Ahoy there!
Thanks for stumbling across my Substack: a place I share stories and ideas about storytelling, writing and the internet.
Subscribe for:
Tell Their Stories—a toolkit for creating community-first stories. Rooted in personal and industry insights, 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.
My personal writing and thoughts on it, including short stories, poems, and updates on my fiction novel.
Shelf Life 🍣*—a shorter, spicier, newsletter dissecting storytelling online using a razor sharp lens. Includes links, snippets from experts and recommendations.
Paying subscribers gain access to the archive, extra special posts and community benefits such as, Q&As, discussion threads, audio posts and videos too. This is an evolving space for me to share my view and interests.
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 for brands like the Guardian, Instagram, Vogue and, lately, Substack.
In my day job, I help people tell their stories on the internet. At night, I’m writing my second fiction novel, as well as poetry, short stories and more non-fiction.
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 now I’m more ready than ever to start 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?? I 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.
To find out more about the awesome company who built the tools enabling me to share this newsletter, visit Substack.com.
PLUS did you know Substack now has an app which makes the reading experience beautifully simple? Download the new iPhone and iPad app. There are zero ads, no marketing, no reels or doomscrolls, just one special space to enjoy incredible art, writing, work and podcasts. Yeehaw!
*You: Pssst! What’s with the name SHELF LIFE and sushi emoji?
HR: Hmm. Well, the world of stories on the web is delicious, fun and fresh but, like anything yummy, it has a short shelf life. It's my nature to always be looking to the next innovation and find ways to improve and evolve social storytelling for the future. Plus I love sushi. Onwards!
