Blogger's Secret

Don't worry how many people will read this post

If you're writing regularly, you'll find yourself writing things that aren't earth-shattering. These posts won't be passed around virally from one person to another, and they might not even get your regular readers to look at them very closely. Yet you persist, in part because you've set yourself some goals, and in part because you're trying to be consistent in getting something publishable out there just so that there isn't a blank space in the stream.

Popularity is not the only measure of a weblog. You can be writing for a very narrow audience, that one person who you want to make an impression on this time, and if no one else reads what you have to say that's all OK.

I'm thinking of some of the writing I've done for my FOIA Coordinator weblog, which has a fraction of the readership of my old FOIA Friday column at AnnArbor.com. My goal for that blog is to produce something every single Friday, even if it's short, so that there's something to say when the weekly #FOIAchat session happens on Twitter. Some of the most fascinating news I run into is bitter battles about hair-splittingly small differences between what how expects their government to be run and how it's actually run. The accumulation of small details is the goal, so that there's a rich set of examples to search back through when it's time to make a point.

 

Edit someone else's work at a coworking session

From microcoworking.com:

microCoworking is independent workers and freelancers working side by side and collaborating in a coffee shop instead of a formal coworking space. It’s a great way to try coworking without making a long-term commitment.

One of the ways to get another pair of eyes on your work is to go to a coworking session at your favorite coffee shop. Recruit some friends who are also working on projects that need an editor's eye, and show them your work. The simplest way to get edits done is to sit down at someone else's laptop, and they sit down at your laptop, and you both go through the texts until you're convinced that the work has been improved by you sitting there.

Patti Smith and I sat down upstairs at Zingerman's Next Door for a microcoworking session recently. She edited a resume, and I edited her next beer column. We both used a light touch on the keyboard so as not to make drastic changes, but the final work was better in both cases and it was much easier to look at someone else's words than to see my own over and over again.

Thanks and credits for a first week's worth of work

I've had the good fortune to get positive reactions from a number of people for the restart of the Blogger's Secret weblog. Here's a list, sure to be incomplete, of people who've provided encouragement and ideas at the very start. I'll put it in alphabetical order by first name just to keep it simple.

• Alan Benard
• Anna Francis F S
• Bill Seitz
• Chris Lovie-Tyler
• Cory Knabel
• Elise Ann Ralph
• John Weise
• Jorie O'Brien
• Kathy Peters
• Kim Kachadoorian
• Laura Fisher
• Linda Diane Feldt
• Lucy Ann Lance
• Mark O'Brien
• Patti Smith
• Peggy Page
• Richard Steinnon
• Ronald Ahrens
• Stefanie Murray
• Terry Williams
• Vickie Elmer

Apologies to anyone I missed!

Acknowledge the helpfulness of others

Acknowledge the helpfulness of others. Share their contributions, welcome their support, and accept their kindly worded corrections with grace and ease. Keep someone else in mind so that composing a new post isn't like writing to a lonely blank page.

The people who follow your writing are not necessarily hanging on every word, and readers will come and go as their own interests change and as time and focus allows. Take a chance the first time someone pays attention to you to repay that attention. Send them a message, comment on their blog, return a "like" on some social network - anything to show that small bit of reciprocity that shows you are willing to provide some attention to their world in return.

If you are lucky enough to grow your initial effort beyond your wildest dreams, there will be people who know you only by your writing. You won't have any chance to talk to before they introduce themselves as a fan of your work, and you won't have any chance to explain what you are trying to do when they read it for themselves. Count yourself lucky to have your first reader who is happy to follow along as you learn.

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Thanks to everyone who's been supportive to date!

Survey feedback

I gave my hour long Blogger's Secret talk based on an earlier post, and got a good enough response that I want to iterate the effort.  I took some notes.  It will be time to rewrite that post before the next time.

The interesting thing was survey feedback, from a printed form designed to go into a spreadsheet.  I want to look at ways to make that more interactive next time.  Bingo cards for the win!