A friend recently pointed out to me that no one’s going to like my blog.
Okay, that’s not true. What my friend actually said is that it’s easier to build an audience when you have a niche. He said that because he’s a nice guy and didn’t want to just blurt out that no one will like my blog. (Thanks!)
My friend’s right, and my previous successful blogging ventures always had a niche. But this time I don’t have a niche. This past week, I wrote blog posts about generative art, web hosting, Flutter, and cryptography. If you drew a Venn diagram of all the programming topics that interest me, I would be standing alone in the middle.
So no one’s going to like (everything on) my blog, and that’s okay.
About 15 years ago, I met the talented writer John Vorhaus. He was writing about poker at the time, and I had just had some success at the World Series of Poker, so we met at a deli in Las Vegas for an interview. The pastrami sandwich we split was so tall, and us so short, that we had trouble seeing each other over it. He informed me that the nickname “Seattle Steve” was already taken in the poker world, so I would be dubbed “Savage Steve” instead.
The nickname didn’t stick, but a piece of advice he gave me did. When we were done with the interview, we started talking about how to make writing a career. John’s advice was, “Keep giving them you until you is what they want.”
Apparently he says that a lot because I also just found it in a recent Backstage interview he did, where he elaborated:
Keep giving them you until you is what they want. The only thing any writer really has to offer that’s unique is their own voice. Hone your voice, sell your voice, and keep focused on your voice. This will make both the process and the outcomes of writing more rewarding and more valuable to one and all.
From that same article:
Go off in all directions at once. You’re bound to arrive somewhere interesting. You think that you will dilute your efforts by spreading them around, but this is not the case. Instead, you cross-pollinate your creativity in ways that you can’t imagine.
So, for now, I’m going to carry on without a niche.
Yours until next week(ish),
Savage Steve