One Year of Substack
Down the Rabbit Hole We Go
Earth, Sat, Mar 4, 2023, 12:00 PM.
You are sitting at a small corner desk in a tiny room, next to the keyboard, a mug of coffee, as black as the screen before you, the blinking cursor a silent invitation to write something. Anything.
An email arrives in your inbox.
〔 ⍺ 〕〔 open email 〕〔 drink coffee 〕〔 do nothing 〕
Ahh, the good old days of text adventures. Adventures never get old. Text is eternal. Free your mind and dive into the…
/cue dramatic music
/music breaks off dramatically
… but before we do, let’s look at that year of TFTD on Substack.
I created my Substack account on March 2nd, finalised it on March 4th, and got that Welcome email mentioned up top in the little Zork intro homage. All good. But. I had no name for my Substack and wasn’t even sure whether I wanted to make “yet another social media account” (YASMA), but then I found some big writer names on Substack and thought, Hang on, there are fiction writers on Substack? Yes. Lots! Comic book authors? Yes!
Maybe this is different. Maybe I should do that Substack thing. Maybe…
Then I pondered what to post. That “Coming Soon” placeholder was an eyesore. I didn’t have a plan, I didn’t have a name, and I left everything at its default settings, including the About page at “Alexander Ipfelkofer’s Substack.”
It took me eleven days to decide. In hindsight, I should have started with an introduction. Right? Instead, I tested the waters of the Substackverse with some non-fiction about “Branching Narratives in Interactive Fiction.”
On March 15th, 2023, at 00:38, I pressed “send.” My first Substack post was published, and I went to sleep. After all, I had zero subscribers. Who, if anyone, will see this?
And this is what happened…
As it turns out, some people saw it, some even subscribed, then more saw it and more subscribed, and I had this holy sheets moment. I needed a plan, a name, a logo, things. I had stories, still have, and am writing more, but Ze Branding… sehr wichtig!
I participated in Substack Office Hours, met some very kind people, and was now feverishly preparing assets. One month later, on April 4th, I had a name, a logo, and a plan: share world-building and lore from the novel and some of my flash fiction, alternating between the two.
Why Tales from the Defrag? What a strange name! What does it mean? Defragmentation is a central theme in my novel, which I have mentioned in one of my world-building posts, and beyond that, let’s stipulate that (speculative) fiction engages the mind. It defrags it, so to speak, or maybe the opposite.
It would take another month for the first flash fiction “Future Now” to drop, but all was well, I was posting weekly. A Substack writing routine on top of the novel writing routine.
With the release of “The Man Who Wouldn’t Die” on May 1st, growth was slow but steady and by the end of August TFTD had reached 200 subscribers. Amazing! Emboldened by the response and influx of new subscribers, I felt it was time for… business cards, and flyers! Pixelmator Pro to the rescue.
They arrived just in time before I went on vacation in Pollensa, where Agatha Christie wrote her short story Problem at Pollensa Bay (1926). While there, I didn’t write anything but I read and finished Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. Good book, I liked it.
Upon my return from Spain, I was contemplating adding a photo section to TFTD, having a vast archive of photos, and so Foto Friday was born.
There was one more thing I wanted to do, even before Substack. I had already started recording George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four as a test run for my YouTube channel but hadn’t launched anything, yet. However, when I found
’s year-long slow read of War and Peace, a book which was on my list to record, I thought, it’s now or never. Et voilà, Page Turners went live on January 3rd, 2024.All this, for naught it would be, if it weren’t for you, dear reader. Community. Yes. Most important it is. Meeting fellow writers and artists, making connections, fruit it bears, opportunity and friendship it creates.
My gratitude to
for encouraging and having me as a guest writer with “Saved,” a short scene from Defoe’s classic Robinson Crusoe written from the point of view of Man Friday.Special thanks to
and without whom my pod videos for my novel would be incomplete. They provided magnificent soundtracks, but see and hear for yourself, whether it’s Matt’s “Occamore’s Theme” or Ryan’s “Bossomania.” wrote a fabulous 50-word story called “Hunger” following one of my photos from FotoFriday, wrote about “Feasting/Learning” after we had a wee chat about Zombies, and Barry from wrote two wonderful vignettes based on my photo “Together.” Inspire to be inspired!
And then there are four Letters from Arrakis, a massive collaboration between
, , and that AI guy. The Spice Must Flow! If you have been following us (I mean on Substack), you’ve most likely seen the letters. The fourth and final one will come March, 15th.In a word, collaborate. Support and encourage. Ok, that’s three words.
Have an idea for a collaboration? Just want to say Hi? Shoot me a DM! It’s a thing now.
But wait! What about the StoryVerse?
Come closer. A little bit closer. Here’s the deal. There’s a story hidden from sight, a secret story, a story waiting to be told… by you, by everyone, for everyone. A story that has not one author, a story that lives in the shadows of the Substackverse Drafts, and each one of you can decide where it will lead next. All you need to do is craft that one draft, one draft to start the journey, one draft to create the greatest adventure, the greatest tale, a never-ending story, woven into the very fabric of Substack.
Are you ready?
〔 Press Start 〕
Do not go where the path may lead,
go instead where there is no path
and leave a trail.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
So, you're one year old, amazing! You don't write bad for a toddler. Congrats 😁
Congraturation (as they say around here)! To another fun year of defrag! And good luck with getting the sand I mean spice out of all the nooks & crannies after the last letter has been sent off.