everything i learned about writing

or my 2024 wrapped and a substack post about substack, among other things

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2024 will be my year I said to myself on December 31, 2023. I sat silently in my room, waiting for the clock to strike midnight, alone, a little bit drunk, and very sad. I searched for my journal, turning over pillows and upending the stack of books I had at the foot of my bed. Over the last few years, I established a routine: I used the last few minutes of the year to sit and write, to reflect on my year, and set goals for the next. My journal was missing, I felt overwhelmed with the feelings I needed to get out, but I pushed them down, sat quietly, and let the feelings envelop me.

I woke up the next morning with a deep sadness. 2024 had begun and I felt the same hopelessness that pervaded my 2023. I don’t know what prompted it, maybe it was my missing journal or the feelings so intensely circulating in my mind, but I grabbed my laptop, logged onto the dormant Substack account I had, and began to write. I wrote for myself, to get all of my emotions out onto the figurative page, and to remind myself that no matter how I was feeling, I would be able to express it through my writing.

On January 1, 2024, I had 18 Substack subscribers, a lot of unresolved trauma, and infinite words looking to find a home on the page.

everything i learned about love, parties, writing

Writing has always been an important part of my life. I journal almost daily, write down story ideas and little tidbits in my notes app, and express myself the clearest and most efficiently through writing. In the piece I posted on the first day of 2024, I discussed my hesitancy to set resolutions for myself, and I wrote, “i will do everything i can to make 2024 meaningful to me, in whatever way that looks” and without even realizing, in writing that and publishing that, I was taking the first step.

I’ve never tried to publish my writing before, I’ve had a very average internet presence throughout my life. When I first made this account, I was going to use it to share essays I wrote during class, but after one, that fizzled out. The idea of putting my writing on the internet meant that it would be seen by my best friends, my mom, and maybe a couple of people I loosely know through my friends or family. I made a promise to myself that no matter what I wrote, it would be for me first. The pieces I would write would mean something to me, they would be whatever I felt necessary to write about in the moment.

I wrote on here for a few months, publishing exactly four essays for the audience of my friends until one weird, unlikely day in mid-April. The second essay (the first piece of cultural critique, and something I had written during my lunch break at my finance job) began to receive a lot of attention. I was overwhelmed and immediately deleted the Substack app from my phone.

from pinterest

That was a turning point for me, I realized there were people out there who cared about what I was saying, they found my writing compelling or interesting, something I still have a hard time reckoning with. There have been a billion little moments where I’ve logged onto this website and read a comment or connected with another writer and realized how lucky and grateful I am. It makes me deeply emotional to think about it, and it’s always a little bit surreal when I see the number of people who elect to receive emails from me.

My passion for writing, the joy I find within it has only grown since I started doing this. I’ve had a few specific takeaways, and I want to share them with you. I've never really shared writing advice because everyone is so different (and also I don’t feel qualified to give it, despite my bachelor’s degree in journalism), but these are some of the biggest lessons I’ve learned this year through constantly writing and sharing that writing:

• If you feel like something is important or interesting to write about, write it, it doesn’t matter if you think no one will read it. Writing for yourself feels the best.

• Read constantly. I got this advice from my favorite professor in my college’s journalism program, and it’s one of the most crucial aspects to feeling confident in your writing and cultivating your own style. You learn what sounds good to you and it becomes ingrained in you.

• Don’t compare yourself or your stats to other writers. This is more substack than writing specific, but just like life, everyone moves at their own pace, what works for someone isn’t going to work for everyone and that is okay! Delete the app, turn off email notifications, focus on what is important to convey in your writing.

• Bounce ideas off of people in your life. If I’m stuck in the middle of an essay or if I’m trying to get ideas from my brain to the page, sometimes talking it through can make all the difference and can help form more developed ideas or lead me down a path I might not have expected.

• You are in control. If you’ve read my work you must know by now that I have a lot of anxiety surrounding control. I often remind myself that everything I write here I share by choice. There are certain “off-limits” topics or experiences that while I love you guys, I’m unwilling to discuss. I think having boundaries is important for me (and also why I have a journal) but it also solidifies that I can choose to write about or share whatever feels right to me.

