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I’m so pleased to bring you my interview with Laurie Stone. She writes the literary Substack Everything Is Personal. In this conversation, we talk about how she grew her Substack so quickly—plus her writing process, her approach to “marketing,” Notes, publishing, the nature of narrative, and how she seduces the reader.

She also shares her checklist for writing posts and Notes that resonate with her readers:

* Start in the middle,

* fail to arrive,

* remember to love something,

* make the reader hot,

* make the reader laugh.

She was a longtime writer for the Village Voice (1974-1999), which comes up here. She’s also the author of six books, most recently Streaming Now, Postcards from the Thing that is Happening (Dottir Press, 2022), long listed for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. She writes for The Paris Review, Evergreen Review, and Galerie. 

You can join her monthly Zoom conversations on writing craft by contacting her at [email protected]. 

Subscribe to Everything Is Personal here: https://lauriestone.substack.com/

Timestamps:

00:15 Laurie’s Substack success

02:14 Narrative techniques

04:39 Using Notes and social media

05:51 Teaching and workshops

09:41 Laurie’s writing process

17:37 Building a sustainable Substack

25:47 What’s next for Everything Is Personal

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