![[Logo]](/images/101ReasonsLogo.png "101 Reasons to Stop Writing")
Well, my impromptu experiment into just how long it takes a moderately successful blog to piss away its audience has produced some solid results: Seven days, from the last highpoint (June 8, the most recent ISBD news story), when I was averaging just under two hundred visitors per day, to get down to less than ten. That’s even faster than the drop in box office a Hollywood blockbuster experiences when bad word-of-mouth kicks in.
Just for fun, I thought I’d pretend that I desperately crave validation from a gaggle of smug he’s-not-talking-about-me slushdwellers and the random assortment of weirdos who find their way here from Google searches. So, this week’s poll gives you the opportunity to tell me what kind of content you want to see more of at 101 Reasons.
With this poll, you can choose more than one option. You could choose every option, I suppose – but that would be statistically meaningless and redundant, just like your writing.
Disclaimer: I absolutely will not take this into account when I choose what to write about. Maybe next year we’ll look back and see how closely your expectations match my whimsy.
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What, no entry for Guest Entries? I’m hurt, Sean. I guess I’m just going to have to…quit writing.
More snark, please. I remain insufficiently demoralized and demotivated. My writing output is down to about 1000 words per week, but that’s clearly several orders of magnitude higher than you need to claim another success story from me.
Send that tortured adverb over to Switzerland. We’ll pamper it a bit and send it back bright and shiny.
PS: My stats show a flag from down under – if you need a translater when visiting my blog, let me know.
PPS: I was one of the 10 idiots that still came by even when nothing was going on.
Zappadong
I read you via RSS,after following a link from somewhere else and deciding to stay.
I get paid to write (technical publications) and I like the reality check you provide — writing for a living is rare, writing fiction for a living almost impossible, writing user manuals for obscure industrial products is downright lucrative, so wtf woud I want to write novels?
Keep writing, please, and whatever strikes your fancy.
I’m interrupting my vacation just to post this.
More fsking reasons.
Because I said so. This blog is 101 reasons. And we haven’t seen a reason to quit writing in forever.
(Hyperbole for the win!)
Paul, it’s one thing when the publican lets the old barfly tell the customers about the evils of drinking, but it’s another for the publican to ask out loud if anyone wants to watch the old barfly chug a beer.
techwriter, Reasons #47-52 specifically detail why you should stop writing user manuals and technical documentation, but here’s a sneak preview:
“Given the number of people who actually read the manual, it would be more cost- and time-efficient to simply wait for them to call tech support.”
Heather, jh, I hear you. zappadong, cheers.
Keep writing, please: That’s a real, living, reputable, non-fee-charging agent saying that to me. Take that, h8rz.
Sean, you may laugh about the problems with tech writing, but I’ve actually known several companies that subscribe to that mindset. Of course, these are all companies that charge even more for tech support calls, so it’s in their own best interests to make sure every rewrite of the manual is even more unreadable than before. Naturally, these are the companies that decide to let the programmer with ten years of experience writing Wesley/Worf slashfic (and who brag about it during interviews) do their manuals, and then look surprised when their business goes to their competition because the manuals are flat-out unreadable…and the company’s Web site is even worse.
Absolute true story: I was a tech writer for CompuCom Systems nearly ten years ago, and my first real understanding of exactly how much respect tech writers get came when I was handed a project to be put up on our Intranet site. One of our middle managers had a PowerPoint training tool that he wanted on the intranet, and I was assigned to going over it, cleaning up any obvious typos, and making sure that anyone who wanted it had access to it. Unfortunately for everyone else involved, the middle manager was a classic Cat Piss Man, and he felt that the best way to get his trainees interested in the material was to set it up in a classic Star Trek: The Next Generation interface. Between the Illustrator design necessary for the buttons in the first place and the innumerable pirated images from every last Star Trek site he could find, he must have spent six months working on a training tool that would have taken two weeks to produce without the fannish bells and whistles. Never mind that his trainees were point-blank embarrassed to be caught having to use that tool: we opened ourselves up to a multi-million-dollar copyright infringement suit if we put it on the site, and I expressed my misgivings rather eloquently and forcefully to the People In Charge. I was ultimately Told that it had to go online, and the moment the twerp quit to work for Fandom.com, I was Told to take it off. (Oh, the fact that the twerp’s father was on the board of directors had absolutely nothing to do with the original decision.)
And for the gravy, since he thought “Zim” was a clever nickname shortening his last name, I wondered when Jhonen Vasquez ran into the little turd when Invader ZIM premiered in 2001. Aside from the skin tone, Vasquez captured both attitude and general competence.
(Oh, by the way, Sean, I understand your concern with encouraging the barfly. However, since publishing is already such a seedy circus, you should always remember that there’s always a market for regular viewings of chicken-killers and puke-eaters, especially concerning the halfassed parking-lot carny known as science fiction. I like to think of myself as the G.G. Allin of letters: taking a dump on the floor, rolling around in it for a few hours, and then throwing it at the audience.)
I don’t care what you write about, so long as it’s snarky. Love that sense of humor. I only drop by once a week, so I’m not hehlping your stats much, either.
I’m happy you are posting again. I don’t have a preference for content. I also don’t mind if you only write once a week or once a month. I’ll still keep checking in.
Will you be posting a Demotivator in July? I’ve found they are moderately successful in inspiring me to not write.
My favourite personal experience with bad manuals was the (only) documentation accompanying an expensive 3D graphics program: a 200-page tutorial covering a quarter of the program’s capabilities, printed like a POD paperback. I very nearly wrote my own.
Thanks Paul, for the anecdote. I am convinced that you have lived your life as a writer so I didn’t have to. But the day when I ask people if they want one of your fresh turd sandwiches, and they say yes, is the day when both of us should quit writing.
steph, I will be posting a Demotivator for July. At the rate I’m going, whether it’s posted in July is anyone’s guess.
Writers need that reality check now more than ever since Miss Snark is gone.
How about people send in idiotic comments overheard at their critique groups?
Here’s one from an older gent in my group “explaining” the reason why his short story wan’t published:
“These days, you have to be a Pakistani woman to get a short story published. That or African.”
It’s not the fact that his writing sucks. Certainly not. It’s the fault of his not being born a female native to a war-torn country.
(Much eye rolling on my part).
IMO, I’ve also noticed that all the blog/myspace traffic has slowed because it’s summer (at least for some of us) and people are out soaking up the sun (except for Nathan, who took a brief break to offer support).
Hang in there, bro. With bloggers dropping like flies, you just might become the last man standing.
Have you considered getting a myspace to let the world know you’re here?
Josephine Damian
http://josephinedamian.blogspot.com
http://forensicsdiary.blogspot.com
http://quoteitwrite.blogspot.com
How about people send in idiotic comments overheard at their critique groups?
That’s a great idea. I might introduce a regular open thread here for topics like this, when I’m completely out of ideas of my own (so, around September then).
I think I’m over the age limit for MySpace, and I’m a little creeped out about the idea of a blog/ memberpage/whatever just to promote this blog. I’ll consider it if I get desperate for more readers (so, around September then).
You post a blog called 101 Reasons to Stop Writing, and then you leave a space for people to– write comments!
Jeez… I wasted an hour trying to find the button to delete my own comment…