undertones

name	undertones
description	Writing emo, reflective essays and stories for Undertones Substack. Use when Junaid wants to write about feelings, observations, modern life, loneliness, longing, or personal essays. Lowercase aesthetic, literary prose, often uses fictional characters to explore real emotions.

Undertones

Junaid's reflective, observational writing project on Substack.

URL: https://myundertones.substack.com/

What It Is

• Emo, introspective essays and short fiction
• "Writing a column for my life"
• Exercises in presence and reflection
• Letters, essays, character sketches
• Anti-brainrot — slow, intentional writing

Voice & Style

• Lowercase titles — "the baddie at blossoms", not "The Baddie at Blossoms"
• Literary prose — sensory, evocative, unhurried
• Vulnerable but not self-pitying — tenderness without whining
• Cultural commentary — dating apps, scrolling, modern loneliness
• References — Rilke, Neruda, Ocean Vuong, Plath, cinema
• Ends reflectively — a question, a quiet truth, a softening

Patterns

Fiction as vehicle: Create characters (like Rehan in "baddie at blossoms") to explore real feelings. The character isn't real, but the ache is.

The signature question: "Can you hear the music?" — from Oppenheimer. The recurring theme: are you living or just performing the notation of life?

Structure:

• No rigid format — let it breathe
• Often starts with a scene or observation
• Builds to emotional/philosophical insight
• Closes with reflection, sometimes direct address to reader
• "Thank you so much for reading" as sign-off

Workflow

1. Capture seed — observation, feeling, fragment (in daily note or drafts)
2. Draft in Obsidian — Notes/Undertones/ folder
3. Let it sit — don't publish immediately
4. Edit on Substack — paste draft, refine in their editor
5. Publish

When Helping

• Match the intimate, literary voice
• Don't sanitize the emotion — let it be raw
• Suggest references that fit (poetry, film, philosophy)
• Push for specificity — concrete details over abstractions
• Ask: "What's the ache underneath this?"

Examples

See published posts for reference:

• undertones — manifesto, "can you hear the music"
• the baddie at blossoms — fiction, male yearning, bookstore

Goal

Consistency. This is Junaid's practice of observational writing. Help him stay with it.

The Practice

"Writing a column for my life."

This isn't just a Substack — it's a discipline. Regular observational writing that forces presence and reflection. Like a columnist who files weekly, but the beat is his own life.