A Writer’s Wrestling Match

Over the last week or so, I’ve been getting started here on Medium and letting my other platform go fallow. It’s difficult, since I’m scheduled to January 1. However, I’ve seen enough to know that Medium will feed my head.

Since bringing over old posts isn’t crystal clear to me (a non-technical type), it’s going to be the hard way, piece by piece probably by copy-paste.

My problem is how to evaluate whether a piece should follow me. Long ago, I learned audience analysis — understand the philosophies, social mores, and other key factors of your readers to write pieces that interest them and convey your message.

That said, I can be driven and socially blind. I don’t always get social cues and why people think and act the way they do. I want to (sometimes), but somehow it’s lost on me.

I’ve started by cataloging the pieces and the related URLs. Then I’ve categorized by type of piece (current events, devotional, poetry) and sub-category (Christianity, feminism, family). Finally, I’m deciding which ones deserve to be here.

I’m asking myself difficult questions:

• How many likes should a piece have? Is there an ideal ratio of likers to readers?
• Could a really good piece not get any likes? That is, could the topic be so important it needs to be shared even if the whole world lines up for red pen editing?
• If my pieces have variety, will anyone ever follow me consistently? Different people want different things: poetry, essays, recipes, inspiration, humor.
• Should I splinter into two or three blogs and target the blog by writing type, limiting my publication frequency?

So, while I have no answers, I’d love to hear how some of you solved these problems.