If a blogger writes in a forrest, and no one is there to retweet it, did they really write?
This past week, I participated in a 7 day writing challenge called the Your Turn Challenge that was born out of Seth Godin’s new book, What To Do When It’s Your Turn. I wrote every day for 7 days along with literally thousands of other writers. It was challenging and I learned something. Here is what I wrote today:
Well, here we are, at the end. And for me, the most interesting (and maddening) thing about this challenge was the lack of instant feedback. As a blogger, I have, sadly, become a numbers junkie.
I write words, I publish the words, I instantly check all the numbers on all the things to see what my audience thought about the words.
On a good day, the words get shared, and retweeted and I get lots of positive warm fuzzies in the form of sentences that start with things like “wow, Jen, I never thought of it that way.” And then I feel successful.
On the bad days, the words go out and I get nothing back. Just a void. Or a thud. And I second guess everything. My ability as a writer, my success as a blogger and perhaps my value as a human being.
This, Friends, is not a healthy cycle.
But there are so many words. And so many bloggers. And only a finite amount of time.
This week I learned that even when I ship my words out into the vast expanse and have no way to track their effect, they were still good words. They were still me. They still have value.
And that is enough.
Happy running and writing and dreaming. You have value.
Jen
they always have value to me.
Awwww . . . thanks, Kathy!!!!
Wow Jen. How did you get into my head? I often feel the same way after posting anything on Facebook, or Twitter or my website. “Did anyone like it?” “Does anyone care”…oh but you are right, every word had value. Thanks for helping me see that. 😉
You bet, Kolleen! We’re all in this together!! Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment!
Great post! We can all relate to this feeling, at least I can. Thanks for sharing 🙂