Hard Lessons Learned In Front Of The Computer

There's a hard lesson you have to learn as a newspaper journalist. It's one that can send you spiraling down if you let it get to you, which, in the past, I have, many times. It can push you away from wanting to write and it can completely eviscerate your already written pieces. All creativity can suddenly disappear and you are left with a set way of doing everything because of this stupid idea that clamps onto your brain: You never know how many people read or enjoy your writing.

It's heartbreaking to spend hours researching, writing, rewriting and revising pieces that then are put into a newspaper and have no idea how many people actually choose your piece to read.

However, as hard as that lesson is to digest, the harder one that I am currently battling has to do with writing for the internet.

You do know how many people read your pieces. You know how many people share them. You know if you get comments or not.

For example, I know that my last four posts, a mix of college basketball and MLB Opening Day, have received a total of 28 pageviews. Customarily, I had been seeing numbers in the 20s-30s for each post so this is a fairly significant drop. Of course, this drop could be attributed to multiple things; maybe I need to add some more variety into my writing, maybe my links aren't working, maybe people are too busy, maybe no one really likes sports, maybe I need to work on my titles, maybe maybe maybe.

I know I'm not an internet sensation of a writer at this point in my career. I know I'm not even leaning on this blog as a real source of income. I know that this writing gig is a side job to college and my "real" job. It's no surprise to me that I don't get comments on things or even all that many pageviews simply because I don't know how to market my blog to a wider audience than Facebook friends and Twitter followers. However, knowing these things and not letting them bum you out are two completely separate ideas.

Writing is simple, you pick up some paper and just write words if you want. Being successful as a writer is not an easy task that anyone can pick up and do, though. Just like painting a masterpiece, composing and singing a Billboard #1 Hit, throwing a perfect spiral or building the newest iPhone tech, writing takes practice, patience, hard work, dumb luck and talent.

I'm a good writer and always have been and I'll never shy away from that fact. (If you want to dispute this, leave a comment or email me) That's why I almost always have higher grades on papers and essay tests than I do on math homework and multiple choice tests. It's a skill that I have developed, read about, gotten frustrated with and swore I would never do again, multiple times.

Which is what has brought me here. Each post that I write is, to me, a perfect piece that can't wait any longer to be unveiled. Of course, when I go back and read it I find grammatical mistakes or think of better ways I could have written a certain phrase. Yet, no piece that I publish has ever been a rush job for me.

I'm a fast researcher which leads to a faster writing process so I know I can wait to start a paper, article or speech until the eleventh hour. Of course, I don't recommend doing that for any of my fellow college students or any high schoolers or even professionals out there that might be reading this. It can lead to a hell of a lot of stress that isn't always self-inflicted: "Why aren't you doing your homework?" "Where's the outline for that project?" "You're going to fail if you don't start this paper now." etc.

Anyway, back on point now, it is incredibly tough to stay overly confident as a writer when you know only a handful of people are reading what you write and even fewer are sharing, liking or commenting on it.

But, as a writer, it is my job to ignore that fading confidence, push onward and upward, and know that my writing is not for page clicks, it's for the information therein. As a writer, it is my personal philosophy that if I can give an insight that others have not, if I can provide you, as a reader, with a shred of information that is not otherwise within your grasp, it is my job- my duty to do so.

That's why I keep writing.

Now, this isn't meant to be a pity post to go get you to click on my other posts. I'm not the kind of person that begs for things, unless it has to do with puppies.

Then again, I'm not against reminding people to go and read my other posts, comment, share, like, hate, email me your thoughts, email me pictures of puppies, anything. I enjoy knowing what my readers want to learn about. I want to know where you stand on issues. I want your insight. You are as important in this entire operation as I am.