One Year of Crygest!
What I've learned from birthing and writing a monthly newsletter for the first time
Dear Crybabies,
A year ago, I launched this newsletter. I wanted to write more often, write for myself, and to find my voice — the one that exists outside of my day job as an on-staff editor.
So I created a Substack and branded it with a theme that I thought was specific enough to be intriguing and general enough to keep my creative juices flowing: Storytelling with an emotional appeal. Crygest, a monthly digest about crying, was born on November 19, 2024.
Today, I’m happy to report that I’ve published 13 posts this year and cried while writing at least 10 of them. I gained 95 subscribers and picked up some useful logistical newsletter-writing lessons along the way.
I hope my learnings can help you start your own long-term writing project, whether it’s a newsletter, zine, novel, or another amazing creation:
Be clear and reasonable about your goals. When I joined Substack, I noticed that many newsletter authors published multiple times per month or even per week. To me, that publishing frequency felt like a lot to manage alongside my work schedule, at least for the first year. So I asked myself: Why are you writing this? (Answer: To flex my creativity through writing) and Who is it for? (Answer: Myself, and anyone who wants to read). With these answers, I decided to sideline my urge to compete with everyone else and instead settled on publishing once a month. A year later, I can confidently say that this pace allows me to exist between a stream of steady planning and urgency; this way, I feel more excited than stressed about the project, another key for consistency. Of course, it’s helpful to update your goals, so I also committed to revisiting Crygest at the end of each year to create new ones — more on that below.
Consider inspiration-gathering your full-time job. I’ve got a real full-time job, don’t worry. But I act as if my daily mission is to collect feelings, scenes, artifacts, and conversations that move me. When I feel moved or my thoughts are provoked, I write that shit down in my newsletter-planning notebook. I answer questions like: Could this experience I’m having be the opening story in next month’s newsletter? Is this conversation potential fodder for a certain month or week when I know a something relevant will be happening? Is this something I could turn into a recurring series? Is this someone I should interview about their insights? These tidbits might not seem like much in the moment, but the practice of noting them can prime you for noticing more, which is the key to getting inspired and creating meaning out of words.
Lean on, and seek out, community. Before I launched Crygest, I shared the idea with my close friends and family, who reacted with excitement and encouragement. It can feel awkward or useless to express your uninitiated goals to others, but I found it helpful in keeping my goal a priority regardless of how much self-doubt I felt. Once I started writing, I talked about my passion project to anyone who would listen — a friend asking what’s new, an acquaintance wondering what I do for work, my Instagram followers. I also DMed a fellow Substack writer who was putting together a collaborative essay series and became part of her project. I left the experience feeling more connected to my craft and excited that another writer and I had the opportunity to yap about what we love and then distill our thoughts into an essay. The cherry on top? Some of her subscribers became subscribers of mine.
Start writing early. Write all month long. Similar to Lesson 2, I’ve learned that starting a new draft within the first two weeks of the month is essential for preventing overwhelm. Often, the first two or three drafts I write are garbage. I guess I need to get them out of my brain to uncover something better. Sometimes, if a moment of inspiration suddenly strikes, I’ll jot down sentences or paragraphs in the notes app on my phone and paste them into a Substack post later that day or week and play around with the passages from there. I also collect ideas for my “Fuck, that’s good” segment throughout the month by emailing myself links, which double as little inbox reminders to keep chipping away at the newsletter. I’ll pop into my draft post throughout the month to add brief outlines or expand on points. Once it gets to crunch time at the end of the month (cue to me writing this one at 10 AM on the last day of November, eek!), I’ve found that my final push feels more manageable because of the groundwork I’ve done.
Edit yourself. Don’t get trigger-happy and immediately publish your post after writing. I’ve found that letting my draft air out for at least 12 hours before I come back to it has allowed me to create more coherent and less rambling stories with fewer typos. I don’t know about you, but in a world overflowing with content, I prefer to distinguish myself by creating stuff with a certain level of quality control. I want to think about my readers with care, which includes how they’d most enjoy receiving my ideas.
So, what’s next?
As I enter Crygest Year 2, I have some goals in mind. If Year 1 was all about diving in and experimenting, I plan to use this second go-around as a more intentional phase. My goals are to:
Launch 2 more series/segments/regular programming. Seeing how well-received Writer’s Habit, my advice series by and for writers across disciplines, has become in such a short time, I plan to lean into serialized formats in 2026. “Fuck, that’s good,” won’t be going anywhere either.
Experiment with video. I’ve always been partial to the written word, but creating videos feels like a fun and creative flex worth trying. In the past, I told myself I’m “just not good” at videography and photography, but I’m choosing to ignore my prior doubts and embrace experimentation via CapCut.
Grow my subscription base. I want to get more analytical about my readers, both current Crybabies and potential new ones, so I can create and promote my newsletters in a more strategic way. There’s not a specific number of subscribers I’m aiming for in 2026; I’d just like to grow that number even more than I did last year by learning more about all of you.
I’d love to know: What would you like to see more of in Crygest this coming year? No idea is off-limits, so sound off in the comments, or shoot me a DM:
Fuck, that’s good
✨ A brief list of media that fed me this month ✨
We Survived the Night by Julian Brave NoiseCat | Part-memoir, part-native folklore storytelling, this book is in the running for my favorite read of the year. I’m excited to see what Noisecat bring us next, after this and his Oscar-nominated documentary “Sugarcane.”
These twins’ lives were identical, until one got colon cancer at 21 by Gabby Landsverk for Business Insider | Here, my colleague beautifully details the physical, mental, and financial challenges that came after a 20-something woman’s diagnosis and treatment. I admire Gabby’s ability to tell a gripping tale while peppering in useful information — here, she does it on the rise of cancer diagnoses in young people.
Wendy Williams Wants Out by Jessica Bennett for New York magazine | Wendy Williams will always be a pop-culture icon. Bennett’s investigation into her recent guardianship — which has terms that bar Williams from leaving the ritzy memory care facility where she lives without permission — read like a masterclass in balanced reporting, new information, and intrigue.
The Olivia Nuzzi Comeback Is Everything Wrong With Modern Media by Colby Hall for Mediaite | For all the chatter about Nuzzi’s new and poorly written tell-all memoir, I found this analysis to be one of the most salient. It answers the question: How can a political reporter have an affair with RFK Jr., be fired from her high-profile job, and yet be able to sell a book about those indiscretions? Hall discusses how frenetic changes in the media industry incentivized this outcome, and Nuzzi’s behavior in general.
In December, we’ll tie a metaphorical bow on the year with another edition of Writer’s Habit. This time, it’ll feature my friend and serial journaler Gemmika Champion. She’s got some primo advice for sticking to a journaling habit — just in time for intention-setting season!
If you miss me in the meantime, follow my silly little adventures on Instagram here.
With gratitude,
Julia