I can’t keep up with all the conversations. The New York Times has this one series about fiction, then there’s the Good Letter’s Blog, my Book Forum updates with multitudes of interesting stuff to wade through. And that’s all on top of the reading of my friends’ recommendations, and the pieces my friends are writing (like this), and the conversations on their blogs, and Twitter, and Facebook. So I don’t know how to keep up. I can’t. There’s just too much.
Whatever you’re creating, whether it’s a story, or a blog, or art, or a song, once it’s finished you have to push it out into your world. To your friends or family or community. There’s no other way to be seen. Don’t just put something up on your blog and expect readers to come by. There’s too much other stuff to see and read and be entertained by. If you don’t care then don’t try, but if you care about your ideas or your conversation then share it. Or else I’ll go find something else and so will the readers and engagers.
No one is going to steal it and if they do then go get paid to create stuff. But as soon as you send it out go create something better. Continue this.
Don’t do it for affirmation because you probably won’t get any and what you get won’t satisfy you. People aren’t going to affirm you. You’re affirmed over time by your actions.
All this to say, I want to know what you got. Send me something you’re working on. I’ll drop everything else on my list because you matter to me and I care about this ragtag community of creatives. rossgale4 at gmail dot com
As soon as you hit send, begin the next thing.
Ross Gale is a writer and editor from the Pacific Northwest. 
Thank you for this.
you’re so cute and funny, can I introduce you to my daughter 😉 seriously I do appreciate you enthusiasm. Us retirees need to get views, too!
Thank you. But I am very happily married.
got that right.
meaningful article and nice picture:)
Congratulations! I’ve nominated you for the Sunshine Blogger Award. http://wp.me/p27eXb-7z
“If you don’t care, don’t try…”?
About becoming famous. Or having a readership/following.
I mean no offense, and maybe I’m completely misunderstanding what you’re saying, but some of the advice seems contradictory to me.
1)”Push it out into your world…There’s no other way to be seen.” compared with, “Don’t do it for affirmation…You’re affirmed over time by your actions.”
2)”Don’t just put something up on your blog and expect readers to come by.” compared with “If you care about your ideas…then share them.”
(I thought that was what blogging was…)
3) You express how frustrating it is that “…there’s just too much” to keep up with and then invite people to send you what they’re working on. 🙂
I’m not an expert on creativity, by any means, though I experiment with it frequently- but it seems to me that the process, and the results must stand independent of acclaim, public opinion, judgement, etc…That’s why I personally feel like, “If you don’t care (about being famous), don’t try.” is somewhat counter-productive to any effort to ‘create’.
Pushing to me isn’t putting something on a blog. it’s then telling people about it and posting it to Facebook. All that social media stuff. The benefit of this will never be affirmation but the process of putting ones self out there to be vulnerable and consumable. Millions of people do this and the expectation is often to be affirmed when that just won’t happen very often. I mean I know people who get book contracts from their blog but that’s rare and they don’t just put stuff on their blog, they share it with their community and push it into the world rather than just post it. I would rather put time and effort into reading stuff from people who are very intentional about sharing, and need and want feedback rather than read all the articles in my queue. I’ll make time.
Thank you for elaborating. I appreciate it. I think anyone who blogs is being intentional about sharing, whether or not their intention is to be famous is another thing, of course. And that is beside the point for many people who create. The law of the Blogosphere is that we attract and keep those readers who are truly interested in what we are doing. I would rather have those kind of people than a stat any day. Maybe the tricky part is knowing ourselves what it is that we are doing, what we want or expect from blogging. Would that be a fair assessment of what you were trying to say? 🙂
Yeah definitely. It really comes out of my personal experience and I know others are similar, but not everyone. I began with high hopes that never came so I got discouraged. Still do, but I’ve changed my expectations and my approach.
I struggle a lot with this. Half the time I feel the same way, recognizing the fact that there’s no point in writing something online if you don’t want other people to see it. Other times, however, I can’t help feeling like my Facebook account has become nothing more than a vehicle for self-promotion.
How do you reconcile these two perspectives (or do you)?