This is how I used to look at life a couple of months ago before my writing fell almost to zero.
Here, with no regrets, is the perfect/current publication schedule:
- Recaps/Updates/ancillary topics anything I want, or possibly nothing on Saturdays.
- Bulletins on Sundays, or at odd and irregular times. Possibly nothing at all on Sundays, too.
- Make-up Work Monday published Mondays (For peeps who did absolutely no quality reading over the weekend)
- Newsletters for the Shy (previously called Faux Newsletters) published Tuesdays (For peeps who are too shy to subscribe to the delivery.)
- Hump Day Humor some Wednesdays, if I feel like it.
- Newsletters for the Bold mailed out Thursdays. (E-mailed to subscribers)
- Faux-News Fridays published Fridays AM, “Deep News — So Deep, You Could Get the Bends Just Skimming the Headlines.” available only by extra-content subscription with Newsletters for the Bold.
- Struggle Bus on Fridays. PM (Self-explanatory, part of the long-running weekly series.) Put on your Empathy Hat, It’s BACK!
- Update/recaps again (maybe) on Saturdays. (Whew)
- Short promos whenever we know ANYTHING far enough in advance.
As of this printing many, if not most of these will be subject to occasional absence.
It’s not easy being a WRITER|HUMORIST.
But this is now. Today.
My sense of humor is a lazy one. I like regular features. like book series. Hardy Boys Humor. Boxcar Children Chuckles. Zane Grey Zingers.
But more and more I discovered that readers of Medium don’t really care for newsletters or updates. They don’t seem to enjoy Hump Day Humor or Friday Struggle-Busses.
They do seem to like a good, meaty article on how to get in somewhere, make a quick buck/solve their problem, and get out.
They lean towards a story such as…
This Is The Combination To Aunt Jane’s Safe
But get a pencil. ‘cause it’s FOUR NUMBERS!
I mean no disrespect, I just study my stats.
This is what I see.
Two things have caused a perfect storm in my writing presently.
One is a story I read in David’s Newsletter by Winston helping me see why I beat myself up with my stats. You need to read that article!
The other was the loss of a couple of close friends combined with some scary medical complications of my own. The two of them made me wonder what I am doing. Why do I spend time writing things for ratings, rather than for my own enjoyment?
A good humorist makes a pun and, having punned, moves on. Whether anyone besides him appreciates it.
A poor humorist is the one who always asks if you get it, explains the pun to you, and watches you until you laugh.
As a result of this deeper level of thought, I may begin to abandon some regular features in favor of simple journal entries. I expect to be a lot more relaxed in the near future, as I return from the edge of the universe.
