Celebrating one year on Substack

What I've learned, how I've changed and future plans

This week marks one whole year of my Substack blog The Softer Gaze. I started off tentatively, really not knowing what response I would get and what I would end up writing. I just knew that I have been writing all my life and it is my main means of expression, and Substack looked like the perfect platform for sharing my musings with others. Publishers are so difficult to engage these days! Unless you have a network of 10,000+ contacts they don’t want to know. Substack is the ideal platform for these times - at least for people like me.

It has been an interesting journey and has definitely given me more confidence in continuing to write. I have found that interests vary. Some people like my more informative articles on Buddhism while others show enthusiasm for my personal writing. As a result I have decided to mix things up and to include both threads all the way along so I satisfy a broad range of readers. My plan is to continue in this way.

I made the decision to make my posts and the …