Believe in the 100 rule

When I first began my blog, I saw an article that provided advice for people starting any sort of venture. I don’t remember what exactly he called it, but I’ll refer to it as the 100 rule.

Basically, if you start something, do it 100 times before you make a decision on whether or not to continue doing it. (rough translation)

After my wreck and while in the hospital and doped up on everything except my ADHD meds, I began to write as a form of therapy. My first public story was a traumatic experience I endured while in the hospital. It received such a great response, it encouraged me to continue writing as well as consider seeking out some sort of path that involved writing for a living.

Cut to the chase – I decided to begin my blog when I left for an Amtrak excursion across the U.S.. The trip went well off the rails and the blog went all sorts of directions – entries about myself, the trip, old stories from my past. The blog was as random as I am. I started a FB page, IG page, Twitter account, and this blog site.

I left almost all the accounts except this blog page and my personal FB page empty until I had a good amount of posts to share. As with all social media algorithms, I needed more material to show up consistently in people’s feeds.

To my disappointment, I received almost no support from the Facebook crowd. There were a few who stayed consistent, but all the people who encouraged me to write and complimented my style were nowhere to be found -at least visibly. No likes, comments, shares, etc…

The stories I shared varied in length from a few minutes to read, to chapters across days. (5 chapters of 1k words each being my largest) I’ve shared humor, depression, opinion, sexual escapades of my youth to name a few – nothing caught traction. Nothing on any social media channels. At all.

Then on 2/9 I published a daily prompt story for my 103rd post -and the lesson was learned. In about an hour, I received more visitors and comments through the WordPress crowd than any other post I made and shared through social media – it wasn’t even close.

In my rush to publish stories and watch my social media crowd grow, I failed to see the disconnect between what I was doing and what those platforms are for – instant gratification. A funny meme or a quick video. People want to scroll, laugh, and continue scrolling. I’d gone about it all wrong.

I’m a storyteller. I enjoy providing a framework for people to use the story I tell and allow their own imagination to visualize it in their own way.

I mean, I could have cut this entry to the bone and just said, “I learned social media doesn’t give a f*k about a story unless it’s under 30 seconds, has cute animals. or is socially divisive.” Not shared how I learned the lesson or what it took to get me there.

There’s still the idea of converting my stories to videos so people may have more of an interest, but I’m still thinking about that.

So yeah, if you’re just starting out, stick with it till you get to 100. You never know what you may learn or discover.