This could be our utopian future

The index of things I’ve written so far.

At The Elysian, it is my goal, not to point out all the problems with the world, but to think through the solutions—to dream up a better future through essays and fiction and enjoy collaborative worldbuilding with paid subscribers.

Here’s a collection of my work so far.

Essays

I publish essays thinking through a better future. Here’s a curated collection:

Government

• There are already utopian countries

• Could a US state become a “utopian country?”

• US states could have universal healthcare

• Should US states self-govern?

• What if we split the US into city-states?

• Cities should manage immigration (not nations)

• Decouple federal government from nation-states

• What if NATO became a world government?

• What if countries had to compete for citizens?

• Opening our borders will solve just about everything

• Digital nomads are opening borders

Capitalism

• Mondragon as the new City State

• The Cooperatist Manifesto that inspired Mondragon

• Every company should be owned by their employees

• Founders will get much richer by exiting to their employees

• We don’t need to “degrow” the economy

• We need to grow our economy to advance humanity

• This could be our economy in the year 2100

• The rich are not the problem (we are)

• Yes, I am a techno-optimist

• The rich are not causing the poor

• Why I’m not a free-market capitalist

Work & Leisure

• Automation has already taken our jobs

• Are 20-hour workweeks on their way?

• Is your company wasting your time?

• Is it for work or for pleasure?

• You’d still work if you didn’t have to

• Economic possibilities for our grandchildren (re-visited)

• Yes, the future should be analog

• Will we return to craftwork?

• Blue-collar jobs might be the best jobs

• Remote work could solve global poverty

• A day in the life of my post-AI world

• It’s time to rethink retirement

Technology

• Could AI make us wise?

• Electric vehicles are not the future (walking is)

• Flying Cars (Post Modern, a podcast)

• Humanoid Robots (Post Modern, a podcast)

• The Metaverse (Post Modern, a podcast)

• The Replicator (Post Modern, a podcast)

Human Flourishing

• “Friends” as the ideal community

• Maybe you need to have more fun

• One alternative to prison

• Will we still have culture in the future?

• We don’t need to colonize the world anymore

• What if women were in charge?

• Maybe women should design our sci-fi future

• We should remove electives from higher education

• I watched the Super Bowl because of Taylor Swift

• We’ll have to eat less meat in the future

• We won’t need doctors in the future

• Yes, we will increase our lifespan with David Gobel

Philosophy

• Who’s qualified to save the world?

• Humanism is my religion now

• Humanism as the future of religion

• I’m so over dead French writers

• We don’t need our political ideologies anymore

• Humans are good (except for that one guy)

• Why I don’t read modern journalism

• I wrestle with my goodness just like Jean Valjean

• Neverland and the utopia of childhood

• Please come up with wildly speculative futures

Fiction

I serialized my first novel, a gothic novel called Obscurity, in 2021-2022. Now I’m working on a utopian novel that I will serialize when it’s complete. I also write short fiction.

• Novels

  • Oblivion (a utopian novel, in process)

  • Obscurity (a gothic novel, complete)

• Short Fiction

  • I trained an AI on the Catholic God

  • A day in the life of my post-AI world

  • What if Hawaii had remained Hawaiian?

  • AI could cure all disease

  • I built a castle to save the economy

  • I think I’m in the wrong heaven

  • Taylor Swift doesn't want her photo taken

My Process

I also share my process and my life as I go. Here are some of the things I’ve learned about writing and publishing on the internet since I began this newsletter.

• My research on the publishing industry

  • I gave a TEDx talk about the future of fiction

  • No one will read your book (and other truths about publishing)

  • No one buys books

  • Writing books isn’t a good idea (here’s a better one)

  • I’d rather have an investor than a publishing contract

  • Substack should create the future of books

  • How authors are earning $50k+ on Kickstarter

  • How to sell books for $1 million each

• How I write

  • How I became a writer

  • Everything you need to know about my daily writing ritual

• My newsletter strategy

  • How I can afford to be a full-time writer

  • How I earned 1,200 newsletter subscribers in one summer

  • What I learned from one year on Substack

  • Here’s the business plan for my newsletter

  • Sanity check: Do you actually read serial fiction online?

  • My thoughts after my first quarter in business

• Case studies

  • How authors are earning $50k+ on Kickstarter

  • Emilia Rose earns six figures writing erotica on Patreon

  • Zogarth earns $20,000/month writing fantasy on Patreon

  • Shirtaloon makes $20,000/month writing LitRPG on Patreon

  • DC Kalbach earns six figures writing romance novels for Kindle Unlimited

  • A.N. Boyden makes $11k/month serializing romance novels

  • Wildbow makes $7,600/month writing fiction on Patreon

• Resources

  • My spreadsheet of all the literary agents worth querying

My newsletter has been featured by BBC, Business Insider, Fast Company, Publisher’s Weekly, Means of Creation, and Morning Brew. In 2022, I was awarded one of 10 places in Substack’s coveted fellowship program, and in 2023 I was named a Roots of Progress fellow.

I hope this provides a good introduction to my work so far, and I’m so excited to continue the work next week!

Thank you so much for being here, and if we haven’t met yet come say hi in the comments!

Thanks for reading,

Elle Griffin