This blog has reached the ripe old age of six months. It’s a good time to reflect on the content, reception, and helpfulness in order to get an idea of where the blog should go from this point on.
What kinds of posts have been most helpful? What would you like to see more of? Less of?
To date, I have focused mainly on writing-craft helps. What other topics would you like to see me address?
I have had fewer guest posts lately simply because of a lack of guest-post submissions. If you would like to submit a writing-or-author-related piece for my Wednesday guest slot, please email me – bryan (at) daviscrossing (dot) com. (I can’t guarantee that I will use your piece.)
So far, I have posted something every day. That frequency will drop, especially when I go on vacation soon. After that, I’m not sure what my posting schedule will be. Since this blog hasn’t received the readership or support that I had hoped for, I might have to lower it on my priority list. We’ll see.
I am grateful for those of you who are reading and supporting me. 🙂
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Categories: Miscellaneous
Honestly, I don’t read and support this blog as much because of the every day post schedule. It’s a lot of content to read through. I do think the writing tips and critique days are an amazing opportunity for young writers, and I really enjoy reading stories from your personal life.
Thank you. Writing tips are on Mondays and Tuesdays (story development). Critiques are on Fridays. Stories from my personal life are on Sundays and Wednesdays. I could drop Thursdays and Saturdays.
I read this blog every day; I just don’t always comment.
I love the story development posts, and I also like the writing tips posts, though I think you’d be fine to only do one day of writing tips a week.
I like the critique days as well, but I tend not to participate as often as I could. Sometimes this is because I have other things I need to critique (I’ve been doing beta reading for various authors) and other times it’s just because I see the posts before breakfast and don’t think I’ll have time to give them a good critique.
Thank you for running this blog; though as I said I don’t always comment, I do enjoy reading it.
With my own personal schedule I tend to miss a day or two in the week, but I always read Tuesday’s and Sunday’s posts for sure, the only ones I regularly miss are the critiques. What I would still like to see is a forum. Somewhere we can talk and discuss and debate and post our own stories would be really cool. I realize that eventually you would have so many posts it would be impossible to monitor all of them, but you could assign moderators to help. I’m sure some people would love to help with that.
I don’t know of a way to put a forum on this blog.
I agree with everyone; I love the writing tips and the personal stories. Critique days are especially a favorite, and I hope to finish enough of my story to submit it someday.
Because I’m subscribed, sometimes I just read the post from my email instead of actually opening it. I guess that affects your visit count! I’ll open them in a window from now on 🙂
I didn’t think about that. I too often read the post from the email without opening the actual blog. I’ll make sure to open the actual blog and make my visit count. 🙂
I use an RSS feed thing, so I often don’t open the blog. This might be lowering the visitor count.
I read your blog everyday, even if I don’t have time to. I love all the posts you do and find the tips very helpful. I also think that its cool that you do the critique, and it helped me a lot when mine was on there. And as someone mentioned I don’t comment all the time. I enjoy this blog a lot and am very glad that you do this.
P.s. this isn’t quite related, but I’m reading Beyond the Reflection’s Edge and its awesome!
I apologize for not critiquing more. It seems like you cover most of the stuff I notice.
What amount of readership were you expecting after six months?
Don’t worry about that. I am thankful for any contribution. I didn’t have a specific number in mind.
Hi Mr Davis, I’ve never commented before but I felt I should say that I absolutely love your blog; I always set time aside in my day to read your posts! Thank you so much for all you have written so far. Your writing tips have been especially helpful to me and I love reading your story developments and the inspirational quotes for writers.
It would be understandable for you to reduce the amount of posts you write as you have done so well getting one ready for each day for six whole months! Thanks again for all the effort you have been putting in!
I love your blog, and I’m sorry it hasn’t gained the support you were hoping for. (Hope that picks up as time goes on!) I read almost every post. Lately I haven’t been able to keep up with the story development posts and critique posts, simply because they’re longer and I’m now working part-time. But it would be sad to see either of those stop.
The writing tips are stellar, and it’s almost like having a how-to book written by you, because I can come back and reread old posts when I need to! Honestly, all the topics you write on are interesting/helpful. If you were to vary it more, perhaps some bigger-concept writing posts would be good. Tropes, character types, literary devices, etc. I don’t know; just some food for thought. What you’re doing now is immensely helpful already! 😀
I like this blog and appreciate that there is something uploaded almost every day. I think the posts I tend not to look at are the inspirational quotes for writers ones, especially since I tend to be able to just read them from the thumbnail. I like most of the types of posts you do, though.
