My “2010 Year in Blogging”

 

I created my blog in April 2010 and wrote my first post in May.  For awhile, I didn’t get much of a response, and when I did, I usually didn’t comment (I think I thought writers shouldn’t fraternize with readers.). In June, I started to get a couple comments. I responded.  Walker (delicacies.wordpress.com) and Wendy (writerwoman61.wordpress.com) found me in June.  Thank goodness.  In July, I posted something about my GPS, then flew to London to visit my daughter.  The next day, my post was Freshly Pressed and a couple thousand people read it. It’s a good thing I wasn’t around.  I would have been hell to live with.  

Since then, I have a long list of bloggers I follow, and I am grateful that people follow me or even just find me.  I rarely know what I’m going to write about until my fingers make contact with the keyboard.  And I’m always walking a fine line between wanting to release the eccentric thoughts that have held my brain hostage since early childhood and wanting to express the serious thoughts that have somehow managed to coexist with them. 

I never tire of writing.  But I do tire sometimes of not seeing a goal ahead for what I write.  I’ll have moments when I think blogging is, in some ways, like Facebook or Twitter, but without a word limit, which makes it even worse.  And I don’t do well without positive reinforcement.  When I was thirteen, I sent a short story to Seventeen Magazine.  I got a letter back, saying they couldn’t use that particular story but wanted to see more from me.  I never sent them another story.  About 10 years ago, I attended an intensive writing workshop.  I was working on a novel that was at least ¾ complete.  The instructor told me how wonderful my writing was, and I believed him, until he started making moves on me.  I never finished the novel.  You might say I get easily discouraged. 

A few days ago, WordPress sent me a wrap up of all my stats so far.  It was called “Your 2010 Year in Blogging.”  On the WordPress Applause O’ Meter, it placed me in the “Wow” category.  If this were “The Price is Right” or “Wheel of Fortune,” I’d be worth at the very least a set of matching Barcaloungers, which I could relax in until it was time to leave for my all-expenses-paid trip to Rio.  My blog has been viewed 12,000 times.  WordPress tells me that if each viewing was a person flying in a 747, I could fill 29 747s.  This is erroneous accounting for several reasons, but it’s still an interesting thing to imagine.  Except then I started thinking about what kind of snacks they would serve on all those flights, and I got totally distracted and ended up just deleting the email and going into the kitchen to find something to eat. 

What all this means is that I keep playing.  Sometimes after I post and the comments come in, I feel like I just won the lottery.  A couple times, I’ve felt like I just picked Door #3 and got an old mule.   Most of the time though, I feel like people don’t think it’s a waste of time to read my posts, and I know that reading theirs brings something to my life that I didn’t have before.  For now, that’s enough to keep me going.