oooh, i am not a writing coach, or know nothing about professional writing but the people i read, and want to read start writing from the heart. They write what they know.. and I am pretty sure you have a lot to write about.

Chastising never works, nor is it constructive. I have read your stories and they are good. Instead of working on changing the style of how you write, and want to write, I would work on your headlines!

For example your story about Chicago.. you could say something like : Why Chicago is no longer my favorite city.. or An overpriced weekend disaster in the windy city.. im just thinking but i would think more about titles than anything, thats what most people see first, until they know you and will read anything with any title! Honestly, I write my titles last.. which is not recommended, but it works for me, and sometimes its a hit, and sometimes it flops.. but that is writing!

Also why are you writing? That will help determine what you want out of your articles. Don´t let anyone deflate you. That is the number one rule.

You can write however you want on substack, that is the beauty of it! you just have to keep doing it, and the more you write, the more you will want to write.