When your tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear the sound

One of the pitfalls of writing is obtaining a viable audience. Everyone who writes desires for their tree to fall in the woods and for there to be someone who hears it. Unfortunately for writers, there is always the possibility that no one will hear your tree hit the ground and that there will be no sound. In the photo, my son and I were walking on a trail when we came to this tree that had fallen.

It was huge, the roots were above ground and it made a bridge. It was about 6 feet high and landed on the other side of the path without touching the ground. We did not see the tree fall and did not hear the sound it made but it looks as though it would have been pretty loud. This is what writers do not like to happen with their work but at times it does.

These are a few of my articles that have not yet been read. Seeing those 0's troubled me at first because of the time, attention, and sometimes research that went into each story. I question whether or not there is some type of technological glitch because surely some on the Vocal platform, my Facebook newsfeed and the many groups where I share have read my work. It’s hard to accept that not one person in all the hundreds took the time to see what I had to say. I’ve even reshared articles to no avail and some of them still have O reads.

This is an issue I’ve not heard anyone address so let me be the first. When I wrote for BLASTING NEWS and YAHOO I was often disappointed to see stories where only 30 or 40 people read but I never experienced nothingness until now. I actually have 3 more pages of zeroes on Bocal and then I begin seeing that 1 or 2 people read my work before it begins to crease. When you check on your stats page it indicates the stories that are most read and my top 2 have bern the same for a while.

My number one is an article about actor Willliam deVry who was abruptly fired from GENERAL HOSPITAL. This was big news and the money was made within a week. My number 2 story is about how sagging pants first came into American history. This one receives a decent number of views daily and on July 4 it will be one year old. The third top story was about a popular soap actress so it also received a lot of views.

It's unbelievable that one story would be getting views a year later and that I have others where no one chose to read. This is a sobering part of writing but there is good news. for whatever reason, some articles that had 0 views for months began to pick up a little steam. I'm not sure what causes this but I am glad. I hope that when I check again the above stories will all have at least a few reads.

I write from my heart and I like to inform the public of things they do not know. I believe that for every article that I or anyone else writes there is someone out there who will benefit be it immediately or later.I cannot allow the zeroes to bring me down and neither should I read too much into the popular stories, at least not yet.

I have had a number of people who have been telling me for years to write a book and that is something I intend to do. I do not however desire to be an author who nobody reads. I know of several people who have written books but they did not sell. Anyone can self-publish and call themselves an author and I mean no disrespect. When I do write my first book, I desire it to be something that makes a difference and will benefit the reader.

I understand, however, that I could become like those whose books are in the trunks of cars or in boxes in their homes. There are no guarantees in this world but I do not desire to take unnecessary chances. I know there are others out there who understand. We all know that a tree is huge and makes a thunderous sound when it hits the ground. If no one is around to hear it the sound does not make any difference,

All writers desire that people are around to hear their tree when it crashes. This is something that is pretty much out of our control. Most people at some time or another have walked through a wooded area, or a forest, or even on a trail and have seen a tree that has fallen. It lies there, silent, without giving any hint of the noise it made when it hit the earth. If that happens with your work keep the faith and continue to produce.