Although Virtually Nobody Reads My Writing, but...

I would imagine it's so tough for so many would-be and struggling writers that they, despite all the effort and all the followed advice from such sources as Writer's Digest, cannot find an audience or any true and real success. I don't have to imagine much since I am one of those writers. I've been pursuing this as though it's Mayan gold for many, many years and I've run through so many ringers and jumped through countless hoops, but still no genuine success.

I don't mean celebrity success and I don't mean making a luxuriant living as a writer, with adoring fans rushing me at the grocery story and stalkers in my closet. I would've been happy with monthly grocery money, or maybe some mad money, or even some positive accolades for something or other I've written.

But, guess what?

Part of my issue is I have failed to find a niche. My writing has been scattered through fiction and nonfiction and through many facets of each. I have written three novels (more if you count the ones not yet published) and a few hundred articles and short stories. I have serious 411 and some irreverent humor. I've pushed buttons and pissed some people off. Several of my articles have been viewed online by well over 6,000 people and some have received hundreds of hits a day (at times). The novels, however, has been read by virtually nobody ( I know one of my sisters read a couple of them) other than a few friends and family members.

Some of the various articles have been grabbed by websites now and then, boosting their numbers significantly, while a few made it to page 1 of Google for their subject and get frequently seen. But that's all I have to say; I make a little over five dollars a month at best with literally years of work.

So, why do I do it? Because I do enjoy the hell out of it. I miss novel writing and intend to resume soon, once I can get out of this one particular job I've been doing since last October. I am a truck driver, and such a job is great for writers (usually, there is a lot of down time available for writing), but I have been running with a co-driver as a team, which means the truck never stops and I just can't grab but occasional moments out of any given day or sometimes the week. But I usually get out there an article or so a week and try to place a blog post at least once a week or so, you know, to keep the skills sharp. Once I can shake this team thing and go solo again, I will be able to pick up the pace.

I will be able to pick up the pace and write more, knowing with some good degree of confidence that nobody will read any of it. Some will read the occasional humorous article and the odd this and that, but that's the most I've ever been able to hope for. But I still enjoy it for the sake of it and that has to be good enough.

Besides, who knows? Something might catch some attention for some reason and one of the novels will be made into a movie, or perhaps decades after my untimely and dramatic demise (a life goal) I'll suddenly become a cult hit, with thousands of bizarre fans who otherwise don't quite fit in well with society but find common ground with one another. Stranger things have occurred.

And like I stated above, I have made a slight difference with a few of the things I've written. How to Skip the Light Fandango is easily my most successful article and reaches numerous people daily. Is it what I hoped for? Maybe not, but most people don't get everything they want. The Greatest Economic Conspiracy in History has reached almost as many people as Fandango, and I wonder if the government has agents plotting my demise right now. So I have done something.

My first novel, The Egocentric Predicament, covered Human Trafficking before covering Human Trafficking was cool. I have not completely failed. Many of my novel reviews have offered some positive help to other writers and that's a good thing. A few of my 7 Things to Avoid articles have given many people a good laugh.

I am a writer, not a wannabe, just like innumerable other writers who may never achieve much more than a popular How-To article or home improvement article. There are people who write online like I do, with Yahoo and others, who have achieved tens of millions of page views, with almost none of those people concerning themselves with who wrote the article(s) they've seen. Today's writer is different from when Hemingway was at this (born in 1899 on the same day I am writing this) and the percentage of writers gaining huge success (like Rowling or Meyer or King) has come down even further despite the opportunities for more to achieve at last something.

Overall, you have to like it for its sake. One must enjoy the journey and the sights along the way rather than fidgeting in the back seat waiting to get somewhere. Besides, that somewhere may not be what it is cracked up to be. I can recall years ago going on a bus tour from Germany to Paris, and hearing the complaints from some of the others who pissed and moaned that Paris was, at first glance, just another city and not Oz. A few of them refused to exit the bus because of it.

I got off the bus and had fun. I made it to the second stage of the Eiffel Tower. I didn't get to visit the Louvre, but I saw it down that way at the end of the street. I saw the original Statue of Liberty.

I visited Switzerland on one of those bus rides, and Salzburg in Austria. I have been in Mozart's former apartment.

These are little and minor accomplishments for a poor, occasional tourist (who was stationed in Germany as a soldier) when many tourists see the world and all it has to offer. But I will never forget seeing many of those sights, and I will always remember when someone told me I made their day after they read this article.

Although virtually nobody reads my writing, I'll continue writing it, anyway.

I hope my cult following tattoos my face on their inner thighs.