Writing to Be Human
Hello, fellow inside reader! I’m Martha Nichols, and my goal for Inside Reader is to connect with other writers and readers during this transformational time in media.
Here’s what I believe: Writing makes us human. At its best, personal storytelling helps us make meaning of our own experiences and those of others. Yet the rising emphasis on technology and engineered solutions to writing, especially with generative AI, threatens the way we think, feel, and synthesize knowledge.
That’s why we all need to be inside readers. That’s why I’m glad you’re here.
I’ve always loved reading, and I suspect anyone who’s made it to this site does as well. If you’ve been a reader since childhood, the kind who hugs favorite titles and authors close, you’ll know what it means to go inside the reading experience. It’s intellectual and philosophical. It’s emotional. It’s deeply personal.
The same can be said for writing, which I also love — passionately. Reading and writing are connected in the way we view the world and each other. They help us to process change and the stories we tell.
Subscribe to Inside Reader
I appreciate all subscriptions immensely. You’ve brought your particular light to me.
And if you become a paid subscriber, you’ll warm my heart even more. For just $30 a year (about the cost of a hardcover book), you’ll receive my special resources for writers and upcoming online lessons to help find your own voice.
I know how many demands there are on your reading attention. No matter how disciplined you are with news, social media, or the Substack app, digital notifications keep pouring in. With that in mind, I promise not to inundate you with noise. Currently, I post an essay or feature every of couple of weeks or so. If I start a round of online writing lessons, I’ll post more often, but that hasn’t happened yet.
Free subscribers will receive:
Access to most of my current posts on Inside Reader. I don’t like paywalls, and your comments are welcome.
Writing advice from an experienced journalism instructor.
Participation in Chat conversations with other subscribers.
Pointed commentary about the use of generative AI and its impact on writing.
Creative criticism and first-person journalism about media.
Occasional personal essays.
Inspiration for your own writing and reading.
Paid subscribers receive all free content plus:
Access to full archives.
Additional resources: writing tips and takeaways.
Online lessons (to come) and possible writing workshops.
My gratitude for supporting Inside Reader and the questions we address together. Your support and engagement spark my own thinking, which means the world to me at this point in my life and career.
Starting Resource: Nonfiction Reading List
Over the past few years, I’ve collected suggestions for excellent nonfiction, especially first-person-journalism, from fellow journalists, essayists, academic colleagues, students, and other Substack writers. In a 2024 post, “Who Are the Great Nonfiction Writers Now?,” I asked for suggestions — and I hope you’ll send along more.
My list is evolving, but feel free to use and share this resource:
The “I” Behind Inside Reader
As a longtime writer, journalist, and digital publisher, I’ve been beset by the need to be productive or to sell an idea. As an editor at Women’s Review of Books, I wrote and edited many book reviews. I was an editor at the Harvard Business Review. As a freelancer for years, I mixed reporting contracts with book editing. I’m also a writing instructor and founder of the digital literary site (now podcast)
.That kind of productivity is not the point here. As an “insider,” I’m after a different approach to media, one that involves making emotional connections with books and the rest of the world. I connect the cultural criticism and personal essays I enjoy writing to First-Person Journalism, my textbook about the craft of personal nonfiction.
For more about me, see my website Martha Nichols Writer.
For more about what and why I’m reading, see my introductory post, “How I Read”:
How I Read
In Inside Reader, I’ll write about the books I’m reading, but not just because they’re on a bestseller list or making the media rounds. Instead I’ll track my personal reading and writing journey, often returning to classics or genre titles. I’ll go high and low.
Testimonials
“First-person journalism is the wave of the future—and the wave of the present!—attracting both journalists and writers from every genre. . . .”
— Eric Maisel, creativity coach and author
“Though I’d been writing ‘creative nonfiction’ for years, an AWP presentation by Martha Nichols introduced her listeners to the delicate but rigorous demands of first-person journalism. How do we strive for accuracy without sacrificing lyricism? she challenged us. How do we stay true to the facts without losing our narrative voice?”
— Julie Wittes Schlack, memoirist and essayist
“Martha Nichols’s book, ‘First-Person Journalism: A Guide to Writing Personal Nonfiction with Real Impact,’ is part handbook and part exemplar of the field itself — offering numerous key anecdotes, examples, lessons, and case studies from an author who has been both an expert in her field and a perpetual student of journalism and good writing her whole career.”
— David Biddle, author
“I was so frustrated reading websites that said nothing and buried the lede. Martha’s work in teaching writing for the web to our technically-oriented students at Harvard was invaluable.”
— Jen Kramer, web designer and author
