I'm Stepping Back
I’m not quitting just to be clear; Senchas Claideb isn’t getting taken down by me or some other entity; and I won’t completely vanish from the platform.
In light of changes outside of my control that Substack is making in response to growing trends in content demands on social media, as well as my own choice to minimize my time online, and my career as a writer and academic, I’m choosing not to dedicate as much time to Substack this coming year. I don’t make this lightly as I’ve invested hundreds of hours into writing, promoting, and researching for a lot of my posts. In my two-and-a-half years on the platform, I’ve received great feedback and met some fantastic writers whom I have been sorely remiss to return the courtesy of reading their work when they’ve taken the time to read and share mine.
When I prepared to start my Substack, I had been made aware of the self promotion and growth tactics the top writers on the platform utilized to gain their audience and eventually move to earning some income from there. I don’t think I anticipated exactly how much work would go into tinkering with my posts, the SEO keywords, and playing to the algorithm’s—and general audiences’—tune. My content mostly being scholarly and fiction-related also didn’t seem to help with penetrating the more political, self-help, slice-of-life blogging that dominates the platform. I also didn’t anticipate how much would go into the idea of “showing up” no matter how easy most gurus make it out to sound. I’ll be the first to admit I haven’t been the best community member as evidenced by my statement regarding fellow writers’ works above, but I generally have a difficult time getting motivated engaging with communities or individuals online. This isn’t an excuse for not providing support where it’s due, but I suppose it’s a reflection of where I want my socialization priorities to be; I’m more inclined to maintain friendships and social relations when I can actually speak with a real person rather than through the medium of a digital platform.
At one point when I was younger, I had the idea of trying to make it as a YouTuber or streamer and was tempted by the idea of just making sketches or filming myself gaming instead of working a 9-5. I’m sure I wasn’t alone in my generation, as evidenced by the number of 20 and 30-somethings on the platform making it into their fulltime gigs. Although I could have started that at any point in my life, I didn’t—mostly because I couldn’t get anyone to film with me. When I discovered Substack, I had similar ideations where I just might be able to make a bit of income off my writing. I was at a point where I had been getting frustrated with my attempts at selling short stories to publications and the prospects of traditional publishing, so I believed this would finally be the place where I could break more ground. Now, that’s sort of come full circle where I feel like my attempts to submit work to magazines and other calls for subs have suffered because of my dedication to Substack. There isn’t as much feedback or immediate rejection when it comes to publishing stuff on here; most fiction goes unread. I can’t tell why a story wouldn’t do so well other than it simply not being optimized for search engines.
In both instances, I sorely misunderstood or refused to learn about the landscape of making a living on social media. My particular upbringing didn’t prioritize getting constantly updated with the latest tech or functions of the internet, and although many might say your upbringing doesn’t have to define you in terms of what you’re able to learn as an adult or what you’re able to do as one, I simply choose not to dedicate myself to learning this digital environment. I never placed much stock in the internet other than it being a novelty and easy method of communication; I don’t believe in it as a powerful tool for optimizing work or making life easier; I don’t think it, or anything on it is going to last forever and would prefer not to have my best work or any trace of myself exist solely online.
I realize now that Substack is not where I’m going to make a living. I’m dedicated to writing as much as ever and I know where I want to redirect my efforts for learning, work, and play. I’m still going to use the platform for some (highly) informal writing, but I’m at a point where I’m throwing in the towel on making it an actual business. The top earners on here likely didn’t strike gold with it as their main income; most already had a career and an audience before coming here; and they’re content with the things they write about ad nauseum. For me, there are other paths I’ll be seeking out to write my stories and essays, and if there isn’t a place that exists where I can put them, I’ll make it so, somehow.
What 2026 Holds
There are a lot of things happening for me in 2026 and things I’m choosing to focus on this coming year. The biggest concerns my academic career; I will be speaking at IMC Leeds in England this Summer, giving a paper on the video game GreedFall, which I’ve written about at length already here on Substack.
