I’ll get back to the ‘spiritual series,’ probably. But at the moment I’m unsure about blogging as a pastime. The other day, reading online about blogging splashed me with cold reality. One article: ’10 Reasons Why Your Blog Sucks.’ My blog satisfies all ten. Other pieces discussed how AwStats overestimates traffic (a fact I’d already guessed, but somehow had deluded myself into ignoring until I saw it spelled out,) and how blogging is ‘so yesterday.’ Today, the trendy use Twitter and FaceBook. It figures that I didn’t start until blogging was already dying. No matter. In the past few days I’ve changed my outlook. The need for income presses, so I’m looking for what will pay off. Blogging let me try out different types of writing with little risk, and see if anything caught on, or motivated me to keep going. Nothing did catch on. But the writing all feels good to me, and I know there has to be some way to make it pay. In searching online for jobs, I see work in medical writing. Although many ads seek freelance writers of all sorts, some firms advertise for full time medical writers. Not that I want, or could even tolerate, full time employment. But if there are corporations hiring, there must be more work in medical writing than in some other arenas. It’s not what I most want to do. I’d rather share what I’ve experienced and learned in life. Recovering from child abuse and adult disappointments. Psychiatric fiascos, spiritual breakthroughs, and a few therapies that actually helped. But the field of self-help, motivational writing is saturated. Who doesn’t have a story to tell? My education gives me an ‘in’ to medical writing. Although many doctors are jumping ship and trying out writing and other pursuits, the field looks less competitive than those that don’t require a specialized background. So for the time being I’m investigating this route, and not blogging as much. By the way, if any one reading (if anyone is reading,) has suggestions for how to proceed, I would dearly love to hear them.
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1
WonderingSoul at http://unattractivenavalgazing.blogspot.com/
Dear Will,
10 Reasons Why Your Blog Doesn’t Suck
1. It is so honest
2. It is beautifully written with language applied poetically and perfectly.
3. It is about you own experiences as you experienced them.
4. It’s real. No BS. No pretense. No hiding. It’s 100% take it or leave it reality.
5. It is a part of you and your soul. It’s a very, very deep part of your story.
6. It gives others hope. It has often resonated with me and given me hope that understanding does and can exist when I have felt so alone.
7. It speaks out about abuse – something which is all too often silenced and denied.
8. It contains such thoughtful pictures/photos to capture some of the words and thoughts and paint them in a different way.
9. It is thought provoking, offering alternative perspectives on all manner of topics from surviving in the professional world to discussing perspectives on religion and spirituality.
10. It is therapeutic.
11. It is relational.
12. I very much admire your writing.
OK… that was a dozen…
x
Posted at December 28, 2009 on 2:51pm.
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jss at http://jssfive.blogspot.com
I could not say it better than WS except to add that I see none of those ten points in your blog. No doubt he is speaking of people that discuss such inane topics as going to the grocery store and what they had for breakfast and I have to say that on those points I would agree with him. I hope you don’t mind if I venture to gently suggest that it seems that sometimes you are easily swayed by the opinions of others. There are thousands upon thousands of blogs out there and I suspect that the great majority of them have very small readership counts. It is sort of a crapshoot I think that some very good blogs go un-noticed while others (some obnoxious political blogs come to mind) attract large readership. Who can say why. I suspect that the average reader doesn’t want thoughtful, insightful, questioning reading with his coffee. He wants a place where they can vent, not a place where he’s forced to think and feel – in other words he doesn’t want to make an effort.
Your essays always make me think. They make me think about what you’re trying to say and they make me think about my own beliefs.
Does it matter to you that you don’t currently have hundreds of readers? Maybe it does but I’m here to tell you that a blog that has hundreds of readers is a huge job to maintain and not only that but the more readers you have the more jackasses you’re going to attract. It all depends on what you want out of your blog.
Posted at December 28, 2009 on 7:22pm.
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lostinamaze at http://inamaze.wordpress.com
I agree with WS nd jss. I enjoy reading your blog. I don’t think blogs are ‘so yesterday’. To me trendy is not better. There is no meat to Facebook or Twitter in my opinion. Your blog has perspectives that I think about during the week not just when I am actually reading it. I like your style and I like your honesty.
Posted at December 29, 2009 on 10:46pm.
