Hello Internet!
First thing, March 4th is the only date which is a command. At least in English, it is March Forth! That’s something I always heard and I thought it was interesting. I don’t know if any other dates fall into the category of also being a command, but March 4th is the only one that comes to my mind. I just thought it was cool, so I thought I’d share that with you. Anyway, I hope you had a wonderful week. Here on the website, we had a very productive week. As I mentioned on Twitter (Follow me there…please!), we finished February strong with another record setting month in terms of visitors, views, and likes. So thank you so much for making that happen! No matter if this is your first time reading my stuff or you’ve been following me from the beginning (Hello Mom!), I really appreciate your viewership. You’re growing this community and making my day all at the same time. Thank you again for all your support and I hope you enjoy today’s Weekly Blog.
So I apologize for the super long title to this week’s Weekly Blog, but I wanted to talk about what I write about and why. Now I mentioned this phrase, “Some things you write for yourself” in the latest Six Word Memoir Piece and of course that means that the other things you write are for other people. The fact that you are reading this means it is likely that you have your own page where you write your own stuff whether that be poetry, blogs, movie reviews, short stories, etc. and that means you have probably asked yourself why you are writing in the first place. Why do you spend time writing something and publishing it on WordPress? Is it for the fame and fortune that comes from being a WordPress writer? Is it just a hobby and a way for you to heighten your writing skill? Is it because you love to write and love to know that somewhere out in the world there’s some one reading the stuff you’ve written? Or is it just because it’s fun and you don’t care if someone actually reads it it? I’m sure for a lot of writers on the website, that the reason for writing is probably a mix of all the reasons I listed plus a few others thrown in there. I bring this up because it’s important to think about the reasoning you write or really the reason you do anything. Are you doing it for yourself or are you doing for other people?
My reason for writing is a mixed bag of things and I think it differs from piece to piece. As I have mentioned many, many times through various blogs, I started this website based off a New Year’s Resolution to “Write More.” Now that resolution could have lead to a lot of things, but WordPress seemed like a great outlet that would let me publish whatever I wanted to write. When I first launched the website, I wanted to publish five different pieces based around Blogging, Fanfiction, Creative Writing, and Politics. Five pieces is a lot. I mean, sometimes I struggle with just the three pieces I publish a week and I know other writers have to focus on one major piece a week or even just a few pieces a month. Plus covering all of those different subjects left me stretched out in all directions and unfocused. I thought it was a good idea to flex all parts of my brain as I wrote the different pieces, but due to a limited amount of time, increasing stress, and a lack of interest, I ended up dropping my political pieces. I refocused on putting on three pieces a week: Blog, Fanfiction, and Writing Prompt Piece. Another change happened at the start of the new year. I dropped my Pokemon Fanfiction right in the middle of the story and decided to pick up Poetry instead. My Pokemon Fanfiction had a little bit of traction behind it, but it was honestly a pain to publish and I either published chapters late or not at all. It was no longer something fun to write, but something I felt like I had to write for the few audience members who liked reading about my adventure in the Alola Region. After exchanging Fanfiction for Poetry, I have noticed a big change in the viewership. Looking at my stats and insights, I have seen a shift from Sundays being my biggest day in viewership due to my Weekly Blogs, to Friday being the biggest day due to my Writing Prompt Pieces, to Wednesday being my biggest day currently due to the popularity of my Poetry. I’m not really sure if that’s because people really like my Poetry more than my other stuff or if WordPress’s algorithm benefits Poetry, but either way it looks like Poetry was a good addition in terms of views.
But is that what it’s all about? The views? The likes? The comments? Well sort of. For me it’s a mixed bag of writing about stuff that I want to write about and writing stuff I think the audience will like. Obviously, I want to write stuff that makes me happy, but I also want to keep a constant schedule, gain as many followers as I can, and grow an audience here on WordPress. It’s almost like there’s a WordPress pendulum that swings between this website being a passion project all about fulfilling my creative needs and this website being a job where I have to publish pieces on a regular basis to fulfill some kind of quota. Of course I make no money off of WordPress, so I guess the job side is actually more of an unpaid internship. So what do I mean when I say that my reasoning behind writing differs from piece to piece as I write? Well to give you an example, I know that Poetry is currently my most popular category making Wednesday my most popular day in terms of views, so I am going to continue to write Poetry pieces and make sure they get published on time. That being said, it’s not like I don’t enjoy writing Poetry. I personally think that I’m not very good at it, but I do enjoy writing Poetry. It challenges me to write in a form that I’m not 100% comfortable with. On the other end of the spectrum I would put the Writing Prompt Pieces that focus on my Dungeons and Dragons inspired world. If you didn’t know I am currently fleshing out a D&D/Fantasy inspired world over the course of several Writing Prompt pieces. (If you’re intersested, I’d suggest starting with Beware the Dragon! or The Half-Elven Prince.) I know they are not super popular in terms of views or likes, but they are pieces that I really enjoy and I look forward to continuing the series going forward. If they didn’t get a single view, it would make me sad, but ultimately I would still enjoy writing them.
So if you’re a writer out there, I think it’s important to think about why you’re writing what you’re writing and what you hope to accomplish through your writing. Are you writing for others, for yourself, or for a mix of those two things? How much are you going to care about your audience? Are you going to allow them to make those decisions for you or are you going to write whatever you want and hope that an audience follows? Also this idea can be applied to a lot of things in your life? Do you hang out with certain people for their benefit or yours? Are you interested in an activity because you enjoy it or because others you care about enjoy it? I’m not saying either of them is right or wrong. I think it needs to be a mix. Sometimes you do things you normally wouldn’t like to do just because you care about others more than yourself and sometimes you do what you want to do not caring about whether others would approve of your behavior. It’s just good to be conscious of what you are doing and why. That’s all.
Thank you all for reading my Weekly Blog. I’m sorry this one was a little heavy and a little meta. If you liked it, feel free to give it a like or leave a comment down below. I’d love to hear about you recent projects you are working on or even a story about when you put yourself first or when you put others first before yourself. If you didn’t like this Weekly Blog, that’s ok. There are plenty of other things on the website that you can check out. Other Weekly Blogs. Poetry. Even those Dungeons and Dragons inspired pieces I talked about if that’s something that interests you. Again I appreciate your support no matter if you are a first time viewer or a long time community member. All your views, likes, comments, and shares really make my day, so thank you once again. That’s all for now. Make sure you come back on Wednesday for a new Poem and Friday for a new Writing Prompt piece.
I hope you have a fantastic week!
-Allen_The_Writer
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Allen The Writer 
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