A proper blog needs a theme, doesn’t it? I’ve been doing this one for about three and a half years now, and have yet to decide what it’s about. When I started out back in June of 2007, it was going to be all about crime writing. Then I realized there were a lot of other blogs doing the same thing and doing it better. So the focus quickly devolved into anything I find interesting or mockable. On slow days, of which there are many, it’s just a lot of navel-gazing. In short: I’ve created something completely indistinguishable from the million other blogs now lying dormant out there in the ether.
Since then, I’ve averaged one post every four days, totaling, as of today, about 130,000 words. That’s the length of a decent-sized novel. If only I’d picked the right subject and stuck with it. I might now have a manuscript to shop around to eager publishers. As it stands, I don’t think Middle Aged Man Gathers Wool is likely to result in a bidding war.
Like any good blogger, I’ve fiddled around with SEO and Google Analytics and other tools. I’ve added the requisite social media links and “like” buttons and have been known to shamelessly hawk a post on Twitter and Facebook. The result: an average of 20 visitors a day. Which is about what it was before I did anything to improve the numbers. With all due respect and gratitude to the 20 kind souls who regularly stop by, I have a feeling that a blog consisting of nothing but phone-book listings could generate that kind of traffic.
But I’m not quitting. Why stop now? It’s become sort of a habit, and I’ve had worse ones. I still think putting together a few paragraphs on a semi-timely topic is good exercise, even if I can’t produce any evidence of it. And if only 20 people are reading, so what? Probably better to see this can of Coors Light as one ounce full, rather than 11 ounces empty. I’ll take what I can get.
Autumn and algebra
A tale of two restaurants
Don’t stop now!!!!
Isn’t one person’s happiness worth the effort?
Speaking as one of the 20, I say, “More! More!” (We readers are a selfish lot.) I found your blog after reading one of your stories in EQMM, and I really enjoy reading more from you here.
Also, I beg to differ about the indistinguishable part: most other bloggers can’t write.
Agree with all of the above. If it is a discerning 20, then great. I enjoy reading your posts, all the more because you only write them when you have something to write.
Regarding publicity and such, the EQMM web site (themysteryplace.com) has a podcast page with readings and dramatizations of stories from the mag. I don’t know how one goes about getting a story posted there, but I thought I’d mention it.
See, all I’m really doing is trolling for comments. Thanks to the few and the proud.
Dave,
You can’t stop…you’re my alter ego, except were the same –except a different color on the outside.) I, too, became a lapsed journalist at the same time as you did, and have wonderfully followed your many meanderings of the mind. It’s right and proper, and the way us journalists relate to the world…After doing an assignment, tell me you didn’t have the small feeling that “that person’s story I just helped to tell could maybe make a good germ of a novel idea.”…
It’s the curiosity of the nimble mind, and you’ve got a good one, my friend! Don’t stop; it’s One Man’s View and deserves to be heard.
I’ve still yet to abandon my readership!