Blog Writing Streak Week 1 Recap

Last Monday I began my 30-day-blog-writing-streak. Announcing it was uneventful. It didn’t scare me, and it didn’t intrigue anyone. I decided to try this for a few reasons, and I have a feeling that the “real” reason will emerge over time. I have a few super supporters. My mom, my mother-in-law, my aunt, and a couple of good friends check out the blog daily, and the reality is: I am not sure if I want people to read it or not. I check my stats daily, and with curiosity, I look to see who is interested in what topic. I doubt that seeing that certain topics will drive what I write at this time. For now, I will continue to write about what is going on in my life.

The Take-Aways

I think my biggest take-away this week is that my posts are as varied as I am. Me calling myself “varied” is actually a big, personal take-away. Varied means showing variation or variety. If you read my blog, you will quickly see that it isn’t a travel blog. It’s not a food blog. It’s not an inspirational blog. It is a blog of randomness. Maybe randomness describes me. I like a lot of different things. I am not a subject-matter-expert on anything. Because I’m not a subject-matter-expert, I don’t think a blog like mine attracts and retains readers because people want to read and learn from people who are experts. They also subscribe to blogs that they can count on for good content. My random blog doesn’t do either of those things. A question I will have to ask myself, “When I become a subject-matter-expert will I lose my random interests? Will I like me more or less when I am a subject-matter-expert? Will I have time for random thoughts, hobbies, and interests?” (More to come on my goal to become a “subject-matter-expert.” That’s a whole other blog post.)

Another lesson-learned is that the time and energy that I put into a blog does not correlate to the number of readers. For example, I spent HOURS on my blog about Kyoto, and it didn’t get the biggest number of readers. The Simple Enchiladas blog got the most readers last week, and I was able to create that one fairly quickly. I was most nervous to post about my thoughts on the book, Three Tigers, One Mountain, and it didn’t get a lot of readers either. On a very positive note, my guy actually read that post, and he liked it. (I’m a “Words of Affirmation” person, so hearing him say nice things about my writing meant a lot.) The Izakaya post got a few readers, and a couple of those readers actually sent me private messages about it. That was pretty cool. Back to the subject on time. I knew the writing would take time. I didn’t know that it would take so much time. Each post takes no less than two hours to write, and the time I think about the blog is in the HOURS. To be honest, I have some free time right now, but I don’t have that much free time. After week one, I am beginning to question if this is the best use of my time.

Another lesson-learned is that pictures take time. It takes time to find the pictures, format and edit them, and as beautiful as the pictures are, they do nothing for my personal goal in this writing process. They also don’t drive readers because back to that Kyoto blog; those pictures took a ton of time, and that post didn’t get a lot of traffic. My goal is to have a minimum word count of 600 words per post, and a picture may be worth a thousand words, but those thousand words don’t count to my word count goal. Speaking of word count, words don’t entice readers, and my range is so small, that they don’t deter readers either. Last week, I wrote 7,221 words. The Izakaya post had the fewest number of words with 660, and the Three Tigers post has the most with 1697. They had very close to the same number of readers.

My last lesson for the week is, “Don’t Plan on Events to Help Create Content.” Last week, I had anticipated that three events would be interesting enough to help me with my content creation, and interestingly enough none of them did. One event got cancelled because of the rain. Another event wasn’t interesting enough for a blog, and I just couldn’t engage in the third event enough for me to find a way to turn it into a blog. Almost half of week one’s content ideas were a bust. This means that I don’t know that I can plan my way through this writing challenge. I just have to go through life, and I have to hope that my little life is enough to create content worth writing about.

Final Thoughts

I told someone last week that my goal in this process is to not bore myself. The beauty of not having a lot of readers or expectations is that this blog really is for me. As long as I don’t bore the shit out of myself, I am doing ok. If I write something interesting, intriguing, or inspiring along the way, that will be a bonus. I also bet that I get comfortable enough with this writing thing that I will probably write about things that make me uncomfortable, and truth-be-told, my life is a little uncomfortable right now. We are going through big changes and are making big decisions. My personal decisions are scaring the shit out of me, which I guess is a lot better than boring the shit out of me. Stay tuned…you may get a sneak peek into what scares the shit out of me.

Thanks for reading. As much as I say that I don’t care if anyone reads this, I actually do. People talk because they hope someone hears. They post on Facebook, and they hope someone gives the post a like. Writers write, and they hope someone reads, so thank you for reading.

It’s just a random sunrise picture that I took last week as I thought about this random blog.