A deep dive into my Substack writing formula

As a full time creative ✒️

Hello, I’m Molly, a full time creator based in the Scottish Highlands. Subscribers can enjoy weekly posts around the themes of slow living, thriving in a creative career, books & nature. Members get access to ALL my content, including video tea times, slow letters and seasonal book reviews.

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This month marks the fifth year of me sharing my writing online.

What started as a personal blog, intending to be a small lock-down project, has remarkably turned into my full time job.

I’ve been writing on Substack since August 2022, which coincided with me making the decision to leave Instagram as I wanted to refocus my energy on creating something that really provided value to myself and my community.

Over the years, through much trial and error, I’ve honed a writing formula that means I am able to publish consistently and maintain a standard that I can be proud of.

This is the formula I wanted to share today. Settle in, it could be a long one.

(Important note that this is only my process, as someone who is a full time creative, and it’s not always the same for every post e.g., some are more fluid/stream of consciousness writing – but this is the process I follow as a general rule.)

Planning

Content buckets

Planning is an essential part of my writing process. I do all of this in Notion using my Blogger Planner that I sell on my Etsy store.

By the time I’d moved my writing to Substack (after previously having a blog on Wix), I’d figured out what I wanted to write about and this generally fell into 4 categories, which became my ‘content buckets.’

I’ve named these slow stories (general musings/reflective posts), slow creative career (more instructive writing from my experience as a full time creative – like this one), book nook (all my bookish writing) and Scottish nature diary (home to all my nature writing).

Having these buckets both adds variety and gives me structure when it comes to thinking up post ideas. It also makes it clear to potential readers what they will be getting if they choose to subscribe.

Master ideas list

I tend to have my best writing ideas when I’m away from my desk e.g., when on a dog walk. To capture these, I try and keep my pocket notebook to hand (which I write about here) or use the notes app in my phone as a backup.

I then transfer these to my master ‘ideas’ page in my Notion, listing each idea under the content bucket they fall into. This means I always have something to pull on and am not stuck for ideas when it comes to writing.

Monthly content planning

I like to have an idea of what I will be writing for at least the next 3-4 weeks. I do this by using the calendar tool in Notion, where I write the draft post title (that I pulled from my ideas page) and any initial thoughts that I can refer to later.

Visualising my content this way means that I can balance out the topics I’m writing about, so my writing doesn’t feel repetitive (for me or my readers!).

Weekly content planning

I use the same template for planning all my Substack posts, that is pre-loaded into my content calendar. This includes headings like title ideas, first sentence draft and any relevant call to action’s I want to include e.g., sending readers to read more of my writing, watch my YouTube or visit my Etsy or Teemill store.

I use this template to store information when researching posts ahead of time, such as links and summary notes.

Finally, I plan out my entire post in a bullet point format, that I can expand on later.

Writing

Choose a writing location

Although I do most of my work from home, I’ve found my writer’s brain benefits from mixing up my location now and again. I’ve always enjoyed working from cafes and have recently started writing from my wee camper, even if I’m not far from home. Not only does this help romanticise my life, it also means I’m less likely to get distracted by household chores etc!

Writing rituals

My writing rituals help to get me into my creative flow and I try and keep these in place wherever I end up writing.

My most important ritual is to have a hot drink by my side. At home, this will be tea whereas I prefer coffee if I’m at a café (as I don’t make good coffee myself!). If I’m in the van, I have the option of making tea (I keep a range of teabags in the van at all time) or getting a takeout coffee in my favourite Hydroflask.

The second ritual is to listen to music. This is always classical, and I enjoy finding playlists on YouTube (this is one of my favourite channels). I make sure that I have a couple downloaded to my phone, in case I don’t happen to have signal, and always listen to it using my headphones to block out external noise.

Write post

I either compile my first draft directly into Substack or in Word, depending on whether I have reliable internet connection. I like to get my entire first draft down in one sitting if possible, building on the bullet points I lifted from my Notion template.

Ideally, I give myself a break before I then go in and edit. After reading it through a few times, I’ll use the ‘read aloud’ function within Word, which is great at picking out typos or clunky sentences!

Finishing touches

When I’m happy with the text, I’m then able to add in a few final flourishes. I pick a photo, add in any links, copy out my intro blurb (that I use for all my posts to give a bit of background for new readers) and add subscribe/share buttons. I’ll also signpost readers to more of my writing by linking some relevant articles at the end of my post.

Publish

As I write ahead of time, I always schedule my posts to go live at 8am on Monday.

I return to the post to respond to any comments in the week it is published, which is one of the most fulfilling parts of what I do. I can’t always reply to everyone (I prefer to focus my time on creating the best content possible) but I always leave my comments on to give my community space to chat with each other, that is always lovely to see.

I enjoy sharing my processes as a full-time writer/creative, so let me know if there is anything else you would like me to share. I always appreciate your feedback!

Until next week,

Molly xx

In case you fancied sticking around…

A year of being a Substack bestseller

My favourite writing resources for 2025

The hard truths of content creation