Paula Light says, “Let’s celebrate the month of lurve (aka love) by posting one thing we love every day throughout February.
Now the truth is that I’m not really a romantic guy, so I might be hard pressed to come up with 28 objects of love, but I think I should be able to come up with 28 things I like a lot.
So let’s start with this:
The ever curious Rory posed another 24 Hour Question. This time he wants to know…
If no one ever read your blog would you still write, keep and maintain the blog or would you change the way you write so as to keep your blog and be read?
He also asked…
Would you change your style to be read more often or would you simply take more steps to encourage readers to read your actual style and build up your own like minded community – or would it not bother you in he slightest?
I started blogging in 2005, first on Blogger from 2005 through mid-2008 and then on TypePad from mid-2008 to mid-2013. During my days on Blogger and TypePad I hardly got any views, visitors, likes, or comments. I didn’t post regularly, averaging maybe five to ten posts a month, and I sometimes went for a month or two with no posts at all.
In fact, so few people read my blog that my daughter gave me this mousepad.
Yet I continued to write and publish posts, telling myself I didn’t care if anybody read them. Why? Because I like to express myself in writing and because I got a bit of a narcissistic thrill seeing something I had written posted to the internet. Woo hoo!
In mid-2013 I migrated my blog to WordPress. And even though I didn’t really change the way I wrote, I began to find an audience for my posts. I slowly started to get likes, comments, and followers. And I really enjoyed that interaction. It was much more fulfilling and rewarding than “writing for myself.”
I did change my style after moving to WordPress. On my old blogs I used to write long, rambling, multi-topic posts, often ranging from 1,000 to 1,500 words. But I noticed that my views and comments on WordPress were much higher on shorter posts, those at or under 500 words. So I changed my style to shorter, more concise, and single-topic posts. I also started to respond to prompts, like the WordPress Daily Prompt. My stats jumped when I wore shorter posts and responded to prompts.
In mid-2015 I stopped blogging because I had some personal matters that I needed to focus on and I abandoned my blog.
But in May 2017, with my personal matters behind me, I returned to blogging with “This, That, and the Other.” I continued to keep my writing relatively short and crisp. I began responding to even more prompts. And when WordPress stopped its Daily Prompt in June 2018, I started my own one-word prompt, FOWC With Fandango. And since then I have introduced a number of weekly prompts.
So, after this long-winded, rambling introduction, let me finally answer Rory’s questions.
If suddenly no one read my blog anymore, I’d probably stop blogging. Because the best part of blogging, in my opinion, is the interaction from others who take their time to read my posts and to like and comment on them. I’d still write, at least a little, because I love to write, but I probably wouldn’t publish them on a blog.
Would I change my style to be read more? I did that in the past, as I explained above (my average post length these days is about 240 words, although this one is just over 600 words). But at this point, no, I would not change my style. I’m pretty happy with it. And given my number of followers, daily view, likes, and comments my posts get, apparently so are those who read my blog.
It’s Monday and that means Melanie is offering us her Share Your World prompt again. Here are the items Melanie wishes us to share on this first day of the second month of the year.
If the government offered to suspend all laws, and law enforcement for 24 hours, letting you (and everybody else) do whatever you wish, would you be in favor of it, or not?
Hell no. Unlike our former American President, Donald Trump, I am not a proponent of chaos and violence.
What would be the creepiest thing you could say while passing a stranger on the street? (We’re suspending the whole social distancing and COVID involvement in this scenario.)
I generally don’t engage with strangers I pass on the street, so I don’t really have an answer to this question. Besides, I try to limit saying creepy things to the people who are near and dear to me.
As a child, what did you think would be great about being an adult, but isn’t as great as you thought it would be?
Having and being able to spend my own money on anything I wanted and being able to do whatever I wanted to do whenever I wanted to do it. Then I got married.
What, in your opinion, has been blown way out of proportion?
I’m going with the stock market. So many economists use the stock market as an indicator of the nation’s financial health. Well, only about 50% of Americans are investors, either directly or through their retirement funds, in the stock market. And even though the stock market soared to record highs during the Trump administration, I think that most Americans do not feel that their financial situation has gotten any better. And for many, it has gotten far worse. So let’s quit using the Wall Street as a gauge for the financial well-being of Americans on Main Street.
Where is your ‘happy’ place?
Sitting on the couch in front of a fire and reading a book or reading and writing posts for my blog.
Brian, aka Bushboy, posted a prompt today that asks us to…
Okay, so, with no editing and no explanation, here is the last photo taken on my iPhone 12 Pro Max in the month of January:
Welcome to “Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge.” Each week I will be posting a photo I grab off the internet and challenging bloggers to write a flash fiction piece or a poem inspired by the photo. There are no style or word limits.
The image below is from Tim Grundtner at Pexels.com.
For the visually challenged writer, the photo shows a girl wearing a white dress and sneakers who seems to be floating on her back in midair in an attic.
If this week’s image inspires you and you wish to participate, please write your post, use the tag #FFFC, and link back to this post. I hope it will generate some great posts.
Thanks to all of you who have participated in these challenges. Your posts have been very creative. Please take a few minutes to read the other responses to this photo challenge.
Please create a pingback to this post or manually add your link in the comments.
This, That, and the Other 