MediocreMan

Do Not Look Now · 26 April 2025

I know why I do not look at my statistics for my websites and social media accounts. They offer no encouragement.

If I was to judge whether I should continue writing based on statistics on my websites and social media accounts, I would have quit long ago. I mean, c’mon. A couple hundred followers on social media after nearly twenty years! (I have more than a couple hundred on Facebook and less than a couple hundred on X. Which by the way, I still have a hard time not calling it Twitter. I mean, c’mon, X!? Anybody else? Probably not. At any rate.)

So much for analytics. (I wonder if that might be a better title for this blog post. So Much for Analytics. Seems kinda catchy. We shall see.)

At any rate.

(By the way, if you have noticed, I use the phrase “At any rate” quite a bit. It is a one sentence paragraph that I stick in there when I abruptly go from one thought to another. It is like my non-transition transition. Think about it. I just write the phrase (it is actually a sentence) and voilà. I can move on to a different thought.)

At any rate.

(See?)

I think that analytics are great. At least in most industries. You can look at your various metrics and use them to decide what to do next. I suppose that I could do that too. I could look to see which of my blog posts get the most views. Then, I could continue to write on those subjects. Seems simple. But I am all over the place on subjects. I write about this, that, and the other. I do not have a single overarching subject. Except me. Except life. I just write about life on this blog. Sometime this. Sometimes that. Sometimes the other. Sometimes without rhyme or reason.

Maybe somebody should come up with a weekly blog prompt. That way bloggers like me who do not have many readers can write about certain subjects certain weeks. They would not need to be experts on anything. They could just write. After all, that is what I do. I am not an expert on anything but me. And life. My life, anyway. I just know what I am and what I do. So I write about whatever comes into my head. (Which might be an interesting subject. Which I am not sure that I have written about it yet. Then again, it might not be so interesting to my readers to read about how I come up with ideas. Especially since it is probably a short subject when it comes right down to it. After all, I just write what comes into my mind. Not difficult to figure that out.)

At any rate.

I forgot where I was. Oh yes. Analytics.

I do not think I will ever use analytics to judge what I write about. After all, I have so little data that there would probably not be much of a pattern to discern anyway. So I will go along blithely ignoring any data that might be out there. Unless of course, I happen to hit upon something that just explodes. But until then, I will just ignore the data (or lack thereof) and continue to write about various topics.

I forgot where I was going with this, but that does not really matter. Because I will not look at the data to see if anybody read this post. After all, my analytics do not offer me any encouragement anyway.

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Going Nowhere Fast · 19 April 2025

Have you ever felt like you were going nowhere fast? Yeah. Me neither.

There are times when I am writing and I feel like I am not accomplishing anything. I mean seriously. Blogging since 2006 and I have just a few faithful readers. Most of whom I know. Over twenty books out on Amazon and only a handful of sales. Writing and writing and writing, but not seeming to get any traction with readers.

I suppose that I ought to back up my claims. I suppose that I should see my statistics on my blog to see if I actually only have a few readers. I know the statistics on my books. I really have only sold a few here and a few there.

I am not complaining, mind you. I actually keep writing because it seems to be what I am supposed to do. I keep having ideas for blog posts and for books. I keep having words that need to find the page. I keep being inspired by life. And by prompts. I love to write. It is a gift. So I must use it. (Even if nobody else thinks my writing is a gift to anybody else.)

I actually do not want to look at my blog statistics. I do not want to see how many people are reading my stuff. Or where they are from. It was interesting to do so in the beginning. To see that there were people from all over the world reading my blog. Tuning in to my words. But now, I just write regardless of who is reading. I suppose that is not the best idea. I ought to listen to the few readers that I have and write what they want. Then again, I thought about that a bit and decided not to write much about teaching, coaching, and mentoring. At least not yet. (I suppose it is self-preservation.)

It is funny thinking about blog posts and writing in general. I wonder if anybody else thinks that they are going nowhere fast. If they think that nobody is reading. Which is where being part of a community of writers comes in.

I like being part of a digital community of writers where people write and people read what they have written. Where people give feedback and comments. Where people like other people’s stuff. Even if it is not polished or perfect. DailyPrompt has been a great boon as my outlet to write flash fiction and poetry. I wrote daily for a couple months, but have since tapered off to at least a few times a week and always entering competitions.

Which is interesting. Competitions, that is. I enjoy entering writing competitions. For whether I win or not, I know that at least a few people are reading my stuff. And I can look to see who is liking my stuff. Who is following me as a writer. Who is commenting on my writing. That is all part of the general DailyPrompt community, but it is even more fun knowing that somebody is judging my writing against other people’s writings when there is a competition. And I want that. I want to see if my writing has any appeal to other writers. Who are generally avid readers.

Well, this was going nowhere fast, but it seems that I got excited about DailyPrompt again. I suppose that is what writing six days a week does for a person. At least for me. I might be going nowhere fast, but I am enjoying myself doing it.

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Why I Do Not Write about Teaching · 12 April 2025

After I wrote about maybe writing about teaching, coaching, and mentoring, I thought about why I have not done much of it. The reason is that I do not really like to get in trouble.

Okay. I would probably not get into trouble writing about teaching, coaching, and mentoring. Probably. But you never know. After all, we all say stuff and do stuff that is probably appropriate when given the full context of a situation. But no story could ever give the full context of any story. Which is why I have only written about innocuous stuff. Stuff that nobody would take exception to. Of course, nowadays, who knows what people take exception to?

Which is probably why I have not written much about teaching, coaching, and mentoring. After all, people take exception to many things these days. They take exception to the clothes we wear. They take exception to the clothes we do not wear. They take exception to the words we use. They take exception to the words we do not use. People get offended at the most innocuous things. Oh sure, they get offended at things that are offensive too, but those seem to be the exception. (Somebody will probably get offended by this paragraph.)

Now that I am a couple paragraphs into this piece, I figure that it will probably not see the light of day. After all, I am not a political beast. I do not have the stomach for it. Nor the seemingly fluid ethics that go with politics. And even though people say that any publicity is good publicity, I am inclined to disagree. Writers getting in trouble for being insensitive to their readers is just not something I want to do. Of course, it does make a difference that I have only a few readers. But still, I do not want to turn those few away.

Well, that is about it for this post. It is going nowhere fast. But that is okay. I really do not want to offend people. Nor do I want to get in trouble for the things I have done or the things I have not done in my classroom or on the field. Not that I can point to anything that would raise the ire of anybody. But who knows? People get mad for just about anything these days.

Which is why (as much as I would like to oblige), after much consideration, I will probably not be writing too much about teaching, coaching, and mentoring. At least not yet.

(Sorry, Dale.)

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