So, I launched this thing eight days ago. So far, it’s been a whole ton of fun. Here are some observations after running a blog for a week:

  1. First and foremost, thank you.
  2. The urge to check the site every 40 seconds is a little too strong for my liking
  3. The overwhelming sense that something is misspelled, even though I’ve checked at least 18 times already, is enough to drive a persone crazy
  4. It feels really strange (almost dirty, tbh) tweeting/retweeting/facebooking/emailing/ etc. the story to people like every other hour
  5. Is that annoying? ^^
  6. I feel like that’s annoying. But, man, I can’t really NOT do that, right?
  7. This first week has me feeling all kinds of emotions:
    • Happy – I finally did it!
    • Amazed – at the reaction I’ve gotten
    • Nervous – but a good kind of nervous
    • Relieved – because, again, the feedback has been really great
    • Nervous – like the kind of nervous where I look at all the other drafts of stories I’ve written and panic because they are all a hot pile of garbage
    • Proud – cuz that first story was pretty daggone amazing
    • Guilty – for being proud
    • Proud, again – for not letting that guilt get to me
    • Antsy – because I need to write more
    • Confused – because…what just happened? I run a blog now? But, how?
    • Thankful – my wife and kid are superheroes
    • Weepy – I mean, c’mon, did you read that birth story?
    • Humbled – self-explanatory
    • Determined – I gotta go fix all those other stories
    • Confident – because, again, I finally did it!
    • Thankful, again: my wife and kid are superheroes
    • Pressure: but that’s just sinus pressure from all of the pollen
  8. The analytics behind the scenes are incredibly fun to study
  9. For instance, shouts to the person in Brazil who has been following the site all week. I appreciate you
  10. Unless you’re a bot. In that case…well, whatever. Clicks are clicks, right?
  11. Wow, if I can build a website, I’m pretty sure Hendrik could too
  12. It occurs to me that I will likely write stories that I think are garbage about 40% of the time
  13. My friends provide the most honest feedback
  14. Even if it hurts
  15. Y’all can ease up a little bit now
  16. When editing, I can tell when I’ve written things late at night. Like, one particular story started off pretty strong, but as I read through it, the writing got more and more incoherent and actually started to scare me a bit
  17. I had to edit that one a lot
  18. I’m gunna save all the edits for a “deep cuts” portfolio that’ll get released after I die
  19. For every three ‘good’ paragraphs I write, there’s one bad graph. 75%. I can live with that
  20. I’ve gotten some really good advice so far, which is greatly appreciated. If you didn’t know already, I’ve never had a blog before, so I have no clue what I’m doing
  21. Having said that…got any advice? (even if it’s bad advice) (of course, I’m not going to tell you if it’s bad advice)(but I think you’ll know…deep down, you’ll know)
  22. I gotta start keeping these things shorter!

fin ♦