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Tara at http://tarabridgetmoore.wordpress.com
Hi Will,
You may not think you have a readership, but judging from the above I would say you have a small but committed group who get a lot out of your views on the struggle we call life. I agree with the above comments, your content is thoughtful and meaningful and brutally honest. Most people don’t want to plumb those feelings and would rather avoid them in favour of light, fluffy and meaningless. I have been writing poetry for over a year now on my blog and have only a handful of people who come by, but that is okay. I write for myself because it is therapeutic and I enjoy it. I don’t care if I have a “readership”, the writing is for myself and even if I don’t post regularly, I know it is there for me when I feel like picking up the pen. My poems require you to think and analyze, so I suspect it doesn’t appeal to many, but a few really enjoy it and that’s all that really matters.
I really enjoy reading your blog. At times it is painful and thought provoking but that is because I am identifying with what you are saying. Your feelings of pain and suffering is shared by many, you are not alone by any means. From my perspective, I think your memoir writing is the most powerful. If you started from the beginning of your life as you have started to do and continued on until your career got derailed, and then on into your recovery, I know for a fact I would pick it off the shelf and read it. I have read many such stories, autobiographies are my favourites because they are so real. I want to read about real life experiences, not fluff. That is why I enjoy reading your blog so much. From that book you could focus on helping other health care professionals who are also suffering, all though you would have a long way to go given the stigma, but maybe you are the one to do it?
Anyways Will, don’t be discouraged and believe in yourself. Keep writing and we will keep reading. From there you never know what will happen, but if you give up you will never know. Judging from the above comments, you already have fans.
Posted at December 30, 2009 on 8:56am.
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Will at http://willspirit.com
WonderingSoul–
Thank you for the lovely list. I’ll print it out and put it on my bulletin board. It helps. Bless you.
–Will
Posted at December 30, 2009 on 10:40am.
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Will at http://willspirit.com
jss–
You are correct that I am too easily swayed, especially by anything that gives me a reason to criticize myself. If I were not so panicked about money, it would not matter to me whether I have five readers or five hundred. Not that I expected the blog to be an income source, but if I saw its numbers skyrocketing it would give me confidence in my ability to make a living writing. But why should it be any easier for me than the thousands of other people who would love to get by on writing alone? Your message reminds me that, yes, unpleasant people start showing up at the more popular blogs. I really don’t want to deal with that kind of feedback. What this whole episode is teaching me is that 1) I enjoy my blog and my interactions with those who stop by, and 2) I need to find a way to make money that does not rely on me ‘making it’ as a writer. I’m starting to see a path to a more reliable (though not very lucrative) income. My tentative plan is to pursue that, and keep the blog as a hobby. Then perhaps I can let go of its ‘success’ or lack thereof. Thank you for the thoughts and support.
–Will
Posted at December 30, 2009 on 10:48am.
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Will at http://willspirit.com
lostinamaze–
I appreciate the positive feedback. The support in the mental health blogging community is a good reason by itself to keep going. I had a crisis in faith, and needed to readjust my outlook and plans. But I’m getting everything sorted out, thanks to such nice comments as yours.
–Will
Posted at December 30, 2009 on 10:50am.
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Will at http://willspirit.com
Tara–
Thank you. I appreciate your perspective. If I let go of my desperate need for some kind of income, or at least my fantasy that it could come from writing, then I am perfectly comfortable with the current situation. I say what I feel, get some honest and supportive feedback, and enjoy connections with others who understand. In my day-to-day life there aren’t that many who really ‘get’ what I’m going through. But here, in the blog context, I sense that others do know how I feel. That is more valuable than any ego boost I might get from having a highly ‘popular’ blog. Over and over I’m learning to let go of my ego’s hunger for ‘success,’ and replace it with something softer and more humane. The habits of thought that pushed me through medical school, etc., seem like they keep popping up without my recognizing that they are the same patterns that got me into a career that did not ‘fit’ me the first time.
As for my memoir fragments. Part of the reason they read better is that they have gone through more drafts. But it is also true that there is more honesty and more contact with my ‘heart’ in that writing than in, say, the spiritual posts. I would love to write the sort of memoir you describe, and until recently had planned to do just that. But I am too chicken to go that route. It’s too uncertain and would require me to promote myself; both prospects terrify me. I’d rather just find a ‘safe’ path to an income, and not deal with all my insecurities. On the other hand, your encouragement helps, and as I gather more memoir material together, perhaps I will find the courage to make a go of it. It may be that if I can find a secure income, I’ll feel freer with regard to taking risks with my writing.
–Will
Posted at December 30, 2009 on 11:02am.
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Javier at http://YourWebsite
I am totally agree with all comentators.
Posted at July 18, 2011 on 11:29pm.