Well...It Happened

Yesterday's blog post hit single digit views. 

Funny, because the post the day before that did really well. For the past year, I've been flirting with view numbers in the teens. Would I like to have view number in the dozens like I one time did?

Sure.

Is it worth worrying about?

Not really.

I've explained several times since I started this blog back in 2011 the reasons I write and more importantly, why I continue posting a blog on a daily basis. I write this mostly to keep writing. A bad habit a writer can have is to stop writing. By making sure I write everyday, that habit can be held at bay. Plus, I consider this blog to be sort of a journal and a wise man once gave wise council that we should keep and write in a daily journal. I do that on paper, too, but the electronic one allows me a level of creativity the paper one does not.

As long as writing daily is my goal, the fact that others may like reading it is a bonus. Now, I know these posts can be a bit dry...a nice way to say boring. I came to terms with the fact that some (many...) of the posts are boring. I try to make them as interesting as possible, but, well...that's the way it goes, sometimes.

I suppose that's why only getting a few views from yesterday's post caught my attention. I liked writing yesterday's post. It was fun writing about Chums eyewear retainers because I had a history with the man who invented them and how I'm not the kind of person who uses them as they were intended.

Still, I can't let it get to me. Since I had fun writing it and it's a journal entry, my main goals for putting in the time are already completed.

Sometimes I wonder, as I write a post (like this one...), just how many people will find it interesting enough to click on the link. Who knows? It might even be less than seven. ;)

Avoiding...Your WIP

I have a confession to make...

I haven't worked on, edited, looked at, or even opened my latest WIP (work in progress) story in over a month.

Now, for some of you, that may seem like no big deal, as if no progress on something that is a side interest and something that generates almost zero income for a month is nothing to worry about. But, to a writer, that's almost unimaginable. 

I've been working on this particular story for years. I jumped right in--as I usually do--when I first came up with the concept. I wrote about 20k words and then I got stuck. That happens a lot with me. Last year, I blew the electronic dust off the story and jumped in again. I added a new storyline to run concurrent with the existing one and got another 10k words. I even did something I almost never do--I outlined where I wanted the story to go.

A few months ago I added another 10k words, and then...

Nothing.

I know it's been more than a month because I haven't even implemented the notes from my writing group for early May. 

I remember when I got stuck writing my middle-grade novel that came out in 2018. I was working to complete the 50k word in one month and there were a couple of times when I just wrote and wrote--all to keep writing. I wrote stuff that didn't make sense. I wrote things that I had not researched or knew they'd be in the story. But I kept at it. On my current WIP, I've been doing that for the past 15k words. The problem is, it's not working out the way it did before, and I think I expected it to do that, to come together the way my novel did.

And since it's not...it's just sitting there, being avoided.

I know me. I know how I write. I know that there'll be something that kicks me in the butt and gets the gears moving again. The problem is, I don't know when that'll be. I still like the story and think it has legs, so much so, one of the reasons I've been avoiding it is because it's not reaching its potential, the potential I believe it has.

Theoretically, I can get it finished in a few weeks time, that is, if I do attack it. If so, I would be one happy writer. But, for now, it's not going anywhere, as long as I continue to avoid it. Looks like it's time to get to work.