I’m going to divert from my normal pattern to reflect a bit on the reasons why I continue to write these daily essays (this is number 434 in the series). I began this Substack on February 6, 2022. The number of subscribers has risen gradually, to the point where 73 people receive my post in their email every morning. I have eight subscribers with a five-star rating, which relates to the total amount of interaction with the newsletter, including opens, shares, and comments. (I bet you didn’t know there was a rating system, did you?) I have two top commenters who have commented over 150 times each. Five other readers have commented more than 15 times. While I’m aware of these stats, I also know that I have readers whose participation is less obvious, and that’s fine. My essays usually have a “view” rate of over 90% and “open” rate of greater than 50%, so I know that you’re reading even if you don’t “like” or comment.
I wasn’t sure what I expected from writing this blog. I was stimulated to do this by the Substack essays I had been reading for several years, including authors like Heather Cox Richardson, Joyce Vance, and Robert Reich, whose substacks have been important to me over time. I didn’t think I would have the millions of subscribers these substacks have, and that was an accurate expectation.
What was I expecting?
Well, for one thing, I wanted to find out if I had the discipline to write daily. I have always loved writing, but I never considered myself to be a “writer.” I decided that being a “writer” first meant that I actually had to “write.” So that’s what I have been doing. Just like with any other skill, I got better at it by actually doing it.
Secondly, I thought that I would enjoy interacting with people on a regular basis, even if they lived far away. That has certainly happened. My regular readers are not only in Williamsburg but far away: in addition to several regular commentators in Williamsburg, other loyal readers and commentators live in Rochester NY, Richmond VA, Fairfax VA, Weymouth MA, Phoenix AZ, and Seminole FL. I know some of these readers fairly well, but I have come to “know” others primarily through the discussions we have had in the comments section for my blog.
So what has it been like to write this blog? I have benefited from it in several ways:
I have become more disciplined in my attention to writing. It is now a scheduled part of my day. I try to have every essay pretty much ready to go before the day that it is scheduled to be published, so I’m often working on two or more essays at once, recording ideas and references as I come across them. (I pretty much live on my laptop, as you might have guessed.) As I have begun to write regularly, I have become aware that writing is the way I process information: I often don’t know what I think about an issue until I try to write about it. I have to be able to explain it to myself before I can explain it to anyone else.
My increased confidence in my writing has led me to branch out and identify as a freelance writer. This led me to my current gig as the writer of a monthly column for our local newspaper, The Virginia Gazette.
My research skills have improved. I often write about topics that are new-ish to me, so I have to develop a certain level of understanding so I don’t make a fool of myself when I publish something. Not that I’m averse to making a fool of myself, but I would like to minimize that experience.
I have become a fan of podcasts. My search for information led me to podcasts about a year ago, and I now listen to them regularly. Podcasts both prompt me to write about certain topics and provide me the information I need to make sense of them.
It doesn't seem nice to squirrel myself away, put on headphones, and listen to a podcast when I’m home with Tim. He’s never complained or commented about this, but I still feel that way. This is one thing that led me to start walking several miles a day; my favorite podcasts are about an hour long, and I can get in a good walk while I listen to a good podcast. This is a win-win-win for me – I get smarter, I get fit (I’ve lost 30 pounds this year), and I don’t feel like I’m being rude to the person I live with.
I am more observant about what’s going on around me than I used to be. As I have realized that everything can be fodder for an essay, I pay more attention as I go about my day. The more active I am, the more ideas I have for future essays. I have always had a framework for what I write about each day. That framework has changed over time, but I like my current framework – Genealogy on Mondays, Osher on Tuesdays, local news on Wednesdays, international news on Thursdays, and American political news on Fridays. This sequence continually cycles me from one type of story to another, allowing me to refresh my knowledge of a set of events without becoming repetitive.
I plan to continue to write regularly. Once in a while, I think that I’m done – that this is a lot of effort for relatively few readers in the grand scheme of things. But I remind myself that my first audience is myself, and that I value my current readers because they keep me from feeling like I’m writing into the void. So thanks to all of you who read my stuff.
It will! I'm going to do a "life membership" thing when we do room registration so I'll have a good chance of getting the room I want.
"My first audience is myself. ". Yes. But we benefit so much, so thanks. 😊