I am also in the process of identifying a PhD dissertation topic, and shopping around for schools and advisors. The search alone is taking up a fair amount of my time and I’m chomping at the bit to make a decision on that. It’s most definitely going to be something related to Celtic Studies, if you hadn’t already guessed. Yes it’s a big, and uncertain, career leap that I imagine some might be shaking their heads at sympathetically, thinking, This kid is going to starve. Maybe I will, but at least I’ll still be writing.
And that’s the main thing: I’m going to focus on my writing that won’t appear on Substack. As I said above, the rush to write weekly content, I’ve felt, has been damaging to my abilities as a writer. Dedicating more time to writing, learning about the craft, and enjoying other art that moves me, I think, is the remedy I need. It was an interesting experiment to see how quickly I could write, revise, and publish with the deadlines I gave myself, but very little of what I was writing ended up feeling all that genuine or significant to me. While it might’ve shown what I could get done while I was writing on the clock, it didn’t leave things room to breathe outside of my own head until I hit “post.”
For the small amount of Substack projects I’ll be working on, scholarly reviews are likely going to be the main priority. I’m still working my way through season 1 of Outsiders and will start rolling out some articles on that. I won’t be on a regular schedule anymore (content creator consistency be damned), but will try to make it at least a monthly post. I think most people come to my Substack for the scholarly articles anyway, so I’m more than happy to relegate Senchas Claideb to hosting those more so than my fiction.
What’s Happening with my Serials?
This is one of the more difficult decisions I’ve had to mull over as I didn’t want my Substack to become one of those story graveyards where you’ll find reams of unfinished serialized novels. The nature of two of my serials, however, leaves them open to be continued at a later date or appear in episodes outside of Substack—which is honestly where I’d prefer they be published.
When it comes to fiction overall, for me at least it’s a bit of a task to come up with wholly original stories simply to post on here every month as I experienced with my first year and a half of writing on Substack. My mind likes to stick a little more with regular, series characters with brief digressions into standalones. Some of the latter might appear on Substack, but for the most part I’ll be focusing on selling my fiction to magazines, anthologies, and indie pubs. Self-publishing might also be in the cards, which would require me to step back into the realm of social media somewhat, but it wouldn’t be my main focus—the stories are.
The Hunters’ Moon
I think the stories of Maelos and Voth and the Gilded Kestrels I have so far are a neat enough collection for newcomers to begin and launch off from. I’m keen to work on their cycle a little more in depth and shop some of their stories around to different markets.
The Adventures of Eachann and Connor
Eachann and Connor’s stories are certainly not over. They appeared among my first paid publications and have been featured in print as recently as last year (2024) in DMR Books’ Die By the Sword volume 2. There are loads more stories I have planned for them, some longer than others. I can’t say for certain when their next yarn will appear in print, but they are a priority in the number of works I have juggling at once.
Damn Clowns
Damn Clowns might continue on here for a bit. Even though this series has not received as much attention or enjoyment—I have an inkling this may have cost me some subscribers, to which I understand—but this story has been a bit of an intrusive thought where I can’t help but want to write out the bizarre scenarios that come to me. It won’t be a priority, however, as in the last throes of 2025, I have almost lost steam with it entirely despite it being a newish project. Given how niche and vulgar it is, I wouldn’t expect it to have a great many markets I could try and sell it to. (That being said, if anyone does know of a publisher interested in killer clowns shenanigans, feel free to drop a link to them in the comments.)
What else is changing?
In addition to the reduced number of posts, I’ll also be making some changes to the “growth optimization” stuff you’ll see on Senchas Claideb. I’m doing away with the referral system completely as it hasn’t gained any sort of traction. The two rewards I had on there—the personalized Gaelic phrase and suggestions for what I review next—are now just things I’m opening the door to folks messaging me about if they have genuine questions or suggestions. In terms of Gaelic phrases (in Modern Scottish Gaelic or Old Irish), I’m willing to do translation work for a bit of coin but don’t admit any sort of mastery of either language as of now.
