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Article writing is like preparing a meal, is it written for ourselves or for a patron at the table of your restaurant?
What are we aiming for, if not for the reader? If an articles written for ones own pleasure, then it's not an article but a diary entry, a reminder or note to ourselves.
I posted my last article for publication, and whilst doing that, noticed it was my 199 article. This did come as a bit of a surprise, remembering what have I written about, and when is now difficult. Having started my Street Article experience on the 15th of January this year, five months later and this will be my 200th article. I have always maintained that I write for myself, but what I think I mean, I'm not writing with any direction like those creating a niche for a future website, I'm therefore writing for you.
A sojourn for the last three months as number one has been an honour, thinking about this place on the ranks, has made me realise I would not be there if I was not writing for you, the reader, follower and commenter. This of course has me now thinking, what am I aiming for? What are any of us aiming for? To please the reader, a simple answer, and if we have fun along the way, then it is an added bonus.
A novel or book experience must feel the same, yet have I got it in me? I'm struggling to complete the e Books that I've started, and why should that happen when I've written an estimated 110 000 words in articles? Again easily answered, if an article is not well received or read what is the loss, a mere 550 words or so. If a book bombs out it's a 100 of those articles gone to file 13. (For those that have no idea what file 13 is, try hitting your delete button, without first saving).
Is this then why so many authors fail to make a headway within the book market, an underlying fear of failure and wasted words? Writing for an almost unknown following, the subject choice you have chosen, enjoyed writing about, might not be the right one for the reader? This is the underlying suppression of many potential authors, the stumbling block of communicators. There is no guaranteed source of potential success, no word generators that will give you a higher rank, no SEO's or keyword generators.
A book is not guaranteed success by advertising and good marketing. A prime place in a book shop will give one exposure to potential buyers, but not potential sales. The book must hit a certain spot, and be written for someone else. A Street article written for yourself, may achieve a certain success, and even exceed your expectation, and as its short, one can develop on that success, you've found a niche or subject that others like, and can build along these lines. A book however will either be a success or a failure, irrespective of subject chosen.
This could be the reason I'm struggling to complete a simple book with a theme that has a following, a fear of failure, after a certain success on Street Articles.
Thank you Sonya... this all seems so long ago now... and my first book 120 000 words is at the printers as we speak... yes I got down and finished the first, how it'll be received awaits proof, but with luck... thanks for the look in and comment...
WOW Rob...You are officially an expert author. You write so well that I have no doubt, despite your misgivings, that a book written by you will be well received. Love this article...so full of feelings we all have at one time or another. Write it and they will come. Congratulations on the number one spot. You are very prolific!
Thanks AnnMarie, book is well on its way and why not stick my neck out... no one can cut it off...
200 articles since the middle of January is some achievement Rob and you write on such a wide range of subjects. Well done! I really enjoy reading your material, it's like getting the Sunday supplement every day of the week.
Thank you for the kind sentiment Penny, I sometimes sit and want to write a certain subject and just cannot get it off the ground. The fingers want to do something else, so I just sit back and watch them work...
Congratulations Rob, 200 articles..wow! Hope that i ll achieve the same one day...
Just keep going Rob! You will get rewarded you' ll see, Street Articles is only an example of what will follow!
A big question, Rob. It is a balance, isn't it? As in conversation, we write to express ourselves, but we are (or should be) mindful of the interest, or lack of interest, solicited from the listener/reader. On one hand this issue can be narrowed down by choosing an audience--sports fans love sports, teenage girls like romance, children like silliness. But even then we are left with decisions regarding the mood, the scope, the setting, the characters and characterizations, the pace of the story, the arc of the story, the type of ending, how to begin... Lucky people (authors, that is) will tell us that just "writing what I like to read" is good advice. My nature being somewhat unusual, I've found that advice is bad advise for me. I like to read unusual stuff, and I like to write the same. With a publishing industry that values demographics as much as literary quality, this makes my tastes almost 180 degrees from that market. I think it's best to choose ones subjects carefully and with an eye towards reader interest. But I'm not a published writer so what do i know.
How right you are Chris, the problem and the solution are so far apart and so well hidden that one returns to a certain amount of guess work, what will the public want? What we perceive that they would enjoy and what they do enjoy can be changed daily with differing mood swings, this is the dilemma faced by uncertain authors feeling a crisis of confidence in their selected subject.
I can't be sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if my insistence on 'un-confidence' keeps me from being satisfied with what I've already done, which helps keep me from settling into a comfortable 'output'--like you see with the bestseller contestants--not that I'm putting those authors down... How I wish I were one of those lucky people who get fantastic sales on their first novel and look forward to a long career of sequels to a proven product--that's made-in-the-shade and no mistake. At 56, however, I think I'm far too comfortable with sour grapes, and actual success would probably destroy my mental and emotional health. As I've come to see it, life is best when there are minimal problems and minimal change.
One day the words will come spitting out of your fingers....it is not if, I would think it would be when, just a matter of time....the inspiration will take hold and you go with it....until that happens number one at SA in 5 months big achievment for sure...6 months ago you were doing what...... 6 months you will be advertising your first e-book.....
I think this might be the problem before SA I had no experience and now am a little lost in confidence wondering what next... the brick wall just needs climbing and maybe it will all flow again...
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Thanks Shawn... maybe all I need is a kick up the .... to get me going again... just seem to have hit a brick wall and lost a bit of confidence...
Congratulations Rob 200 articles is quite a feat and you have done a wonderful job on this one. I will have to go back and read some of the earlier ones as well. I believe if you write what you are passionate about you don't have to 'try' at all it just all comes out. Loved this one.
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