MediocreMan

Going Nowhere Fast · 19 April 2025

Have you ever felt like you were going nowhere fast? Yeah. Me neither.

There are times when I am writing and I feel like I am not accomplishing anything. I mean seriously. Blogging since 2006 and I have just a few faithful readers. Most of whom I know. Over twenty books out on Amazon and only a handful of sales. Writing and writing and writing, but not seeming to get any traction with readers.

I suppose that I ought to back up my claims. I suppose that I should see my statistics on my blog to see if I actually only have a few readers. I know the statistics on my books. I really have only sold a few here and a few there.

I am not complaining, mind you. I actually keep writing because it seems to be what I am supposed to do. I keep having ideas for blog posts and for books. I keep having words that need to find the page. I keep being inspired by life. And by prompts. I love to write. It is a gift. So I must use it. (Even if nobody else thinks my writing is a gift to anybody else.)

I actually do not want to look at my blog statistics. I do not want to see how many people are reading my stuff. Or where they are from. It was interesting to do so in the beginning. To see that there were people from all over the world reading my blog. Tuning in to my words. But now, I just write regardless of who is reading. I suppose that is not the best idea. I ought to listen to the few readers that I have and write what they want. Then again, I thought about that a bit and decided not to write much about teaching, coaching, and mentoring. At least not yet. (I suppose it is self-preservation.)

It is funny thinking about blog posts and writing in general. I wonder if anybody else thinks that they are going nowhere fast. If they think that nobody is reading. Which is where being part of a community of writers comes in.

I like being part of a digital community of writers where people write and people read what they have written. Where people give feedback and comments. Where people like other people’s stuff. Even if it is not polished or perfect. DailyPrompt has been a great boon as my outlet to write flash fiction and poetry. I wrote daily for a couple months, but have since tapered off to at least a few times a week and always entering competitions.

Which is interesting. Competitions, that is. I enjoy entering writing competitions. For whether I win or not, I know that at least a few people are reading my stuff. And I can look to see who is liking my stuff. Who is following me as a writer. Who is commenting on my writing. That is all part of the general DailyPrompt community, but it is even more fun knowing that somebody is judging my writing against other people’s writings when there is a competition. And I want that. I want to see if my writing has any appeal to other writers. Who are generally avid readers.

Well, this was going nowhere fast, but it seems that I got excited about DailyPrompt again. I suppose that is what writing six days a week does for a person. At least for me. I might be going nowhere fast, but I am enjoying myself doing it.

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Why I Do Not Write about Teaching · 12 April 2025

After I wrote about maybe writing about teaching, coaching, and mentoring, I thought about why I have not done much of it. The reason is that I do not really like to get in trouble.

Okay. I would probably not get into trouble writing about teaching, coaching, and mentoring. Probably. But you never know. After all, we all say stuff and do stuff that is probably appropriate when given the full context of a situation. But no story could ever give the full context of any story. Which is why I have only written about innocuous stuff. Stuff that nobody would take exception to. Of course, nowadays, who knows what people take exception to?

Which is probably why I have not written much about teaching, coaching, and mentoring. After all, people take exception to many things these days. They take exception to the clothes we wear. They take exception to the clothes we do not wear. They take exception to the words we use. They take exception to the words we do not use. People get offended at the most innocuous things. Oh sure, they get offended at things that are offensive too, but those seem to be the exception. (Somebody will probably get offended by this paragraph.)

Now that I am a couple paragraphs into this piece, I figure that it will probably not see the light of day. After all, I am not a political beast. I do not have the stomach for it. Nor the seemingly fluid ethics that go with politics. And even though people say that any publicity is good publicity, I am inclined to disagree. Writers getting in trouble for being insensitive to their readers is just not something I want to do. Of course, it does make a difference that I have only a few readers. But still, I do not want to turn those few away.

Well, that is about it for this post. It is going nowhere fast. But that is okay. I really do not want to offend people. Nor do I want to get in trouble for the things I have done or the things I have not done in my classroom or on the field. Not that I can point to anything that would raise the ire of anybody. But who knows? People get mad for just about anything these days.

Which is why (as much as I would like to oblige), after much consideration, I will probably not be writing too much about teaching, coaching, and mentoring. At least not yet.

(Sorry, Dale.)

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Teaching, Coaching, Mentoring · 5 April 2025

I put out a post a little while ago asking what people might like to see me write about on my blog. I actually got a reply!

I subscribe to a service that gives me social media posts each day of the month. I post something from them pretty much every day on Twitter/X. (I know. I should get over my notion that X will ever go back to Twitter, but I have a difficult time calling it X. I suppose that is another story. I wonder if I wrote it already. Hmm.) At any rate. I have been posting these social media words and pictures nearly every day for a few months now. They are not always posts promoting my books. (I have only set up a campaign for one book so far.) In fact, the schedule only calls for promoting my books one day out of six. Or something like that. Which means that I pretty much promote my book on Saturdays since I only post six days a week. I suppose I ought to change that. After all, there is some science to the calendar. At least that is what they said.

At any rate.

One of said posts was a question asking what I ought to write. It was a great post. But I figured that nobody would reply. But… Lo and behold, I got a reply. One of my cousins said that he would like to read stories about my teaching/mentoring. I was flabbergasted. Somebody actually responded to my post. I have had it happen before, but not very often. In fact, my cousin might be the only one to ever do so. Okay. Maybe not the only one, but certainly only one of two or three people.

Well, I certainly would like to oblige my cousin. After all, he reads my stuff. What is better than that? Besides being my cousin, of course.

Well, I have thought about it and I will certainly come up with some good stories. Not made up, of course. Just good stories about teaching and coaching. I am not sure that I have been much of a mentor, but perhaps I can come up with something close. After all, I do not really do that much teaching either. I try to come beside a student and help him or her along the way. Sometimes I need to prod a person, but usually not too hard. Just enough to get them going.

And there is my first story. No. Not this one. I just got an idea for a first story. Not the first story of teaching, coaching, and mentoring. I have done a few of those over the years. But the first one since one of my dear readers (Did I mention that he is my cousin?) asked for one.

If you ever wonder where bloggers get their ideas, do not ask me. I just come up with stuff. Although it is nice when some of that stuff is asked for. I hope that I can come up with a story now and then about teaching, coaching, and mentoring. I hope I can satisfy at least one of my reader’s curiosity.

(Thanks for replying, Dale.)

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