Nuria Sheehan on Blogs, Newsletters, and Getting Comfortable With Your Own Writing
Nuria Sheehan is a Loft writer and Loft teaching artist. Her new upcoming class Writing Blogs and Newsletters starts June 16. Here we discuss her approach to this class and why she thinks it is an important avenue for writers to explore.
1. Many writers have scraps tucked away in private journals or half-finished Word docs. What benefits do you see when a writer moves to building those scraps into a blog or newsletter?
Keeping a private journal is a fantastic practice. It’s your place to play with ideas and be weird or cringey because no one else will see it. It's comfortable and safe, and for most writers it’s absolutely essential.
Putting our work out into the world, at least for most of us, can be a bit uncomfortable. And that’s great news! Because getting better at anything requires getting uncomfortable.
When we share work online, we know readers are giving us a gift of their attention, and we want to return that gift with something worthwhile. It pushes us to create clearer, more compelling writing.
Publishing online also means making a public commitment to keep going. And when you make a commitment to regular, online writing, it tends to call in new creative energies and ideas.
2. Let's talk about audience: how does the presence of an 'audience' (even a small one) help a writer refine their ideas in ways that solitary writing might not?
Even if you don't announce your publication -- if you don't want anyone in your life to know about it – you’re still thinking of an audience, because there are always potential readers.
I teach Digital Publishing at DePaul, and many students don't publicize the sites they create in the class. But they tell me they challenge themselves to write better just knowing their work is out in the world, being read beyond classroom feedback.
Online writing is a sort of third way between writing just for yourself and writing for others. Your posts aren't assignments from a publication with its own expectations. A blog or newsletter is your own world, your own rules. You set the style guide, you decide how polished or rough to be. It's whatever you want your tiny magazine to be. But it’s not a walled-off secret garden; it’s out there for others.
And writing for real readers helps us sharpen our language, clarify our ideas, and develop a voice that's conversational and approachable.
3. So, how can blogging help writers develop their own voice? And can it be applied to other writing (essays, stories, etc.)? Or is there a risk of veering into a certain internet-type of voice?
Online writing is voicey. As readers, we can find writers on any subject, but we stick to the ones with a distinct voice, the ones that sound like a friend you'd follow through any meandering exploration of ideas.
You discover your voice by putting it out there and seeing if it feels true. It doesn’t have to be the entire truth of your whole self, but a truth. Trying on a specific voice doesn't commit you to that voice forever. Your voice might evolve as your publication does. But you find it by doing, trying and re-trying.
And that experimentation builds the skill to develop your voice and variations on it across different forms.
I think of Sue William Silverman. She talks about having distinct voices between her books and different voices within a single memoir. Experimenting with the voice of your publications helps develop that sort of range.
4. Some may feel intimidated or overwhelmed by the tech side of starting something like this. How does your upcoming class help writers deal with their questions or fears around this?
Platforms like Medium, Substack, and Ghost try to be user-friendly, but the number of features and options tend to be overwhelming. Then if you start getting into best practices and things like SEO and accessibility, it can all be a bit much. You just want to be writing and all of a sudden, you’re down a rabbit hole trying to figure out what in the world AIO is all about!
In this class, I’ll focus on simplifying and demystifying tech and best practices, so we can focus on pieces that do matter, i.e., what will help make your posts readable and accessible. We won’t get bogged down in the tech details, but enough of what you need to get started and feel comfortable to keep going on your own.
I also send a pre-class survey to see where people are at. If there are a lot of tech concerns, I'll adapt the class to spend more time on those. If the group is more comfortable with tech, or if the group mixed, I'll move faster or set up breakout groups for different needs. And of course, I'll be available for specific issues that come up!
5. How will this class help students get their first post out there and also keep going with their publication?
This class combines inspiration and craft, along with very practical things. We'll cover naming your publication, setting it up for flexibility, and writing a first (or relaunch) post that introduces your publication without feeling like a bland summary.
We'll look at different post structures and types that can help generate ideas. We’ll also get into techniques and creative practices to keep the words flowing, from topic calendars and web alerts to different journaling habits.
We'll also practice cultivating the kind of writer-mind that keeps us curious throughout our days, so that in a way we’re always writing. I want students to leave the class with a publication plus a writing practice they can keep developing.