Hard Right!

Writing is hard.

I say this with an unusual approach to it.

Not only do I mean that writing a blog and forming thoughts into coherent and some kind of structure is difficult, but also as someone watching a child learn to write.  In two different languages, at that.  

How do I tell a story, pass on the neatness and excitement and wonder of our adventures or life here and all the cool stuff we’ve done and are yet to do?  How do you make the letter D lower case?  Which way does the bump go?  I can’t even begin to describe the Thai letters and words and learning that.

Writing is hard!

For Kiddo, she’s got J and myself.  She’s got Nanny Beer.  She’s got teachers, including a Thai teacher.  She is well equipped to learn how to write and to do it well.  At least, on the level of, she can write and make words that people understand and can read clearly.  I’m not worried that she will learn to read and write.  She is well on her way and I’ve posted some writing samples and a video of her reading.  I just want to recognize that she is doing something hard.  And being brave doing that.  More than that, she’s a sponge that just wants to suck it all up and is constantly pushing herself to read more, to learn more.  

Her and I read and write and color every night.  It’s our new thing.  Kiddo got these first reader things from J, little books.  The cat wears a hat.  The cat in a hat sees a bat.  The cat lies on a mat.  That type stuff.  But we color the pages after we read the page.  We do that because she’s my kiddo and it’s fun.  We do it as a bonding time.  We do it for fun.  We do it because she wants to read to me and get better at reading.  I’ve always got time for reading with you, Kiddo!  Besides, what better way to end the day than just laying on the floor, listening to whatever songs Kiddo is into at the moment, reading and coloring a page.

For myself, I just sharpen my tools daily.  Sometimes it’s blog posts.  Sometimes it’s journalling.  Sometimes it’s just writing to get a thought or idea out of my head.  

I don’t mean that others don’t write everyday, what I mean is they don’t create in their writing.  Writing an email for your boss or coworker takes skill and effort, but it’s structured.  You can’t speak your mind or have free-reign over an empty page.  Don’t get me wrong, effective business communication is a great skill, but (imho) it’s a very different skill than opening a blank doc and telling the story of Bon Tepa or The Aquarium with Kiddo or even just being honest with my past or mental health.  

Think of it this way…..

Pull up the last email you sent.  Read it.  Now, pull up a blank page and tell me the story of writing that email.  Both are writing, right?  Which one was harder to write?  The email, conveying info and A, B, C or the blank page?

It was a Tuesday evening.  I’d just gotten an email from my BLANK about XYZ.  So, I replied.  The end.

Not very compelling prose.  It’s harder than it seems.

Doc J is coming to visit in January and as one of my oldest longest running friends, I am excited to see her and her husband Mr. E.  We are all excited.  J and E are great people and great friends.  I had gotten an email, however, and in this I was asked about masks and the issues with them in Thailand and BKK Bangkok right now.  She also asked, It was posed in the email, Needing to reply, There was info about their trip that I needed to get to her and also, her cat, a new cat, Kitty Q, some personal information and events had happened that I wanted to reach out to my friend about.

Obviously, the above is just a sample and not an actual email or anything of the like, but it’s true Doc J is coming to see us in January, but when you think about it and check between the two; it’s harder to do when you have to tell the story of it.  The words.  The structure.  The phrasing.  It’s not just, info and solution, cause and effect, this and then that.  Storytelling, even in a blog, takes some finesse to make it flow just right.

Part of that is why I’m doing NO-vember.  Because I try to tell a story about this adventure.  About Kiddo learning and growing.  About J and her career.  About myself and what I do in my days.  

And the nice part about having a (former) best friend who is one of the top web developers in the world right now and for the past decade, is that you can learn a lot, but you can also have access to tools.  Web trackers.  Page trackers.  Scroll trackers.

Scroll and page trackers coupled with web and cookie trackers show me that in October, we got 447 views.  381 of these were from people (based on cookie and ISP info) who had visited in the 90 days previous.  There is some error and cookies and other info can be deleted, but it’s a good enough tool to give a broad impression.  

I posted 12 times last month.  2 of those had no pictures, only words.  I know for a fact that I had people read that.  They reached out or commented.  I can see that and see they spent on average 5:15-5:47 on the page per read and visit.  Yet, the same post has an overall view time of 103 seconds.  Here’s the thing, Doc J and Au-Dawg and J and Branka all read it and spent 5+ minutes doing just that.  To get now, to an average read time of a minute and a half… That means that most other readers spent less than 40 seconds per reader.

Writing is hard! 

It takes work.

It takes effort.

To be shown that all of that effort (mostly for family) is wasted or ignored is hurtful.  To give that effort only for it to be ignored sucks.

So, I’m doing NO-vember.  Everyone enjoying random writings about my thoughts or the goings on and then pic dumps with no context or story or explanation.  Just random pics of life and Kiddo.  Because those posts are getting traffic of over 15 min per post.  

My creating isn’t worth the read, but the pics are worth all the time in the world… even without context?

Writing is hard.  Kiddo can attest to that, she’s doing it the first time… In two languages.  Writing is hard.  I’ve made over 200 posts in the last 18 months.  That’s a post every 3ish days.  That’s a lot of effort for 100 seconds of your life.

Writing is hard.

But I will write everyday.  Maybe that will be blog posts again, maybe it won’t be.  But I will write everyday.

Writing is hard.  But Kiddo will learn and get better.  She will learn more.  In multiple languages.  She will write every day.  Learn and grow.  Yet we’re the selfish ones for giving her these opportunities.  This experience.  

Writing is hard.  Learn to do it in a second language.  Do it for public consumption for a year and a half every 3 days once.  Heck, do it for 18 DAYS, writing 2 pages per day and posting 6 times.  I’ll give you 100 seconds of effort on the back end of that.

Writing is hard.

Remember that.

Let’s go, Kiddo… it’s almost time to read and color and just be us.  I love you.  I love reading with you.  I love coloring and making a book with you.  I hope Mumma will give us 10 baht for it too.