John Ray Pucay

6 days ago | writingtoearn.substack.com | John Ray Pucay |Michael Thompson |Darius Foroux

Hey there, it’s John here, from the Writing to (L)Earn team. I want to share a comment from one of my pieces outside Substack that I believe captures a concern many writers here share:Let’s break this down. First, there is the pressure to aggressively market your work, especially when you are starting out with no real audience. If you post on Substack or your blog when you have zero audience, you are likely to get very few or no readers.

1 week ago | medium.com | John Ray Pucay

The real reason you’re not getting readsSix months into my writing journey, I stared at my screen in frustration. Despite publishing consistently on Medium, my stats remained flat. That “build it and they will come” promise felt like a cruel joke. I almost joined the 95% of writers who quit before seeing results. What changed wasn’t some magical writing technique or algorithm hack. Most of us start writing while juggling day jobs and other responsibilities.

2 weeks ago | writingtoearn.substack.com | Michael Thompson |John Ray Pucay |Darius Foroux

Hi there, it’s Michael here. I began writing in late 2016, and despite raising two young kids and fighting to keep the lights on, I went at it pretty hard. But in September of 2021, I hit a wall. Every time I sat down at my computer, writing felt like work. I hated that feeling. Like a lot of people, I do my best writing when it doesn’t feel like work. I knew I had to step away. So, I took my first extended break since I began writing for a living.

3 weeks ago | medium.com | John Ray Pucay

Member-only storyA long mountain run taught me something about willJohn Pucay·FollowPublished inIn Fitness And In Health·6 min read·--Me, running in one of my other mountain races. Photo provided by Author. The gun fires, and I start slowly, one small step after another. It is a mountain race through the Ifugao Rice Terraces in the Phillippines. I’m not expecting to finish among the Top 3 runners — or to win a “podium” as they call it — but I want to finish with a decent pace.

3 weeks ago | writingtoearn.substack.com | John Ray Pucay

You've probably read the same books on writing as I have. King's On Writing, Le Guin's Steering the Craft, and Hemingway's letters about writing. Maybe you also own Save The Cat!, The Elements of Style, and On Writing Well. These books all tell you the same basic things: write every day, read a lot, find your own style, and get comfortable with rewriting. They talk about everything from how to write good sentences to where to find ideas. But there's one thing they almost never talk about.