft is for copy edits.
There is then work to be done uploading my piece to the Substack platform, setting up a page, tweaking the layout, adding images, checking it, checking it again. There’s an option to email test drafts, so as well as sending one to myself, I always send one to Chris. He’s my first reader on a Sunday morning.
And then, I press publish. This is the part where I worry. Will anyone read it? Or have I just wasted hours of my life? If they read it, will they like it? I’ll usually go out for a walk or run, and that always steadies my nerves and makes me feel better.
It takes a lot of time and effort to publish a Substack post, but I really enjoy it, especially when readers like or comment on a piece. It makes the hard work worthwhile.
When I started Midlife, I didn’t plan what I would write about. I’m not much of a planner. Instead, I went with the flow. I’ve written about books, running, writing, rabbits, Valentine’s Day, New York, Chris’s cough, fridges and more. It’s certainly been varied.
My favourite piece is the fridge piece—‘Fridge envy of the neighbourhood’. I must enjoy writing about domestic appliances because I’m currently drafting one about our dishwasher (coming soon—you’ll love it!). I also like ‘Saying yes to the dress’, about bridesmaid dress fitting and being body shamed. Â
Chris’s favourite is ‘My Writing Life, January 2023’, because it made him laugh and being in diary form was a little different from my usual style.
I’ve written shorter pieces and longer pieces, some essay style, some slice of life memoir. The most popular was ‘Why I’m leaving my day job’. The least popular, ‘Five memoir recommendations for your reading list’.
The one I thought might have done better was ‘Woman of a certain rage’—about perimenopausal rage. I loved writing it and hoped people would find it funny, but I think they just pitied me for being an out of control raging woman.
Looking back, I am proud of myself for committing to Midlife Without a Map. It’s brought me a lot of joy.
So, what’s next?
I’m really excited to write and publish more of my work on Substack. I have a long list of ideas so would like more writing time to develop them. To help, I will be launching some online writing sessions. If you’re interested in joining me, let me know.
I’d also like to finish some of my book-length writing projects. I’ve been working on them for years, so completing them sometime soon would be marvellous. I’m trying to find a way to balance this work alongside my Substack.
I currently have 144 subscribers (thank you all) and would love to reach more readers. I’ve been thinking a lot about how I can do that. And as much as I’m not a show-off, I really need to commit to social media and market myself better. I’m thinking about experimenting with some Facebook adverts to see if that might help.
I’ve come so far with Midlife Without a Map that I really want to keep up the momentum and do what I can to make it successful.
I have absolutely loved writing and sharing my stories with you every Sunday. Thank you for reading them, thank you for giving me a few minutes of your precious time, and thank you so much for your support. I really appreciate it.
Here’s to the next six months…
Do you have a favourite piece? If you do, I’d love to know which one. Let me know in the comments. And if you missed any of my previous posts, here they are.
The Writing Life
My writing life, February 2024
Making a writing prize shortlist, but not winning
You want to be a writer? A writer?
I should have: overcoming the ‘should’ mindset
Slice-of-life memoir
Fridge envy of the neighbourhood
Our Valentine’s Day disaster
Desperate for a good night’s sleep
Essays
For sale: the home we grew up in
Saying goodbye: why losing a pet is so painful
Travel
A trip to the city that never sleeps
A moment of middle-aged madness, taking on a mountain adventure when I’m not a mountain person
Books
Books I’ve gifted for Christmas
Five memoir recommendations for your reading list
Running and fitness
My forty-something changing body
General
Welcome to Midlife Without a Map
I think we must have started around the same time on Substack and I, like you, began it and promised a weekly post. I think I've just about made it each week and it's such a good discipline, as you say. I also write, just as you do, while risking my posture on the sofa.
I love that no matter what you write, your personality shines through. That to me is the sign of a great writer. It’s a Sunday treat now knowing I have one of your posts landing in my inbox.
But please type with a better posture young lady! x