Exercise: (Copy)writing your world into existence
How to write your bio, About page, and publication description in your own voice
What we’re doing here Writing your personal bio, About page, and publication description. Using voice notes and Claude to draw out your words in your own voice OR writing by hand. Then shaping them into the three core pieces of copy your Substack needs.
✓ Already have all three pieces written and feeling good about them? Move on to your welcome email.
✗ Need to write them or refine what you have? Work through this exercise. Give yourself time and do it properly. Once you have your words, update your Substack Writing Desk.
Before we start, a word about AI.
This exercise uses Claude as a structuring partner, and I want to be clear about why, and what that means.
I don’t care whether you use AI or not. Genuinely. Read more about my stance on this here if you need.
What matters to me is that your message gets heard. That the things moving through you — the things landing in your heart, the things you know to be true — find their way out into the world. How you shape the words around that is entirely your business.
What I do care about is that what comes out the other end sounds like you. Not polished into something generic. Not smoothed into something safe. You — your tone, your particular way of seeing, your specific truth.
Used well, Claude can help you do that. It can hold the space for you to think out loud, reflect back what it’s hearing, and help you shape raw, real material into something that works. That’s the intention here.
If you’d rather not use AI at all, the questions below work just as well as a journalling exercise or a voice note to yourself. Skip to them, answer them honestly, and use what comes out to write your pieces by hand. The process is the same. The tool is optional.
