Writer’s Worries and Woes

I was so thrilled to be invited by a cousin to move my blog to Medium. I felt it truly was a recognition of the uniqueness of the way I see the world.

Now, I have writer’s block. By the time this piece publishes, I will have dug up a month’s worth of older pieces to buy some time (under the auspices of creating awareness of child abuse prevention as well as sexual assault).

I’ve seen the conservative and liberal warring. My eyes glaze over as the reads offered me go double digits on the read time. And I start to feel dirt stupid, like the farmer’s daughter has been plucked off the farm, dumped into a metropolitan art museum, and asked to intelligently discuss the psychological factors behind Modern Revival Neolithic Post-Humanist Cubism.

I see the poets questioning whether they have any value as compared to the academic articles, journalistic essays, and profound op-ed. The tone gets melodramatic and melancholy, and leads me into deeper questioning.

I question what really makes writing good and worth reading. Everything I’ve been told about writing for electronic media is defied by the longer reads that have thousands of likes. And I subconsciously find myself questioning my value and the quality of my work when I see the work of writers going viral on amazon.com.

I’ve seen the gripes by some of the conservative males arguing that they can’t get traction because Medium is a liberal medium. And I get all warped and wrapped up, since I’m a Christian woman who’s a Biblical feminist with an advanced degree and newly laid-off job seeker. The conservative establishment won’t like, and feminists won’t be fond of me either.

Then I look at my stats. So few shares... My comments on others blogs actually get more traction and attention than the pieces I write. Should that concern me? Or should I keep generating work until those in my niche find me?

How do you show the value of something that no one values? How do you have a voice in a place that may not want to hear or understand your voice?

Or is this questioning sentiment more of a rhetorical question like “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?”