Hello Internet!
I hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy! I’m back with another Weekly Blog. I know it seems like it’s been awhile since I have published two weekly bogs in a row, but here I am, living the dream. Releasing Weekly Blogs on a weekly basis. I guess miracles do exist. Anyway, before I go on a strange tangent and devolve into general silliness, I do have some important stuff to talk about. Before we get to that however, I want to quickly talk about the pieces I published in the last week.
Last Sunday, I published a Weekly Blog about the Critical Role Campaign Two Finale. My favorite Dungeons and Dragons Twitch Stream wrapped up their second campaign a couple weeks back and I wanted to talk about it. Was it a good ending, a satisfying ending, a bad ending, or a frustrating ending? Well I guess you’ll just have to read the Blog to find out. But generally yeah I think it was pretty good and after watching the campaign wrap-up this past Thursday, I’m even more satisfied with the ending of the campaign. Overall I love Critical Role and I am hyped for the mini-campaign that is Exandria Unlimited and Critical Role Campaign Three. On Wednesday, I published a Poem titled “If I Went Out With You.” This is a Love Poem about overthinking about love. Building it up in my mind and then doing nothing about it just to watch the person walk away, not knowing I exist. But I’m sure no one else can relate to that. On Friday, I published the latest chapter in my Dungeons and Dragons inspired series, “Icy Aftermath Part 2.” The party sits by and watches as Captain Fe Springbloom and Captain Lillian Evergreen face down one another. Captain Springbloom is convinced that Lillian is a traitor that must pay in blood. Riffen stands by, unsure how to help without getting the whole army involved and the group just has to watch as these two women fight it out. Finally, on Saturday I published my latest Character Creation, Otto Rivulet. Once again I highlighted a Dungeons and Dragons character I played in an old D&D campaign. He’s a muddy, stinking, Druid with a big heart and I just care about him so much. So go give Otto some love and check out that Character Creation piece. Actually if you missed any of those pieces, I highly recommend checking them out and showing them some love. I’d really appreciate it.
Now I want to shift gears from the pieces I’ve published in the past to the pieces I’ve published in the past and the future. Honestly I’m already predicting that this Weekly Blog might be all over the place but I want to talk about content. More specifically my content and whether it matters at all. Like what’s the point of it? Why am I writing? These sorts of questions gained prominence in my mind after I watched Bo Burnham’s Netflix Special “Inside.” I thought about doing a Weekly Blog where I properly reviewed the special, but there’s a lot to unpack there. I honestly think it’s better to watch instead of just reading what I thought about it. However this special did have an affect on me just like it had an affect on many others who watched it. I saw people say it’s both inspiring and depressing. Which it is. For me it made me think about writing and creating and the relationship between content creators and their audience. How is the stuff I’m writing affecting both me as I write it and you as you read it? Shortly after I watched the special I wrote the Poem, “Too Many Questions.” In that Poem I asked questions about whether or not the content I write has any value. Does that value last or is it a short lived moment that is quickly forgotten? All content creators are on this constant treadmill as they try to produce content, but then that content is old. It’s forgotten. You have to produce more and more just to stay afloat. Just to stay relevant. There’s this attitude that if you are standing still, you are falling behind. You have to do more and more and more and then at the end of the day the hours, days, weeks, months of effort that can go into a single piece of content is binged and tossed aside.