When it comes to writer blogs I think what I tend to like most is writing advice, personal experiences with writing, book tours, difficult situations, etc. I also enjoy information on self publishing and marketing, book reviews, articles, opinions on things that have to do with the genre, etc. Maybe fun things like a post filled with things that inspired you, like songs, etc.
I think directly engaging the readers can be a good strategy as well. Asking a question at the end of most articles may encourage more discussion. Getting involved in some blog tours may help, or maybe a post that features new writers.
I may try to submit some guest posts to you in the future, since I would like to start blogging within the next year or two if not sooner. Do you have things you tend to look for or would avoid? And would you mind guest blog posts being posted elsewhere as well, like on the author’s own blog?
Thank you for the feedback. I don’t mind guest posts that are on other blogs. No problem.
I am open to any writing topic, even if I disagree with the opinion. The opinions are those of the guest, not me. 🙂
I have been jotting down ideas for blog topics, so if you are looking for some I am willing to share, seeing as every author is going to have their own take on each one 🙂
Sure. I would love to hear about them.
Alright, here’s a quick list.
Disney movies and your opinion on them. Does something like the Little Mermaid, for instance, provide good or bad lessons lessons for kids? How should we as writers respond with our own writing?
Your insight/opinions on addressing sensitive topics in stories, such as suicide, feminism, etc.
Self publishing mediums and materials. Could cover topics such as what paper for book printing tends to be good, experiences wih book printers, good ways to advertise, experiences selling at writers conferences, etc.
Things you might change in a previous book and why(story telling and characterization type things, not grammar, etc)
Your views on fanfiction and why. Could have angles such as whether you think it impacts authors positively or negatively, if you think writing fanfiction stunts the writer’s growth, etc.
Book discussions. This may require spoiler warnings, but maybe take some philosophies and themes of characters or stories and write your opinion on them and invite readers to discuss. This could also be an online reading group thing on this blog. To save time you could do this for your stories or stories you have already read.
That’s a good list. I might write about a couple of those. Thank you.
You’re welcome 🙂
I enjoy checking in to see what is new each day even if I don’t comment that often. I like the variety, but I can understand how that would get time consuming quickly. At one time I wanted to be an author but God is moving me in a different direction. Still in my free time I apply the writing tips and I’ve seen how much room for improvement I have. Thank you for all the time you’ve put into this!
I like your blog but I just don’t have the time or the desire to read something everyday.
I really enjoy the writing tips best, they have helped me study the weaknesses and strengths of the books I read so i would like to see more of them.Thank you for all the hard work you’ve put into it even though i don’t read it all.
I love your blog and try to visit each day, but it’s not always possible.
I find your writing tips very helpful. (Would it be alright if I use them in my writers group?)
I love the [superhero] story development posts. They’re so exciting! XD
I enjoy the critique days, even though I don’t always comment. [I still need to update my piece and re-submit it. 😛 ]
I liked someone’s idea of placing a question at the end of your articles to spark more discussions – like on chat days, or when you did the polls and invited people to comment on who they chose.
Plus, God has spoken to me through a couple of your Sunday posts [namely The Hero Door and Two Copper Coins].
Anyway, I really enjoy your blog and get all sorts of inspiration [and fun 😀 ] from it. Thank you for all the time and energy you have put into this blog. It means a lot. 🙂
I always look forward to seeing what you post every day! If you have to cut back on it, I understand.
The writing tips are really helping me with my own book . Thank you for your tips, posts, and critiques!
I try to read this blog every day but my work schedule some times gets in the way. I love this blog and it has been extremely helpful and fun. I look forward to the opportunity of seeing it every day! 🙂
I read every single post (except for the Reapers ones… I haven’t read the first book).
I have sticky notes with your writing tips on my laptop’s desktop, and in the months this blog has been here, I feel like my writing has improved a lot. This blog has been tremendously helpful, and I very, very much enjoy your stories that you’ve posted on here.
Thanks, Mr. Davis. You’re pretty awesome.
Brian, I do enjoy your blog but do not read it everyday. Writing tips are always welcome as I am always looking to improve the craft. I do read notices from my email account. The critique group is helpful to me and I feel that the members of the group all make worthwhile points. I know that you are very busy with your career, and the fact that you do take the time to blog shows me you are very dedicated to your fans. It also tells me a lot about you as a writer and as most readers, when I like an author I tend to read his books.
I read them all but I don’t always comment but I do like. ^ ^
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I love this website. I hope it continues on. I also would like to send in a story soon, but I need some time getting it ready. 🙂 -Abigail Weh