I've been a bit quiet recently on the Muse. My last post was on the 22nd of July, where I talked about the idea of Cavendish Spaces, and proposing to make a new space, which I call the "bakery". Its purpose is to be a sort of "creative" space, where things are synthesized. You can find the article here: https://theautisticmuse.substack.com/p/the-bakery-extending-the-cavendish?r=1v3058
I've also learned in the past week that a poem of mine will be published in the digital magazine Poetic Reveries in August. That issue will come out on August 8.
Anyway, onwards with the questions...
1. My general philosophy with posts is to ensure that I encapsulate everything that I want to cover. I tend to cover things in quite a lot of detail, so my posts can be quite long. This is more evident when I cover things that have happened in real life, or I'm trying to explain something that has been festering in my head.
The poetry I write is a bit different. A lot of the poetry I write is in a specific form (usually haiku or tanka, although I have played with the limerick form recently), and usually these have either syllable or line requirements that I must follow. When writing free form poetry, I stop when I feel the picture that I wanted to "paint" is complete.
2. For my thought pieces I like keeping ideas separate. This makes it easier for me to reference them later, in the case that my thoughts have evolved or changed.
For poetry pieces I use sections to break the post into two distinct parts - the poem itself, and then my reflection, which is usually steeped in my own experience. Of course, each poem gets its own post.
The Imperfect Singers Club kind of works differently as I highlight last month's entries, and then post the current month's prompt in a post. It utilizes the chat feature quite heavily; each month gets its own thread. This way I can keep track of all the entries easily.
3. August is the month of county fairs! I'll be at both the Niagara County Fair and the Erie County Fair, working on health outreach. I will also be digging into torrin a. greathouse's poetry work, as I've bought her first poetry collection, Wound from the Mouth of a Wound, a couple of days ago. It should arrive at my door on Saturday.
The first question is very apt for what I’m doing right now!
1) How long should a post be? Where do you stand on that? There are many factors that will decide how long someone stays to read your post beyond opening it.
As long or as short as you like. If I see a post that has a read time of over 15 minutes, that is one I know will need my sustained attention, so I’ll want to savour it, especially if it’s from an author I like. My fiction chapters usually hit the “post too long to read in email” because if I made them shorter, we’d still be reading book 3 instead of being into book 4. However, there’s an almost daily fantasy writing challenge going on right now and I am challenging myself in addition to make it a short daily serial, so maybe a 5 minute read. (And today’s might be shorter as I’m struggling. Ahem.)
2). Should each theme have a separate post/article or do you think you can put several different ideas in one and the same post. Could you for example talk about the politics in the middle east, then a personal school story of yours and Cape Verde’s musical history as if your publication is a magazine with various articles? If you write poetry or stories or non-fiction this might look different on your publication, ie you could post four different poems, or two different stories that aren’t linked in any way. How does that work?
Well, you could if you could tie it all together it could go into one post/article, but your example very much sounds like three different articles, in which case your entire publication is that magazine with its own sections.
3). What are your August plans?
I have a hurty knee (it’s getting better), but my goal is to continue plugging away at the WIP, and re-establish both an art studio practice (which requires going up and down stairs) and a proper chair yoga practice (which was not the cause of said hurty knee. I’m pretty sure I banged it and then the ligaments and or kneecap complained, because yesterday I heard a loud click in that region and it has been improving since.
Hello Leanne! It's amazing to hear that a question aligns with something on your mind or a theme you're working on. How cool is that? I keep long reads for later, but sometimes I forget. If it's a writer or story I enjoy, I'll make it work. As a rule, I try to keep my posts short as I think shorter reads work best. It's interesting how I treat other posts different to mine!
On the hurty knee, it seems everyone around me, well three people plus you, have that same issue. There's this guy, physio, who's written a book and has really good YouTube channel on hurty knees and a lot of other issues. Will Harlow is his name, his book is a bible, but you only read the sections that apply to you. I can't find the book so I have no title. Found it... Thriving Over Fifty. He has workouts and physio for people to avoid further injury and damage.