All of those questions make me think about my content and the process behind it. I try to stay consistent with my publishing schedule but sometimes things fall through the cracks. Sometimes I can’t be productive and creative. Sometimes writer’s block is impossible to get past. Now on one hand I’m just writing for me. I don’t get paid for this. No one is over me making sure I write. I’m just writing to write. The people who have been reading my stuff for a while probably know that I started this Blog and started writing because of a New Year’s Resolution. I told myself I was going to write more and now four years later I’m still writing. I write the stuff I want to write no matter how many views or likes or comments I get. But at the same time I’m not just writing for myself. I’m writing for all of you. I’m writing because I like the fact that people all over the world read the stuff I write and seem to enjoy it. You take your time to read the stuff I write and I want to make sure that it’s worth the time you spend on it. I want you to like it. I want you to like me. I want to expand my audience and I want to improve my writing and I want people to pay me for writing. One day I want to write a novel and publish it and I want people to enjoy that too. It doesn’t matter how good my writing is and how much effort I put into a piece if no one reads it. If a tree falls in the forest and there’s nobody around to hear it, does it make a sound? Is it more important that it’s written or that it’s read? I mean obviously I have to write it first, right? If not, there’s nothing for you to read? But if you don’t read it, then there might as well not have been anything there in the first place? Perception is important.
If my writing is important and your readership is important then that makes me think that I really need to put effort into the things I write. They need to be important. They need to be drenched in meaning. Each individual word needs to hold significance so when you read it, you’ll feel something. You’ll connect to it. Those words need to grab hold and stick with you even after you move on to something. Is that it? Is the most important thing that my words stay with you? That you can think about the stuff I write even after you are done reading it? Or is it more important that it has an effect at the moment? Is my content more like a firework show where it keeps you amazed in the moment, but then drifts from your mind? SInce my content, like a lot of other content, has such a short shelf life, it might be better for me to focus on the flash and the awe of it. Obviously I don’t know the answer to a lot of this because I can’t really determine it. It’s all up to you and the audience. With your views and likes and comments you influence what type of stuff I write and where I put that effort. The audience really holds a power that I can either lean into hoping it brings my Blog some growth, or I can just do my own thing hoping the audience follows.
I’ve been writing for this Blog for over four years and even though some things have changed, other things have stayed the same. Deep down I’m still really writing the stuff I like and using this space as a way to better my writing. I’ve written stuff that I wouldn’t have written otherwise and I’m seeing improvements to my writing. I’m still having fun writing stuff and seeing all of you read it. I’m still amazed when I see people from all over the world read the stuff I write and I can’t believe I’ve gained over 700 Followers here on WordPress. I’m just really using this as a space to talk about my thought process and the creator – reader relationship.
If you read this and thought it sounded like a bit of venting, you’d be right. Well, I feel like venting has anger attached to it and I’m definitely not angry. Writing is just cheaper than therapy and I think it’s good to put these thoughts to paper (or post them on the internet for everyone to see). Do I have any answers to all the questions? No. Obviously this is a learning process and I’m just winging it. I don’t know what’s the best way to stay productive and grow an audience and improve my writing skills. I’m just writing. I want the stuff I write to be for both you, the audience, and me the writer. I want to find a balance between caring about views and just writing for the sake of writing. Maybe one day this Blog will blow up in popularity. But more likely, I’ll just continue down the path I’m on and growth will come naturally. I couldn’t imagine being here four years ago and who knows what the next four years will be like. Things will change and adapt as I find it necessary. I just hope you come along for the ride.
Thank you so much for reading that Weekly Bog. I know it was a little all over the place and rambly and a mess. But sometimes that’s what writing is. It’s a messy process to take the words jumbled up in your brain and put them down on the page. I promise that not all my Weekly Blogs are this chaotic and existential. If you liked this Weekly Blog, feel free to give it a Like. You can also leave a comment down below. Are you a writer/content creator? Do you have any thoughts about content creation and the audience? I’d love to hear all your thoughts down in the comments. I am very interested in how other creators think about these things and deal with these types of questions. I also hope that you’ll stick around to join this creative and positive community here on WordPress. You can do that by Following me here on WordPress. This will put my stuff in your feed and let you know when I publish new pieces. The support from readers new and old really do mean the world to me and I’m just blown away by their niceness and generosity. If that sounds like something you want to be a part of, hit that Follow button.
Thank you again for all the support and I hope you have a fantastic week!
-Allen_The_Writer
Header Photo Credit to Pexels
https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-and-red-typewriter-1995842/
Allen The Writer 