Know Why You Blog

One day, two very different reads. He is an accomplished man now despairing of his blogging progress, the paltry number of views for his posts. She just joined the blogging world, is spinning in the delight of finding people just like her, writers who just gotta write — and who blog the marvelous jewels she gathers happily to her heart.

I responded to both writers. I encouraged him and got to think about my own stats, what I think about them and how much I care. I welcomed her to a rollicking world of wildly different talents all sharing stories, perspectives, and banging ideas up against one another to see what happens.

I fell asleep thinking about writers and blogging. I woke up thinking about writers and blogging.

I probably dreamed about writers and blogging. Nyah, my dreams were probably wistful yearns that I would someday write astounding prose as shocking, powerful, and excellent as Emma Rathbone’s in Losing It: “…he was one of those people who looked a little different every time you saw them….strewn blue eyes.” Then, there’s a storm: “…the downfall came in great reprimanding waves.”

That’s what I want to do. I want to write like no one else — completely as myself.

Know Why You Write — and Why You Blog What You Write

I am one of the millions of writers who write because they must write. We live in word pictures that we have to lay down somewhere safe and controllable. Even when the words come out funny-looking, muffled, and bad, they are better off down on the page than rampaging through our minds, pummeling our hearts.

My blogging is an adventure for me. I never know what I am going to write before I write it — and enjoy the daily challenge of putting a story out into the world. I imagine that it may have been like this for journalists such as Anna Quindlen and Nora Ephron, under unrelenting pressure to write an excellent story and get it in on time. However, unlike them and their intrepid colleagues, I answer only to myself: write and post a blog piece every single day.

Know Why You Blog — and You’ll Know What Stats Matter

If you write stories about blue kittens for your friends and a blog is the best way for everyone to keep up with aquamarine felines on adventures, you may only track their responses. Your blog goal may be connection.

If you are a professional writer hawking your book to publishers or readers, a blog may solidify your reputation as a worthwhile prospect, expand your business and social network, and sell some books. Your blog goal may be loads of views and tons of claps.

When you are clear about what you are doing, why you are blogging, you will know what to pay attention to and how to react. Possibly you analyze trends and discover views plummeted when you blithered about dozens of ways to be a successful person in the world. Alternatively, you may have gained hundreds of followers when you wrote about traveling with no itinerary, relying on the kindness and generosity of strangers for a meal, a place to sleep.

Does this matter to you? Do you analyze it further and set a course of action — and what is the right response to take?

You will only know what to dive into and explore further if you know what you are setting out to do. Then, your analysis will lead to appropriate response.

Here’s the pattern: Goal leads to Blog leads to Results leads to Analysis. The analysis is based on your why, the what gets you blogging and how you go about doing it. You choose what you do with what you discover. Notice that you are only in charge of the Goal, the Blog posting, and the Analysis. Results are up to readers, to weather, to Houston winning the World Series, Halloween, and blue cats becoming a meme.

Please, do not stop blogging because the numbers aren’t large, nowhere close to your idiot neighbor who writes about obscure Beat poets. Stop blogging because it no longer serves you, does not fascinate and enrich your life and help you reach your goals.

Please, please, please blog because we need to read it, love it, count on it so that we don’t feel so alone and unconnected in the world. It matters to me that you share your words, your thoughts, your stories that no one else in real life finds true or funny or worth their while. If you’re not happy with your blogging results, chances are it matters to you — so figure out your why and what and go do it.

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