Amazingly, my drafts often say 'too long for email', too, even though they're only a minute or two! Haha! But I've checked by sending a test version to myself, and everything is usually there. So it may just be kicking in too early sometimes. I think it's based on the file size the email will be, so in my case it's having lots of images that triggers it. But a high word count would do it, too. I think they say the emails cut off at around 3000 words? Something like that. And yes, Prompts are great fun. Especially when they're helping the ideas flow. They can definitely be very addictive, for sure... 😎
I'm kinda frozen these days (family stuff, heavy one- decisions are needed but all is not trivial and starts reminding "Sophie's Choice') which brings me to
a) even when I'm not frozen -every try to optimize leads me to being frozen, because I'm, unfortunately or not, me, and the more I try to do/guess what people might potentially like- the more frozen I become. I'm afraid whoever stays- will stay for the mess that's me. Others leave and will continue to do so- unless I become my other mode, "can't shut up" mode, it also can happen. I can't predict myself- it'd be strange if I could predict post length, etc. And it would bother me. It's partially a cultural thing,generational as well.
b) I combine, mysel,f often: i digress, I collect, even within one piece- I jump to and fro' and "grow branches". It might be harder to follow- but that's how I think. Of course I can try and get back to a coherent, "briliant", polished essay version of younger me- but it won't feel like me anymore. Well maybe if it is a bet- I might try. But bets require energy playfulness maybe...things I don't have right now.
In short -to me it's harder to stay on the topic as others might understand it. To me I'm still within the topic because there is no one topic, usually, either.
c) as usual. staying alive. hopefully being able to ...something?
Thank you so much as usual. Running off for now✨✨✨
I know the staying on autopilot for long enough it becomes the standard. Happy to see you here and appreciate your sharing. Sending love and hugs. You are not alone going through heavy loads here even though you deal with your own struggles alone.🙏❤️
That's a great point, yes. You have to write the way you want to, and in a way that works for you, because that's what makes the work authentic and real. The idea of a piece that explores multiple ideas 'growing branches' as the thoughts develop and go off in new directions, is a fantastic way of describing it... 😎
Anyway, on to the questions... How long should a Post be? It's a tricky one, as it definitely depends on the content. Some things require more time than others, and readers are willing to invest the time for some things more than others. For me, I like to always keep things short. Usually, between 1-3 minutes. As that seems to be more in the range where new readers are going to be open to taking a chance, and perhaps more likely to have a look. But it's hard to say what the optimal length is for definite. I've seen people doing really well with very short content, and others doing just as well with much longer things. Ultimately, I think if the quality is there, and readers are enjoying what they're seeing and it's something that's grabbing them, they're going to spend the time on it, however long it is, just as they do with books, whether they're 200 pages, or 400, or even much longer.
Should each Theme have a separate Post, or can you put several ideas and topics in one? Well again, it depends on the type of content. With Fiction, I sometimes put more than one story in a Post, but they're usually themed around a particularly topic. Featuring multiple ideas in a single Post is definitely something that's more common in Articles, and it can work very well. Especially if there's a beginning and end point that ties it all together in some way. But I have seen Posts that cover lots of things in a more chatty style, and that can also be fun, and very relatable.
What are your August plans? Catching up on all the little odd jobs and things I haven't been able to do during this ridiculous heat! And also, hopefully getting my next book ready to make an appearance on Amazon. I haven't released anything for eight months. I'm slacking! Haha... 😎
Okay, I'm late for the game. I didn't know this was even back. Hopefully I'll be able to figure it out and get to it live. And what do I consider a long post? I tend to try and keep them around 2,000-2,500 words. I've had a couple that were too long, but seldom write them that long anymore. As of right now, I'm obsessed with my newest, latest project, which is my take on The Trojan War. The working title, and which I'll probably keep, is The Trojan Cycle.
It's going to be a part of my series: TRILOGY, which are the novellas I write. I'm publishing them in books of three. That's when I got the brilliant--in my mind--idea to write a four volume set of trilogies. I want to write 12 novellas, all inter-connected. I haven't been doing much of anything except working on the first story. I'm even posting it on STORIES, AFTER EIGHT in an effort to force me to keep going. At the pace I'm going, I should have about 25-2600 pages. I'll be putting it out as a four volume set.
As for everything else, I still go to the beat of a different drummer. As always, I write for myself first. I'm growing at a slow, steady pace, and sitting one subscriber away from 1200. I've got 5600 followers. I've also dropped the price of my paid page to $5 for the year. No one's taken me up on it yet. Go figger.
So once I leave here, I'll be back at my story. I had a shit-load of ideas and plans before stumbling across this idea. Now? Not so much. I just want to do this right now, because I love the story. I sometimes neglect other things when I write. I just try to push through and hope people like what I have to offer. Some do, some don't. My numbers go up and down. But I don't sweat the small stuff.
Hello everyone for late night SPAWN!
I've been a bit quiet recently on the Muse. My last post was on the 22nd of July, where I talked about the idea of Cavendish Spaces, and proposing to make a new space, which I call the "bakery". Its purpose is to be a sort of "creative" space, where things are synthesized. You can find the article here: https://theautisticmuse.substack.com/p/the-bakery-extending-the-cavendish?r=1v3058
I've also learned in the past week that a poem of mine will be published in the digital magazine Poetic Reveries in August. That issue will come out on August 8.
