The Art of Telling Tiny Stories on Substack Notes and Beyond
Your microprose cheatsheet to my Substack Live! with Darien Gee
This one’s a must-read (they all are, but this one for sure):
The power of stories that draw subscribers on Notes
The truth about Notes
How you can learn from Notes that go viral
The importance of white space, the five w's, being specific, creating emotional arcs, and tapping into universal experiences
Shareable, shareable, shareable
Storytelling Notes vs. idea Notes
How to be funny
And why—if you do one thing in March—you should join the Notes Boost Challenge
PLUS! Microprose expert ’s amazing storytelling blueprint PDF for telling great stories on Notes (see below)
Today! We dive into how to write compelling tiny stories on Substack Notes, short posts, in micro-essays, or at cocktail parties—anywhere you want to craft a narrative that compels readers to read more. Microprose is narratives (stories) of 300 words or less.
Why would you want to master microprose/tiny stories?
Because it’s an amazing skill for a writer (and human).
And it’s ridiculously important on Notes, where life updates/slices of life and personal stories are what’s going viral.
So…I brought in microprose expert
for you on a Substack Live (watch the full conversation below) to show us that it’s not just about word count but distillation and understanding the structure that moves readers, i.e., makes them subscribe and stay subscribed.Darien is a memoirist, writing mentor, and novelist with five books through Penguin Random House. She developed her expertise in microprose and brings it to subscribers of her Substack
(highly recommended—she’s offering MFA-caliber craft lessons), which explores the boundaries between different writing forms and offers very cool weekly 10-minute live writing prompts. Darien joined Substack officially in November, soon after, and became one of my clients soon after that.The power of stories that draw subscribers on Notes
Many people feel like they’re posting willy-nilly on Notes and not getting subscribers. That’s likely because you
aren’t telling great stories/vignettes,
are writing too much (people are scrolling, folk, scrolling), not powerful nuggets people can easily consume and make them want to subscribe to get more of,
are unsure of your Substack DNA, its core (min. 00:14 of our conversation).
I work with clients to discover their Substack DNA—a framework and strategy I created to help you discover what your Substack is really about, i.e., the elements that make you and your Substack amazing.
Why would you want to know your Substack DNA? Because growth hacks don’t work on Substack despite what people are trying to sell you. Sorry but no.
I’ll be taking Substack Mastermind members through this my framework to discover their Substack DNA in March.