Can't Find What You're Looking For?
Substack Can Be Kind Of A Maze ... But Our Writing in the Dark Archive Is An Actual Treasure Trove. So, Here's How To Find Stuff Quickly And Easily!
Hi, Friends!
I hope you’re having a nice Tuesday.
This video post is pure service journalism, a handy how-to to help you find your way around Writing in the Dark on the Substack homepage, so that you can use our incredible archive to find what you need when you need it. It’s still okay to reach out to us (i.e., “Help! I can’t find Week Seven in the Essay Challenge!!) whenever you need to, but in the meantime, we hope this helps.
Because it really matters to us that you can find your way around in the archives of Writing in the Dark, where we now have not only almost 18 months of intricate craft essays with writing exercises, personal essays, bustling threads, Voice Memos, and Lit Salon advice columns, but also a several fully developed writing courses, including full 30-Day Creativity Challenge, a 12-Week Essay Challenge, a 12-Week Story Challenge, and our current Visceral Self Embodied Writing Intensive.
Being able to easily access these rich resources is a huge part of the value of a membership to Writing in the Dark—and in order to access these resources, you need to be able to find them! And while Substack did recently improve the search function (such a relief), our organization system will still help you find what you’re looking for faster, we think.
So, this video covers the nuts and bolts of finding things quickly, while also showing you how to use our homemade Curriculum Index to access the archive in a dreamier way, to find something new, like a writing exercise to suit your mood, or a craft essay on a particular topic, like, for example, exteriority or revision.
To note, we know from our dashboard that most of you receive our posts via email, which we actually highly recommend (and here’s where you can manage your settings on Substack to make sure you get emails and not just app notifications, even if you do love the app and the web-based version of our content). We just know that if you’re following along in intensives, receiving the emails makes it easier (by far) to know when the next post comes out, and to find it. Nonetheless, having our content archived online in the Substackverse is a (huge) bonus feature, because our archives are full of riches remain fully available to all paid members for as long as you are part of our community. So we want you to know how to use them!
So. This 6-minute video is narrated by
(my youngest child and collaborator here at Writing in the Dark, and our fearless meditation and yin yoga leader for The Visceral Self intensive for embodied writing). In those 6 minutes, Billie walks you through our three pinned posts and how to use them to find your way around this place, which, ultimately, makes it much more beautiful for all of us.If you have more questions, please do let us know in the comments. We are, as I keep saying, building this ship as we sail it, and meanwhile striving always to make it as beautiful, functional, welcoming, and sturdy as possible. Your input has already helped us to make continual improvements, especially to our functionality on Substack, and we greatly value your voices. Keep singing!
Love,
Jeannine & Billie
PS In the video, Billie mentions sending an email if you have a question (like, one you don’t want to throw in the comments). You can reach Billie at writing@writinginthedark.org. And you can reach me at jeannine@writinginthedark.org.
PS If you missed the Welcome Video & Introductions post a couple weeks ago, the one Billie mentions in the video, please introduce yourself in the comments on the post linked below ! We are loving your beautiful introductions and the incredible connections that are happening as a result.
This is an excellent explanation of what's what on the page and I appreciate my improved understanding. Thank you for taking the time to do this I admire and value your clarity.
But sunce thi is mybfirst time wirking on the cuticulum, what I need to know is what to do next? I responded to the prompt about capturing the untamed spirit yesterday. Today I'd like to know what to focus on or begin thinking about, instead of just diving in anywhere. What would be most useful, or perhaps make the best contribution I what we're doing? Or where should I look or others' new posts and response?
This is so helpful! I often dream of spending days upon days just working through your essays, prompts and challenges, imagining how much I could learn from you and how much my writing would improve if I was to do that. It's really not a bad idea..... I am booked on to do a week long writing course in a university an hour's train ride from me next month, I could achieve probably more if I just spent that time on the Writing in the Dark Curriculum!