Anyway, onwards with the questions...
1. My general philosophy with posts is to ensure that I encapsulate everything that I want to cover. I tend to cover things in quite a lot of detail, so my posts can be quite long. This is more evident when I cover things that have happened in real life, or I'm trying to explain something that has been festering in my head.
The poetry I write is a bit different. A lot of the poetry I write is in a specific form (usually haiku or tanka, although I have played with the limerick form recently), and usually these have either syllable or line requirements that I must follow. When writing free form poetry, I stop when I feel the picture that I wanted to "paint" is complete.
2. For my thought pieces I like keeping ideas separate. This makes it easier for me to reference them later, in the case that my thoughts have evolved or changed.
For poetry pieces I use sections to break the post into two distinct parts - the poem itself, and then my reflection, which is usually steeped in my own experience. Of course, each poem gets its own post.
The Imperfect Singers Club kind of works differently as I highlight last month's entries, and then post the current month's prompt in a post. It utilizes the chat feature quite heavily; each month gets its own thread. This way I can keep track of all the entries easily.
3. August is the month of county fairs! I'll be at both the Niagara County Fair and the Erie County Fair, working on health outreach. I will also be digging into torrin a. greathouse's poetry work, as I've bought her first poetry collection, Wound from the Mouth of a Wound, a couple of days ago. It should arrive at my door on Saturday.
The first question is very apt for what I’m doing right now!
1) How long should a post be? Where do you stand on that? There are many factors that will decide how long someone stays to read your post beyond opening it.
As long or as short as you like. If I see a post that has a read time of over 15 minutes, that is one I know will need my sustained attention, so I’ll want to savour it, especially if it’s from an author I like. My fiction chapters usually hit the “post too long to read in email” because if I made them shorter, we’d still be reading book 3 instead of being into book 4. However, there’s an almost daily fantasy writing challenge going on right now and I am challenging myself in addition to make it a short daily serial, so maybe a 5 minute read. (And today’s might be shorter as I’m struggling. Ahem.)
2). Should each theme have a separate post/article or do you think you can put several different ideas in one and the same post. Could you for example talk about the politics in the middle east, then a personal school story of yours and Cape Verde’s musical history as if your publication is a magazine with various articles? If you write poetry or stories or non-fiction this might look different on your publication, ie you could post four different poems, or two different stories that aren’t linked in any way. How does that work?
Well, you could if you could tie it all together it could go into one post/article, but your example very much sounds like three different articles, in which case your entire publication is that magazine with its own sections.
3). What are your August plans?
I have a hurty knee (it’s getting better), but my goal is to continue plugging away at the WIP, and re-establish both an art studio practice (which requires going up and down stairs) and a proper chair yoga practice (which was not the cause of said hurty knee. I’m pretty sure I banged it and then the ligaments and or kneecap complained, because yesterday I heard a loud click in that region and it has been improving since.
Hello Leanne! It's amazing to hear that a question aligns with something on your mind or a theme you're working on. How cool is that? I keep long reads for later, but sometimes I forget. If it's a writer or story I enjoy, I'll make it work. As a rule, I try to keep my posts short as I think shorter reads work best. It's interesting how I treat other posts different to mine!
On the hurty knee, it seems everyone around me, well three people plus you, have that same issue. There's this guy, physio, who's written a book and has really good YouTube channel on hurty knees and a lot of other issues. Will Harlow is his name, his book is a bible, but you only read the sections that apply to you. I can't find the book so I have no title. Found it... Thriving Over Fifty. He has workouts and physio for people to avoid further injury and damage.
Hope you're feeling better soon!
Amazingly, my drafts often say 'too long for email', too, even though they're only a minute or two! Haha! But I've checked by sending a test version to myself, and everything is usually there. So it may just be kicking in too early sometimes. I think it's based on the file size the email will be, so in my case it's having lots of images that triggers it. But a high word count would do it, too. I think they say the emails cut off at around 3000 words? Something like that. And yes, Prompts are great fun. Especially when they're helping the ideas flow. They can definitely be very addictive, for sure... 😎
Yeah, I was going to say it’s the images. My line break graphic usually does it.
Hi dearWriter everyone,
I'm kinda frozen these days (family stuff, heavy one- decisions are needed but all is not trivial and starts reminding "Sophie's Choice') which brings me to
a) even when I'm not frozen -every try to optimize leads me to being frozen, because I'm, unfortunately or not, me, and the more I try to do/guess what people might potentially like- the more frozen I become. I'm afraid whoever stays- will stay for the mess that's me. Others leave and will continue to do so- unless I become my other mode, "can't shut up" mode, it also can happen. I can't predict myself- it'd be strange if I could predict post length, etc. And it would bother me. It's partially a cultural thing,generational as well.
b) I combine, mysel,f often: i digress, I collect, even within one piece- I jump to and fro' and "grow branches". It might be harder to follow- but that's how I think. Of course I can try and get back to a coherent, "briliant", polished essay version of younger me- but it won't feel like me anymore. Well maybe if it is a bet- I might try. But bets require energy playfulness maybe...things I don't have right now.
