We love milestones. Anniversaries. Points along the way to trumpet our progress, that shout to the world “look at us, we’re still here”
You have your milestone birthdays…21, 30, 40…
1 billion burgers sold
500 tubes sock worn
75th anniversary of the Bugle Awards
Today, I’ve hit my own little milestone. And I’ve been pondering it for a while.
The Recovering DJ is 1 year old, and this ironically enough is the 100th post. If I was a TV show I would do some sort of retrospect of the past seasons, but I’ll trust that you can do that yourself by clicking on old posts.
100 posts is not a good average for a blog really. It means I’ve written less than a third of the time. The truth is, writing is hard, for me anyways. It takes a lot out of me sometimes. But I’ll tell you, I think about this blog all the time, about what I’m going to write, and how. I have many many unfinished pieces. I try not to post something just for the sake of posting. I write and rewrite. Heck, I’ll admit I write and rewrite my Facebook and Twitter posts a lot too. There’s a “rule” in writing: edit edit edit. And of all the rules this rule breaker follows it’s that one. It’s not as easy as it looks kids.
But people thought radio was easy, and it was never as simple as it seemed. I would practice and re-practice a multitude of breaks. Occasionally a good one would just come out of me, like a radio muse was channeling through me, which would always entertain me. Sometimes making myself laugh is half the battle.
But it was always hard work, being “on” day after day, putting your heart and soul into it week after week. Someone once told me -you knew you had a great show if you were exhausted at the end of the day. The harder you worked, the better you were.
A year ago I started this blog (and it was kinda a dorky start) for a variety of reasons. I wanted to write and showcase it for future employment, and I wanted to make money by blogging, and I just wanted the discipline of keeping something like this going.
But most importantly, I see now…I need an outlet to entertain.
To entertain, perchance to amuse. Ah, there’s the rub. To misquote Mr. Shakespeare.
I love love to make people laugh and amuse them and entertain them. That's why I loved acting at a young age, why I loved radio, why I like to write and why I just like to be around people and crack wise.
When I started this blog, I didn’t know who would read it. I know it's not a huge audience, probably because I haven’t really obeyed any of the “blogging rules” of attracting followers. But there are a few people who are reading and have told me they like what they see. Some have praised because they’ve known me a very long time or they're related to me. And some people might feel they have to be nice. But there have been a few surprise compliments that keep me going…even if it's only a third of the time.
In radio, a station has a “target demo”; the ideal listener a staff wants to keep tuned in. I learned as a baby DJ that it’s best to focus in your mind on one person so you can talk directly to them. It’s called “one on one communication”, and it’s part of the magic of radio called “theater of the mind”. Every person listening should think the announcer is talking directly to HIM OR HER. Its how you get ratings and keep your job. It's sometimes how you get stalkers too but that’s another story.
It's been hard sometime to focus on who my “blog audience” is; it’s quite a mixed bag. If I write to one person, I alienate another…. (another trait I can’t seem to shake is the need to entertain EVERYONE.) All the blogging books and websites say you have to focus, you must find your niche you should have an exact description about what your blog is about.
And yet a year later, this blog still is about nothing. But it's not for nothing. And I’m ok with that as long as you are dear reader. Cheers to you! I'm evolving, the blog is evolving. That's the way it goes.
So lets go for another milestone, perhaps another 50 posts…by the end of the year? Or maybe 20 good ones… or 10 really really good ones…. ☺.
Humbly Yours,
The Recovering DJ
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