My previous Diary was number one hundred and ninety nine. I tried very hard to come up with something big, something funny, a morsel of such profound insight that it would be worthy of a 200th Diary ... but I couldn't.
In the end I decided that it would be a good time to simply give back to the Community a little of what has been so generously given to me.
Try not to trip over the orange thang.
I am just me,
A disembodied voice,
Few have heard me speak
Most never will
Yet here I am,
And all I can offer,
Is to share just a few,
Of the gifts you have given to me.
This Diary is born of two very recent events. The first was a Diary Title in ALL CAPS :: shudder :: which led to a conversation in the comments that surprised me. I was taken aback simply because my protagonist that day took me to task for what I thought was a minor comment in a Diary that I had actually supported, and that it came from a Kossack I have learned to like. A minor trip that we will get over.
The second was the request passed to me from a User who wanted some help and advice in getting their Diaries more attention and more traffic. That was something I couldn't resist. There are a good number of Users here with whom I have had similar discussions. Helping, with whatever minor talent I might possess, others to gain wider exposure has long been something I enjoy a great deal.
I joined Daily Kos in December 2005. I had been lurking for some time before that, and I did not write my first Diary until February 2007. That was a long time reading and making the odd comment here and there. Truth be told I was scared stiff of the people here. They knew so much, and I so little. They were smart, witty, a bit deranged sometimes and worst of all, they did not take prisoners. From what I have since been told, I am not alone in that.
So eventually I wrote a Diary. It wasn't very good! It wasn't, however, quite as bad as the complete indifference with which it slipped down the Lists, but who was "twigg". Just a newcomer with an odd screen name.
So I retired to lick my wounds ego. The third Diary I wrote was two months later. It was Rescued, I think by pico, and my gratitude knew no bounds. I was just me, a nobody, not even American yet my Diary was deemed worthy of Rescue and I have never forgotten the immense feeling of ... pride, dammit, that is the word! As a complete aside, knowing what I know now and having a small track record, that Diary would have done rather well on it's own if I had written it this week. It is one of the two hundred that I am most pleased with. Take a look if you care to.
I wrote thirty two Diaries before I had one that attracted the first "Recommended" Tag. It had been a long wait and I was wondering what I was doing wrong. My Diaries weren't bad, some had been Rescued, but the Rec List eluded me for a long time. I don't, anymore, measure success by Recommended Tags; there are other, better yardsticks available, but back in the day it seemed important ... some kind of validation, I suppose.
It got easier after that. I think my writing improved and others began noticing what I had to say. I began to feel more a part of the place, more invested and accepted. That's not easy when you are pig-headed and opinionated, something I try to keep in check until I suddenly don't want to!
It has been a very rewarding seven years, and I am looking forward to seven more, but what have I learned that might benefit others:
Well there are no real secrets. I am not, do not try, and never will be one of those Kossacks who publishes Breaking News, or write frequently on the Issues of the Day. Those folk appear on the Rec List day after day, they perform a valuable service and they do it better than I could.
One of the most valuable lessons, and a great starting point for any new User is to keep it simple. Write about what you know and write it as you feel it. Do not try too hard to work splendid sentences, or big ideas, into your early Diaries (although that can work if you have a terrific idea whose time has come). Just think about how you feel about your story, and write that. Do that well, and in plain English, and I promise you that others will feel it too.
Compare and contrast the frenzy of the Rec List with the comparative calm of the Community Spotlight. They serve very different purposes and, by design, contain mostly different Diaries. If you want to see what a small sub-set of Kossacks considers to be well-written, go look at the Spotlight.
If there is a Diarist you admire, read their early stuff and watch how they developed into the writer they are today.
If you write what you know, keep it simple, and generally under 2000 words ... and you read it back and think "Yup. That is how I feel about this", then others will too and before long there will be new folk on your Followers List. People regularly turning up in the comment threads of your Diaries offering opinion and commentary. You will have readers.
Keep it civil. Comment threads are important. It is fine to politely, even pointedly disagree with people. Remember thought hat those folk are your readers. They are the very Users you have always wanted to attract and they will take very kindly to being made to feel welcome. Markos put it best when he simply said "Don't be a dick".
Personal narratives, especially when you can relate them to current issues play extremely well on this site. There is a saying that goes "Came for the politics, stayed for the community". The origins of that saying are sad, but the truth is undeniable. People regard this as more than a political Blog, for many it is a community and they like to get to know you.
"Top Comments" posts at 9.00pm Central. It is the perfect hangout for folk trying to interact with others and become better known. The regulars there do not bite (very hard) and they love chatting. If your name is familiar there, or in the Cranky Users Diaries, or the stoopid cat Diaries .... then when you post your own Diary folk will be looking at someone they are familiar with.
If you make yourself part of this community, then the people here will respond kindly. They will help you when you trip, and praise you when you write something that resonates.
None of this is new, and it is not hard but you get out what you put in. I rather think that if you are feeling the way I did when I arrived, and you do some or all of the above, then you will have the audience you deserve or desire rather more quickly than I built my own small corner of the Great Orange.
Good luck, and I look forward to reading your terrific Diaries.