In short -to me it's harder to stay on the topic as others might understand it. To me I'm still within the topic because there is no one topic, usually, either.
c) as usual. staying alive. hopefully being able to ...something?
Thank you so much as usual. Running off for now✨✨✨
I know the staying on autopilot for long enough it becomes the standard. Happy to see you here and appreciate your sharing. Sending love and hugs. You are not alone going through heavy loads here even though you deal with your own struggles alone.🙏❤️
Thank you dear Writer. Sending love, hugs and strength💙
That's a great point, yes. You have to write the way you want to, and in a way that works for you, because that's what makes the work authentic and real. The idea of a piece that explores multiple ideas 'growing branches' as the thoughts develop and go off in new directions, is a fantastic way of describing it... 😎
Hi everyone!
Happy Thursday to you all!
So this week, it's been a busy one over at 'Tales of The Zeitgeist'. There were three Posts. Yay!
The first was a little piece of Microfiction that was part of the 'Heatwave' Event on 'Top in Fiction'. You can find that here: https://chrisjfranklin.substack.com/p/the-heat
The second was the new edition of 'Haiku Highlights', showcasing some of the contributions that were submitted to the 'House of Haiku' during July. You can find that here: https://chrisjfranklin.substack.com/p/haiku-highlights-july-2026
And the third was this week's new Haiku Prompt, which is all about having some summer fun at the 'beach'. You can find that here: https://chrisjfranklin.substack.com/p/house-of-haiku-prompt-beach
Anyway, on to the questions... How long should a Post be? It's a tricky one, as it definitely depends on the content. Some things require more time than others, and readers are willing to invest the time for some things more than others. For me, I like to always keep things short. Usually, between 1-3 minutes. As that seems to be more in the range where new readers are going to be open to taking a chance, and perhaps more likely to have a look. But it's hard to say what the optimal length is for definite. I've seen people doing really well with very short content, and others doing just as well with much longer things. Ultimately, I think if the quality is there, and readers are enjoying what they're seeing and it's something that's grabbing them, they're going to spend the time on it, however long it is, just as they do with books, whether they're 200 pages, or 400, or even much longer.
Should each Theme have a separate Post, or can you put several ideas and topics in one? Well again, it depends on the type of content. With Fiction, I sometimes put more than one story in a Post, but they're usually themed around a particularly topic. Featuring multiple ideas in a single Post is definitely something that's more common in Articles, and it can work very well. Especially if there's a beginning and end point that ties it all together in some way. But I have seen Posts that cover lots of things in a more chatty style, and that can also be fun, and very relatable.
What are your August plans? Catching up on all the little odd jobs and things I haven't been able to do during this ridiculous heat! And also, hopefully getting my next book ready to make an appearance on Amazon. I haven't released anything for eight months. I'm slacking! Haha... 😎
Okay, I'm late for the game. I didn't know this was even back. Hopefully I'll be able to figure it out and get to it live. And what do I consider a long post? I tend to try and keep them around 2,000-2,500 words. I've had a couple that were too long, but seldom write them that long anymore. As of right now, I'm obsessed with my newest, latest project, which is my take on The Trojan War. The working title, and which I'll probably keep, is The Trojan Cycle.
It's going to be a part of my series: TRILOGY, which are the novellas I write. I'm publishing them in books of three. That's when I got the brilliant--in my mind--idea to write a four volume set of trilogies. I want to write 12 novellas, all inter-connected. I haven't been doing much of anything except working on the first story. I'm even posting it on STORIES, AFTER EIGHT in an effort to force me to keep going. At the pace I'm going, I should have about 25-2600 pages. I'll be putting it out as a four volume set.
As for everything else, I still go to the beat of a different drummer. As always, I write for myself first. I'm growing at a slow, steady pace, and sitting one subscriber away from 1200. I've got 5600 followers. I've also dropped the price of my paid page to $5 for the year. No one's taken me up on it yet. Go figger.
So once I leave here, I'll be back at my story. I had a shit-load of ideas and plans before stumbling across this idea. Now? Not so much. I just want to do this right now, because I love the story. I sometimes neglect other things when I write. I just try to push through and hope people like what I have to offer. Some do, some don't. My numbers go up and down. But I don't sweat the small stuff.
It's time once again for... 'Late Night SPAWN'! 🕺😎🕺