The Benefits of No One Caring About Your Work
The Benefits of No One Caring About Your Work
July 21, 2020, 10:05 pm
Filed under: advice, Creative Process, writing | Tags: blogging, body of work, creative work, fishing, gems, internet fisherman, internet writing, ocean, patreon, The Hamlet Project, views, writing
When a friend of a friend asked me for some advice about starting a blog and Patreon, I told her the truth — that most writers struggle to find an audience and the internet is largely indifferent to our work. I realized after I hit send, that this might not be the kind of advice a writer might want to hear. I mean, I know I expected that the internet would fall at my feet and deliver me instant recognition when I first began writing and posting music there. I think imagined that there were people who spent their days just running their fishermen’s nets through the internet’s wide oceans looking for gems. This is what I thought despite the fact that I never used the internet that way myself, nor did I know anyone else who did. But I suppose hope springs eternal? Anyway, there are no gem finding internet fishing boats and putting things up on the internet is largely like going outside in a thunderstorm and shouting your latest sonnet. It’s not likely to be heard or even noticed. Very few people, besides the ones closest to you, are likely to care about a piece you put up on the internet.
This might seem harsh but there are benefits to no one giving any fucks about your work. I mean. Let me pause for a second to say that a lot of people care about my work now. Not all of it, for sure — but I have been at this long enough that I am no longer operating in total anonymity on the internet in most places. I don’t want to underplay my own success. But I do have a lot of things on the internet that in all the likelihood no one has ever seen. There are over a thousand posts on my Hamlet blog that no one has ever clicked on — or at least that have never registered as viewed. They’re mostly the tiny words, which are actually my favorite posts — but no one has a reason to click on them, so they remain as invisible as any other neglected post on the internet. And I have a following. That Hamlet blog has over 107,000 views altogether. But…even so.
But I was here to tell you why it’s good when no one cares. It’s good because you can really grow in peace. The pressure of publishing where a person MIGHT see it means that you’re working on your writing (or your art or whatever) and growing it and developing it outside of what can be a bright spotlight.
It is exciting when posts go a little viral. It is a roller coaster to watch stats and comments roll in. But it is also a distraction from writing. When no one cares what you write, you can develop and share your own voice without worrying so much about what people are saying about it.
And in retrospect, I’m very glad that no one was reading the very first blogs I wrote here. They weren’t that good yet. I think being out here all the time without too much push back has led me to discover my own particular style and confidence in my voice.
There are a LOT of gems in my internet corner and many of them have never been caught in anyone’s net. This one is still one of my favorites and it never got the attention I felt it warranted. And I love this little bit from The Hamlet Project that has only two views. But somehow even though not everything gets seen — the gems do sort of add up. And occasionally one will get caught up in a random google search and become accidentally popular. For example, I tossed off a piece called How to Congratulate an Artist a couple of years ago and now it gets a handful of views every day. I could not possibly explain it to you. It’s not because it’s a great piece. It’s not. It’s just accidentally google-able and the more people click on it, the more people click on it. I guess google is the internet fisherman.
And all of the things do add up to a rather substantial body of work, which is maybe the biggest benefit. I have written a LOT of things and the evidence is right there on the internet. Some gems, some fish, some old boots. But a substantial body of work, regardless. Benefit #1.
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Originally published at http://artiststruggle.wordpress.com on July 22, 2020.
