Developing My Style

I have been writing this blog for the past six years or so. In that time I have refined my approach to writing my posts through experience and by reacting to what seems to cut through to a larger audience. However, I haven’t tried to write to chase a big audience. I have tried to write to keep a core audience who come back day after day. Most of my posts have a solid 30 or 40 reads on the day they are published and about two thirds of those reads become likes. In this sense I think I am writing what people actually want to read. So what is it I am actually writing?

My style is personal opinion, personal experiences and an approach that prioritises one or the other depending on the prompt. Writing every day in response to the daily prompt has been central to both building and keeping an audience. This year, so far, I have had over 13000 views. A couple of years ago I had less than 3000 and that was mainly due to a few posts that became popular for some reason. The problem is that you are never really sure what that reason is!

My most popular post ever is Memories of Singing Together. It has had over 1200 views in the three years since I wrote it.  I have no idea why that particular post is 24 times as popular as my usual posts, and I don’t suppose I will ever find out. On the surface it is very similar to my usual style but it has never stopped gaining a readership. The vast majority of my posts do not have any sort of afterlife at all. It isn’t the style so what about the subject? Well,  I wrote two connected posts about the Christmas songs featured in Singing Together. The first one, featuring the years 1970 to 1972, has received 71 views and 2 likes. The second one, featuring the years 1973 to 1975 has received 174 views and zero likes!

So, for me anyway, it’s very difficult to write what more people want to read so all I can do is be authentic and carry on writing as well as I can and perhaps the audience will take care of itself and grow organically.