The subtle art of writing an About page

And learning to embrace the hero within

Photo by lilartsy

Ask me to write about a loved one and I could fill a dozen pages within the hour.

Ask me to write about myself and I would probably spend days spiraling over the right words to sum up my identity. Similar to a squirrel preparing to hibernate, I would hoard advice from well-meaning copywriters, repeating them to myself like a mantra:

Start with your goals. Create your audience avatar. Begin with short and snappy sentences and don’t you dare write a paragraph that’s over 3-5 sentences long because no one reads on the Internet.

So when it was going around that Substackers were adding FAQ pages to their homepages, I did what my inner rebel child always does—ignored it. Then I discovered it practically takes a Ph.D to find the About page on the top navigation bar, and you could easily spend hours on the knowledge base, trying to figure out how to edit the damn thing on the backend. No wonder people were looking for a workaround.

So there I was, faced with my nemesis once again. Existential dread quickly settled in. The blinking cursor mocks me with questions I don’t have the answers to:

Who am I? What do I want to do with my life? Will people think I’m an imposter? Am I wasting precious time that could be spent with my child or working on my manuscript?

And then I think about the protagonist of a story—how every good author knows better than to start them off in a good place. The book would be pretty boring if there weren’t a series of external circumstances moving them into a higher level of understanding and consciousness. It prompts to set aside my Mentor hat, and ask my inner Hero to share a question every creator faces at some point in the journey:

How do I find the motivation to keep going, even when I’m not getting external recognition for my work?

So here it is: the final About page, pinned to my homepage with a giant photo of my face. Growth trends will probably change next year, and by then, maybe I’ll feel called to serve as the Mentor of someone else’s story. But right now, it’s a good-enough reflection of where I am as a writer and full-time parent.

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Now over to you:

1. Have you ever struggled to write about yourself? How did you overcome it?

2. How do you feel about latest growth trends on Substack? What’s your thought process for whether you should implement or ignore a best practice?

3. What are the events in your life that prompted you on a Hero’s Journey? How did it change your worldview?

WRITE 👩🏽‍💻

I may have conquered About pages for now, but short-form copy is still a struggle. Unfortunately, that’s the best way to pitch a scene idea without drafting 2,000+ words, so I’m wondering if my book coach’s suggested framework (Goal, Conflict, Decision) would work well for ads and social media copy. It’s a variation of the tried-and-true Problem, Agitation, Solution framework, so I don’t see why not.

LIFE 🤧

Last weekend, my husband took my daughter on a trip, giving me a luxurious 48 hours alone at home to get facials with my best friend, plot Act II of my manuscript, and do seven loads of laundry (including the pillows!) Unfortunately, she came home with a low-grade fever and a runny nose, missing two out of three days of school last week. If you have young children who refuse to blow their noses, I highly recommend this pump-powered nasal aspirator—you’re welcome.

BALANCE 😮‍💨

Sometimes it feels like the world falls apart when I ask for a break, and I have to remind myself that there are only so many times I can remind a four-year-old to chug elderberry juice and wash her hands. Between nursing for two years (don’t ask how) and paring down my business to keep my daughter out of full-time daycare, there’s not much else I can do except redirecting her to the tissue box instead of my hoodie to wipe the snot from her nose.

READING 📚

The Virgin’s Promise by Kim Hudson. Don’t be fooled by the ridiculous title and the illustrated cover reminiscent of a Renaissance-era romance novel. For years I have struggled to apply the Hero’s Journey to my writing, only to get even more confused when studying Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung, or Christopher Vogler’s work—think of Hudson’s archetypal framework as the feminine counterpart.

STREAMING ⏯

Sickness has me resorting to animated Disney movies to encourage my daughter to rest, and just like her mother, she adores Mulan. Some of the gendered language doesn’t hold up in 2024, but overall, the story is an amazing celebration of the masculine and feminine in all of us. There’s obviously Mulan who masquerades between honorable daughter and brave soldier, but can we talk about the scene where the soldiers dress in drag to sneak into the Emperor’s palace? Brilliant!

COOKING 🍜

This Buddhist-inspired mushroom noodle soup caught my eye, but wasn’t as mind-blowing as I had hoped it would be. If you’re dead-set on making the broth, make sure to emulsify in a flavored oil (I’m partial to shallots but garlic also works) after straining out the vegetable solids. Otherwise, I was quite satisfied eating the braised mushroom mixture atop a pile of noodles.

Happy February,

Sophia :)

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P.S. I shared last month’s essay with my friend K, and she laughed hysterically at my reference to her as a child prodigy. (Told you she was humble.) In case you missed it, the link is below.