For the first time, I can actually see myself being a capital W Writer. I’ve always pursued some element of that, but through substack, through people’s princess, and through you, I have hope and a burning desire to make this work for me. I get superstitious and nervous that saying my hopes and dreams out loud will make them less likely to come true, but since I’m writing this on my computer I can tell you: I desperately want to write a book. If you asked me a year ago if that dream that I’ve held close to my heart since I was a little girl would ever come true I would laugh. I’m more confident now, as a person and in my writing, so you never know.

people’s princess wrapped

In 2024, I published 46 pieces (47 if you include this one) and most were some kind of personal essay/cultural critique hybrid or just a plain and simple personal essay. Writing this had me going back through my archive, re-reading pieces I haven’t looked at in months or some that hurt a little too much to read. I’ve shared so much of my life on here, I can track so much of my growth through my writing. To honor the beautiful tradition of assembling pieces of media to form a picture of the year, here is my 2024 (in essays) wrapped:

the essay i hold closest to my heart:

mediocrity is a knife

the essay i felt the most satisfied with when i posted it:

i'm ready to take a sledgehammer to tiktok HQ

the essay that performed the best with the people:

oh so you're a thought daughter now? should i call joan didion?

the essay that makes me cry whenever i read it back:

just me & my dog and an impossible view

the essay that i think about the most often:

girls being girls: girl hobbies, consumerism, and the 24-year-old teenager

the essay that my friends like the most:

we don't have to work it out on the remix

the essay i can’t look back at:

this is me trying

the essay i want to to live inside of:

i'm not scared of the ocean anymore

interlude-powerpuff

you can guess who’s who

I heard someone say that the people you need most come into your life when you least expect it. I have the best friends in the world, I’m lucky enough to talk with most of them almost every day, and for the ones I don’t get to speak to as regularly, I know we’ll always pick up exactly where we left off. One of the greatest gifts 2024 and Substack brought me has been

eleanor kang

and

faith zapata

.

I’m having a hard time finding the words to describe just how grateful I am for these girls. It’s funny, we’ve all said that though we met through the internet, Faith and I have never met in person, Elle and I had 2 days together, we could never just be “internet friends.” I tell everything to them, we talk constantly and openly, and I know that they’ll be there for me in a heartbeat if I need them. In a year where I’ve felt so isolated and so uncertain about myself, this friendship has been molded and carefully tucked close to my heart.

Even if someday I stop writing on here, I’ll always be eternally grateful for Substack, without it I would never have met the best girls in the world. I love you both.

yearly favorites

For the majority of the essays I publish, I end with a “weekly favorites” section, just a quick list of people, events, things, music, etc. that I’ve been grateful for. This post is a love letter to the year I’ve had, it’s all because of you, so I felt like it would be fitting to talk about what impacted me the most in 2024:

• moving in with Paul

• my trip to Delaware with Sofia

• I was going to pick one book I read that I loved the most, but I can’t so here are three:

  • The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante

  • Thirst for Salt by Madelaine Lucas

  • The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

• my daily (and often very random) conversations with Sofia and

  Andrew Powers

• my Adidas gazelles

• Kacey Musgraves concert with Sofia and Rosie (healed 18-year-old me)

• I was also going to share my favorite movie, but I have to give three:

  • Anora

  • Challengers

  • I Used to Be Funny

• my summer nights at the bar with Alyssa

• all of the recipes I tried this year (bonus points for the ones Paul and I made together)

• the rower pangers group chat (i love you all dearly)

Separately, I wanted to feature a few of the Substack pieces that resonated the most with me this year. I love all of these writers so dearly, and this is just a small selection of their brilliant work:

• “self-hatred and a diet coke” by

  Valerie

• “millenial-maxing” by

  .,¤°✿princess babygirl

• “i am a collection of dismantled almosts” by

  eleanor kang

• “the vulnerability trap” by

  eve

• “in defense of vain women” by

  ayan artan

• “RIP to DIY” by

  Jax Preyer

• “anyway, don’t be a stranger” by

  faith zapata

• “at the irl store” by

  griffin blue emerson

• “rivers and roads ‘til i reach you” by

  esje

• “Everything Everywhere All at Once” by

  Angelina Hazzouri

i’m still scared of new years resolutions

from pinterest

I’m usually averse to creating New Years resolutions, that’s literally how I started my year on Substack, but I have so much more hope going into 2025. This publication became something I never imagined, it’s healed a part of me that I didn’t even realize was fractured. People’s Princess has motivated me and challenged me and allowed me to have a place that’s entirely my own and centered around what I’m passionate about. For the first time in a really long time, I have tangible goals for the year, I have projects to work on and milestones I want to achieve.

While everything I post and publish on here comes from what is most interesting to me, I want 2025 to focus on the people that read and support this blog. My brilliant friend/my favorite writer on this platform,

Valerie

, had the brilliant idea to make an end-of-year survey, so she inspired me to create one for my publication. Please use the button below to access the survey and let me know what you want to see in my writing next year.

Here I am, December 22, I have almost 6,400 subscribers, I’ve worked through a lot of my trauma, and I still am overflowing with words to write. Thank you for reading, supporting, and subscribing to people’s princess this year. When I say you’ve changed my life, I mean it with every bit of my heart.

thank you so much for everything, i really love you guys,

sarah 💌