Ahoy there!
Thanks for stumbling across my Substack: a place I share stories and ideas about storytelling, writing, motherhood, and the internet.
Subscribe for:
Shelf Life. Regular reviews of exciting new books I recommend—including a short Q&A-style interview with the author exploring why it makes for great storytelling. I’ll be kicking off this new series later this month.
Close of Play. News on my personal writing projects and opportunities to work together. As we get closer to publication in 2026 there will be more book publishing and the craft of writing. For hardcore TTS fans who might notice, this series was formerly a test sub-section called Story Writers’ Scurry—which is now absorbed into the main newsletter.
On the Clock. A new series employing the original TTS method by handing the mic over to you! A day-in-the-life of working mothers—how they juggle the double/triple shift of working/writing/mothering and a creative exploration of imagining new worlds for our lives as mothers with our children.
In my writing I am interested in imagining future worlds exploring the impact of technology on our lives, and how communities come together to fight against systems of discrimination and power. Some of this will spill out into my newsletter here and I’m excited to see how they takes shape.
Pay for:
Access to the
Access to the Tell Their Stories archive—including a toolkit for creating community-first stories (posts from 2021-2024). Rooted in personal and industry insights, these early TTS posts include interviews with other community experts who are top of the field to inspire, share tips on story design, publishing and workflow for you to use every day. Tone: positive, upbeat, explorative and educational.
Personal writing and thoughts on it, including short stories, poems, and updates on my fiction writing and poetry.
Shelf Life 🍣*—the first iteration of shelf life included a shorter, spicier, newsletter dissecting storytelling online using a razor sharp lens. Includes links, snippets from experts and recommendations.
Paying subscribers will also gain access to any extra special posts and community benefits such as, Q&As, office hours, 1:1s, courses, workshops, early post access, discussion threads, audio posts and videos too. This is an evolving space. Join me!
What folks are saying about Tell Their Stories
I absolutely love your newsletters, it's the one I look forward to and always click through. I always learn something new from each and every one too. Thank you for writing this!
—Dani Tucker, founder/owner, The Social Kitchen
It's packed full of goodness and things to bookmark and sentences I've written in my journal as inspiration.
— Ettie Bailey-King, language consultant and writer of Fighting Talk on Substack
Hey, I’m Hannah Ray.
I’m a writer and editor based in west Cornwall, UK. Over the last 15 years, I’ve worked as a journalist, editor, and community storyteller inhouse for companies including the Guardian, Instagram, Vogue and, lately, Substack.
I’m currently on maternity leave due to return to work around autumn 2025.
You can read more about my work and writing on my personal website.
Where does Substack fit in?
When I was training as a student journalist I was writing three blogs across the worlds of journalism, dance and new media technology. I’ve always been interested in how stories are told on the internet, and then wanted to find ways to experiment with new mediums for storytelling myself.
Since 2017, I’ve grown increasingly dispassionate about spaces like Instagram, which was my sharing tool of choice for a long time. Drowned out by ads and reels, content on the ‘gram just didn’t feel enjoyable or meaningful anymore. Plus, in my work and personal work I’ve returned to my bread-and-butter of writing and editing, pivoting away slightly from strategy, team building, consulting and training.
It’s a quirk of fate that I was about to launch my own Substack just as I got a job working on Substack’s community team in 2022, unearthing and celebrating amazing stories of Substack writers all over the world. I put my own Substack on hold while I got a foothold in my new job, and then after six months I started sharing my own experimentations and adventures in storytelling here.
If you’ve got this far, I salute you! There is nothing more generous to me than the act of reading someone else’s words, their thoughts even, and giving them some space in your mind. Thank you for reading, for giving me a corner to nestle into your consciousness, even for a few fleeting moments. I’ll be dancing around this little square foot of the internet for a while, so feel free to buy a season ticket, or just pop in and out now and then. Ta-ra!
What else?
Did you know there’s an ENTIRE UNIVERSE of Substack writers and readers out there doing amazing things and carving out their unique voice on the internet?? In my work at Substack I was lucky enough to interview and write about their publications, ideas, community building and how they are growing their newsletters over on On Substack, and I’m also writing and curating their work over on Substack Reads. If you want to know anything about Substack, make sure you sign up to those two publications:
To find out more about the awesome company who built the tools enabling me to share this newsletter, visit Substack.com. I left Substack as an employee in May 2025, but I’m excited to continue to write here as a regular punter and enjoy cheering on this amazing platform from the outside.
