Jan 23 2009
Take this Advice from Mozart and Move On with Your Blog
So you have been blogging for quite a while – making regular posts and receiving the odd comment?
If so, you’re on the right track. All you have to do is just carry on with it and you’ll be fine.
Not happy with this advice? I’m not surprised if you are. Many who are doing quite well with their blogs are not sure whether they should be satisfied with what they’re doing.
Of course occasionally they get the `high’ feeling that they are doing right but then most of the time they feel they could do with a little endorsement – a third party to say they are doing it right.
Endorsement usually comes in the form of comments. As bloggers, we can never get enough of them. Even a one-liner `a great post’ comment cheers us up for the rest of the day, until we write the next post and don’t receive a single comment for it.
I’ve touched on the matter of comments in an earlier post – if you don’t receive comments, it doesn’t mean your blog isn’t good enough.
It’s just that most people are too lazy to comment or are in great hurry to hop to another web page that they can’t spare a few seconds to post a few words.
The great majority would like to comment but simply can’t express their thoughts in writing. So they just read and move on.
Just ask yourself how many times you have read a great post and weren’t moved to comment. Why, yesterday I read a couple of great posts. I was moved to even print out one of them for future reference, but was not moved to comment.
You have just got to believe that you’re winning silent approval every time you publish a post. But then most of us will still not be satisfied until the approval comes expressly.
We have to be told loudly in our ears we are doing a fantastic job. That’s the tonic for us to continue blogging.
Let me tell you that this is a dangerous wish. If external approval is your only tonic to continue blogging, then you’ll be disappointed most of the time. You simply can’t have approval on demand.
To be on the safe side, don’t expect approval from anybody, except the inner voice that tells you that you’re doing fine and you’ll get better if you keep on with it.
It’s this inner voice that Mozart relied on to become what he was.
A group of music students went to see him to ask for advice on how to become a great music composer. Mozart told them they should start small with jingles, lullabies and so on.
One student, dissatisfied with the advice, said, “But you were composing symphonies when you were only twelve years old.”
Mozart replied, “That’s because I didn’t ask anybody for advice.”
Mozart’s message is clear. You don’t need peer review, media coverage or even comments to keep your blog going.
You hit the nail on the head with Mozart quote. I think, though, that an awful lot of wanna-be writers can’t get going without feedback. What makes you a writer? You write!
aw2500
www.permissionsplease.today.com
Ditto what aw2500 said.
Though I wish the thoughts weren’t in my head; they can be…more often than I’d like.
More than once it’s occurred to me to ditch my fictional work, ditch my blog, ditch it all. I guess it’s a good thing that the little voice in the back of my head will pipe up to remind that I write for myself, first and foremost - always.
Very hard to shake though.
Jen
I think what you describe, jen, is what artists have gone through for centuries, and a writer is an artist whose media is words. It’s hard for a starving artist to remain committed to his/her craft without taking on other work.
In my case, twenty years ago when the country went through the last major recession, I was downsized from my corporate job and living in a small town whose livelihood depended on manufacturing. But the manufacturers were all gone. I was desperate to find work. Friends I’d made online rallied around me by reminding me I could write. So I literally told myself that if others thought I was a writer, then a writer I would be. And somehow, it worked. To this day, I’m grateful to the friends who believed in me.
aw2500
www.permissionsplease.today.com
In order to give yourself a boost in confidence just look at your own blog’s stats. If you are getting repeat visitors or visitors that are looking at more than one page then you know that you are doing well. I have a blog that gets over 1500 visitors a day sometimes and not one comment. Not everyone has the time nor inclination to want to write a comment. You will also find that the great majority of commentators are only interested in a link back to their own blog when they enter their name and URL. Those commentators typically just write “good post” or “great idea” without adding much to the post. Comments you will find are not always what they seem.