Introducing "The Substack Workstation"

An all-in-one space for your Substack writing practice.

Dear friends,

Five months ago I developed a nodule on my voice. After working so hard on the new album, it was a devastating start to the new year.

It did, though, give me some time to think. I had been writing about the tension between art and content creation for over a year, but wondered if I could build something that solved it.

My pain point was simple: building an audience meant churning out short-form content — and that was eating the time I had to make art.

Creative time is a precious commodity. After life and work, most of us are drained of energy. Too often you have to choose between the work of building an audience or the work of creating something.

I found this all during writing Chromatic Zero — and the grind of trying to do both nearly burnt me out. It almost cost me the album.

“Not good enough” I thought.

I did not want to spend my life performing for a content treadmill that cost me the very creative life I was trying to live.

Glum, and a little doom-laden, I opened up a code editor for the first time.

“Fuck it” I thought, and I entered the labyrinth.

How Do You Convey Your Story?

I wanted to create a space to systematise my short-form creative writing.

I was writing well but felt I could communicate more effectively.
So I asked myself:

How can a creative share the full arc of their story daily — without it swallowing the very work they're trying to make?

I saw it not as a technical challenge, but a creative challenge. I did some “market research” and nothing came close to what I was after.

More importantly, nothing gave me the feeling of what I had in my mind’s eye.

So I started building.

My dream? An all-in-one workspace where every task for Substack lived under one roof.

I wanted it crystal clear. So I built an uncluttered space I could navigate without confusion.

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What Does It Do?

Inside the workstation you find a complete house for Substack. The key feature is the Notes section where there are 7 tiers — 9 for full package.

Rather than guessing what to write, each node presents a different structure for how you express a creative life in bite-size.

For instance, in “Essay Notes” — you drop in your essay and it gives you the best 5 Notes from it. You can choose no edits, add a bold hook, trim the fluff, or add white space to ventilate the density. The words are yours. The structure adapts.

This feature alone saves me an hour every single week!

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The Voice Profile

One of my main motivations was simple: I detest AI for writing.

I didn’t want to build a tool that wrote for you. I wanted to build a tool that helped format what you bring — and protected your voice in the process.

Each Note type is designed with the preservation of your voice in mind. The Workstation packages what you bring; it doesn’t replace it.

Because I am suspicious of any modifications to my own voice, I wanted to make the Workstation foolproof.

So I designed into its logic a “voice profile”. You drop in three essays so the point of reference is your writing alone.

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Content Calendar

One of the things that drives me crazy about Substack is that there is no Content Calendar. Beyond that, all the others I’ve ever found are so busy that they make me want to give up.

So at last — a content calendar, made by a creative for creatives. Simple, easy, scannable.

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The Essay Section

The Full Workstation comes with an essay flow — including title ideation, full screen writing mode, an editor.

One of my favourite features, though, is that it builds your Pre-CTA and Post-CTA the moment your essay is finished.

There's nothing worse than spending hours on an essay and then having to muster the energy to create promo-posts right after.

But they are nevertheless essential to build an audience.

My Pre-CTAs drive subscribers every week before posting my essay. I’d buy the Workstation for this feature alone!

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Why I Built It

The truth is: I first made this for myself.

What started as a personal labour of love became a passion project that I felt could really help people.

My hope is that it helps you grow your audience without being consumed by the insatiable beast of the content machine.

The world needs its artists. The trouble is that content creation, left unchecked, eats the very life the art is made from. The Substack Workstation is a third way.

I hope this helps give you back the time for why you are a creative in the first place.

As for me, the Workstation has paradoxically become part of my own healing. Though not yet totally right, my voice nodule is clearing, and I’m excited to put my heart back into music.

Ok, so, can’t believe I’m really launching this — With love, Jim

You are most welcome to step inside!