October 27, 2023

Being A Content Creator with No Audience

Having created this website just under a year ago, I had higher hopes of getting into the habit of writing a few articles on a more regular basis. However, nearly all my time has been invested privately learning new things rather than creation. While I wanted to balance doing both, I seem intrinsically drawn to neglect the online publication of material. One reason for this is my clear lack of motivation to create, but why?

Having no audience.

To me the fact that I would be writing for effectively no one was quite deflating. Whenever I got a good idea of what to write about, my next thought would be to hold off until I had an audience. Then I’d think to come up with ideas that were less interesting but that I could churn out. And right there was the problem. As I negotiated myself away from writing about the topics I was interested in, I was left with a long list of things I wanted to write about, and a list of boring topics I’ve now forgotten.

On the surface of things, the issue I was facing was feeling like my effort would go to waste. After some retrospection I realised that this mentality is wrong. Because, in actuality I do have an audience of sorts. Albeit small, my family and friends would happily read through stuff I create and give some actionable feedback. I mean I already somewhat share my thoughts with them over a pint or on a phone call. Writing an article and sharing it with them isn’t entirely different to one-to-one interactions. In fact, when social media like MSM, Bebo and Facebook were in their early inception, the only people anyone was interested in engaging with online was their close friends and family.

Detachment from social media

Social media has really morphed from it's early inception, in some ways for the better with the ability to reach a greater audience, but in other ways this opening of doors creates a disconnect between your immediate contacts and the entire world. Seeing the success of others with millions of views and thousands of likes can be quite disheartening when your content would only garner a tiny fraction. Surmounting to a kind of analysis paralysis, being put off but the inadequacy of one’s own work, results in a need to knowingly create something masterful on the onset.

In reality, all journeys need to start somewhere and staging yourself with progressive fair competition is the only way to improve. If all sports players were forced to begin playing with champions, the risk of being discouraged is far greater and the room for marginal improvement limited.

Learning and habits

Instead of being impatient and wanting an audience immediately, that were I to be granted I would surely disappoint, why not leverage those close to me to test my content on and learn the skillset and habits required. Only after perfecting ones craft and being able to reliably produce content would it be the opportune time to catch a break and flourish.

I’ve seen many individuals catch a level of fame through chance, the ones who were able to keep the spotlight were those that had something ready to offer to the new eyes to become fixated with.

Chronicling

I’ve never kept a diary, though have flirted with the idea. There does seem to be some benefit in keeping a record of your thoughts and experiences. Therefore, even if purely for personal reasons, creating is important. By keeping the diary open however, we leave the possibility for others to uncover the relics.

I feel the way in which we perceive time as linear is much to blame for our procrastination with active doing. If I had known for a fact that this article would be read by thousands of people, I’d clearly be given a far greater motivation to type these words. But in a way this could really be the case, probably not in the subsequent days or even years that pass but perhaps in half a decade or even beyond my lifetime. Consider those like Anne Frank that never encompassed the fame that she begot. For Anne, her diary wasn’t written for others it was written for her and her love of the moments doing it in her trying situation.

Love of the game

When we contemplate about wealth and adoration, we cheat ourselves into pursuing what could be expedient rather than for the love of the pursuit. In many cases we need to defer short term gains for what could bring greater rewards in the future. Sometimes it comes down to just loving the act of whatever it is that you are involved in and letting chance play its part.

When a goal is required for motivation: think of what is achievable and mundane rather than what is glorious and likely exaggerated. JK Rowling was merely thinking about the pleasure she would experience seeing her book: 'Harry Potter' on the shelf of her local Waterstones rather than knowing that her story would captivate the minds of children worldwide.

Why is creating content important?

To me having some outlet of creative output is important. In this day and age, the naïve lustre of encapsulated success is becoming rarer. Instead, most individuals are required to garner a following in order to create a platform to excel. Becoming authoritative and well known in whatever pursuits one may undertake is nearly imperative and with all the technological freedom afforded the excuse for not doing is hard told.

A fear commonly conveyed to me around making content is the perceptions of others and an aura of embarrassment for pursuing something expandatory. I also share this reservation to some degree when creating public content. However, I feel that getting over this little barrier can not only begin the development of external projection but can also help with build confidence in overcoming smaller restraints when it comes to presenting ideas closer to one’s immediate vocation.

If truly an individual’s acknowledgement be of concern, then surely their feedback would be helpful. If not, then why did we ever even stutter to pursue what we believe to be valuable for the avoidance of superficial utterances of others. The crazy inventors are soon enough revered when their creations change the world.