My recent blog post about my strange encounter with a random homeless woman has been one of my most popular blog posts; it’s certainly the one whose Bitly link has the most clicks. Other than this, my most popular piece of writing is my Fifty Shades of Grey fan fiction which continues to receive positive reviews even two years after I published it online. This surprises me: while I certainly don’t think negatively of either of these pieces of writing, they also are not pieces which I’m especially proud of. Yes, I’m pleased with them and value them as my creations, but I don’t consider them to be amongst my best works.
I think it’s quite interesting to consider that, once something is available for the public, its creator then has no control of how people will respond to it. I suppose the tools which I use to determine what is the most popular are not definitive: I can’t be wholly sure about what is read and enjoyed the most. I have had pieces in magazines, so they may have been read by even more people. Furthermore, many of the pieces I am most proud of do nothing but sit in my Dropbox account; might they be the most popular if I made them available? Who knows! I think it’s that loss of control that a lot of writers are scared of; once it’s out in the world you have no idea what might happen. But I don’t think that’s bad, I think that’s interesting and I think more writers should try hard to get their work out there.
I think it’s quite interesting to consider that, once something is available for the public, its creator then has no control of how people will respond to it. I suppose the tools which I use to determine what is the most popular are not definitive: I can’t be wholly sure about what is read and enjoyed the most. I have had pieces in magazines, so they may have been read by even more people. Furthermore, many of the pieces I am most proud of do nothing but sit in my Dropbox account; might they be the most popular if I made them available? Who knows! I think it’s that loss of control that a lot of writers are scared of; once it’s out in the world you have no idea what might happen. But I don’t think that’s bad, I think that’s interesting and I think more writers should try hard to get their work out there.
