THE RED FERN re-launch | non fiction book club, community, courses, behind the scenes of a writer & more.

Pulling on my big girl pants and getting organised and productive

Hello, hello, hello and welcome to the re-launch of THE RED FERN: a Substack exploring confidence, age and creativity in an online world.

If you’ve been listening to my podcast with Claire subtitled Our Substack Story you’ll know I discussed with her back at the end of January that I was considering a re-launch of my Substack. I’ve been thinking about making it more specific for some time. Not just in the content of what I’ll be exploring but also in what I’m offering.

When I first started this Substack about ten months or so ago, I anticipated lots of essays, monthly bite-sized courses, and some behind the scenes stuff as I write my book proposal. I was running The Confident Creative Club at the time and didn’t want any overlap.

A struggle with burnout and related anxiety put an end to the Club - which I was absolutely distraught about - but this does mean I can bring some elements of the Club to my Substack.

I also created a thread a few months ago where I asked you how you saw me. And I gained some wonderful responses which helped to see myself and my work in a different way. I’m sure you’re the same in that we only see the negatives in ourselves - what we haven’t done instead of what we have - and so I was incredibly grateful for those comments.

Some of the comments were (and I’ll paraphrase a little here for brevity):

• “You encourage me.”

• “I like how sometimes you’re not confident.”

• I’m a “lady of a certain age”!

• “Enjoying the journey of writing.”

• “Put in mood to write.”

• “Help give women confidence to do their writing.”

Which, of course, all got me thinking. How can I do more of this?

I started making notes (of course, I had a special notebook for the occasion) and brought out the big guns - the A3 brainstorming paper. (That’s when I knew I was getting ready to start working again.)

And this is the result…

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What to expect from THE RED FERN.

The Red Fern will operate on a monthly cycle and every month I’ll be sharing:

Essays about mindset: burnout, lacking self-belief, procrastinating, failing, fearing success, being online as a Gen-Exer - there is so much to make sense of.

Podcasts. Solo episodes, interviews with other creatives, and Our Substack Story which I record with Claire.

Non Fiction Book Club. Every month I’ll be introducing a non fiction book about the creative mindset, being online, or a woman in midlife. In conjunction with my YouTube channel I’ll be annotating the book and highlighting the sections I especially relate to. And in my Substack I’ll be writing about the issues from the book that I personally relate to.

Bite-Sized Courses. Manageable advice, once every two months, about mindset, planning, journaling, being online. Recent bite-sized courses have included:

• Where to build an audience if Instagram isn’t working.

• Journaling for writers.

• Journaling and planning for productivity.

• The back-end of Substack.

• Are you procrastinating on your writing or creative project?

Journal of a book proposal. The story of how I put together a non-fiction book proposal and how I intend to submit to agents.

Community. Highlighting members of THE RED FERN community who have recently taken a tiny step out of their comfort zone with their writing or creative project.

Monthly summary. Reading, listening, watching recommendations. What I’ve written, what I’ve learned, where I’ve been. And how my goals and ambitions are moving forward or what I’ve struggled with.

Dear Helen…What are your creative confidence dilemmas? This will be a kind of agony aunt section for unconfident, overwhelmed and fearful writers and creatives. Names will be changed for anonymity unless you specify otherwise.

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What’s free and what do you need a subscription for?

Some of the above will be free to all subscribers. In terms of the essays it’ll often depend how deep and vulnerable I go. All podcasts will be available to everyone.

The non fiction book club will be available to everyone but the comments will be for paid subscribers only. This is to encourage discussion in a safe place.

The bite-sized courses will be for paid subscribers only. The first one will be in April and will be about starting a big project with tiny steps.

The journal of a book proposal will be for paid subscribers only (most of the time).

Community highlights will be for everyone at the moment. This is a new project and I’m kind of feeling my way forward with it.

The monthly summary will be for everyone with additional bits like my goals and ambitions for paid subscribers only.

Dear Helen… is another brand new project so again will be for everyone at the moment.

All posts will automatically be for paid subscribers only after one month. To access the archives (except the podcast - this is always free) you have to become a paid subscriber.

In the future I’d also like to trial live writing sessions via Zoom. This might be once a week or twice a month. But with my burnout and anxiety still going on this will be something to aim for in a few months.

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Okay, if you’ve read this far you need some sort of medal! This is not physically possible but I am giving 10% off an annual subscription. This makes a subscription to THE RED FERN around 90 pence per week.

(Incidentally I have also quietly added a Founding member option which will give you two 45-minute 1:1 mentoring sessions with me. This should have the 15% discount applied to it too.)

(Of course, I realise that there are a lot of newsletters and you cannot be a paid subscriber to all of them. If you’d like to subscribe but cannot afford it right now then email me at helenredfernwriter at gmail dot com and I’ll give you complementary access.)

I’m really excited about the future of THE RED FERN. If you think others will find my Substack interesting do, please, spread the word. It really helps!

I’ll be back on Sunday with the first Substack of the re-launch.