My posts also won’t have any links to my other socials since I won’t be dedicating much time to them either. I may hop into Notes once in a while, likely to see what’s going on with “Warrior Wednesdays” and “Sword & Saturdays” organized by The Man Behind the Screen who kindly ranks me among the “Champions of Fantasystack,” though I understand entirely if this departure from consistency would see me removed from that category. In any case, as I said above, it’s time for me to give some credit where it’s due to other writers I am interested in following.
Ultimately, my goals now are not for exposure or clout—they might be byproducts of my efforts but they are not the priority—it is for recapturing or developing the authenticity I’ve been longing for in my writing. I don’t feel like I can do that when I’m so focused on the numbers or “making the rounds.” Some writers say that the business, marketing, or social media side of things is what helps break up the day and actually boost productivity. For me, I don’t believe that’s the case. Maybe I’ve just let myself get wrapped up in all the wrong parts of social media, but I would rather commit as much of the day as I can to actually writing. Not scrolling, not marketing, but writing. Shopping for places to sell my stuff will be part of that, of course, but it’s just another step in the process to getting in print.
Speaking of which, as of the writing of this post, I’m happy to announce that two more original stories of mine will be appearing in two publications in the new year, both slated for Spring 2026. I have one in Crimson Quill Quarterly’s April issue and DMR Books’ latest themed anthology Walpurgis Witcheries. I’m very excited for these stories in particular and hope you’ll pick up copies for yourselves when they release.
To my fellow writers…
I hope with this newly-freed schedule I can finally get around to reading your stories, serials, and essays. However, please understand there’s only a certain amount of time I’m willing to put myself in front of a screen, and there’s likely more work out there than in all the Western Canon I could hope to read. I hope in the short bursts of time I allow myself on Substack, I can finally get around to reading other stories and giving credit where it’s due and deserved.
Truth be told, I prefer the workshop setting that happens prior to submissions for magazines, I enjoy getting to open up discussions with people using the medium of critiquing stories. I don’t have as much time to do that as I did before Substack, and I’d like some of it back.
That being said, I want to take this time to offer my interest in workshopping anything you might have, whether it’s something you’re publishing here or something you’re planning to publish in a magazine, I’m certainly open to swapping stories and giving feedback. I’m very thorough when it comes to WIPs and do my best to provide meaningful critiques. This isn’t me trying to sell a service (unlike my translation work), but just an invitation to reach out via DMs or email to share what we have and swap meaningful critiques. I understand folks may have deadlines (especially if they’re publishing on Substack) so I’ll be respectful of that so I don’t dally, but will also give the best feedback I can about your stories.
And to my readers…
I know this probably isn’t the news you wanted to hear, whether you’ve been subscribed to Senchas Claideb for a while or only joined recently. If you are the person who prefers their creators publishing weekly and are actively moving and shaking on your favorite platforms, I understand if you take your attentions elsewhere. Like I’ve been saying, I’m not giving up completely, I’m just looking to take my writing to actual physical print as much as I can. When that happens, I’ll be sure to let everyone who still follows know where you can find my stuff and how you can support it.
That being said, the more people who know, the better, and while I’m not trying hard to “grow my audience” or optimize my stuff for the masses, I still hope I can reach the right people and inspire them. Word of mouth will be instrumental in that case, sharing with friends and family gets it to the right people, and leaving a comment or review once in a while really counts—not just for my stories, but for any author you follow.
Thanks for reading. Hope you all have a great year!
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You gave it a good run, and produced plenty of interesting content and stories, but with the changes to Substack and nature of social media, insight an uphill battle. I am glad you are focusing on your priorities and I can't wait to see more of your stories in print.
I’m not one for “political, self-help, slice-of-life blogging”, I hate to see you go, but completely understand the point you have made. It's nice to see a shared feeling towards digital landscapes. I look forward to handheld publications of Eachann and Connor, if ever available, enjoying them where I’ve found them. I did not know about Maelos and Voth and the Gilded Kestrels and look forward to adventuring with them. Good luck and Godspeed.