Sometimes It's The Rabbit Hole That Works For Writers

After four years on writing platforms and many lessons learned, there's one lesson that's proven to be a constant. Sometimes, when you least expect it, something works. But how do you know when something works?

Writing is like any other art form or specialty. Practice makes "perfect." There is no solution to the question of what will sell until you find something that sells.

There are some basics that anyone can use if they're trying to naturally up their reads, views, and ultimately their earnings. When you self-publish online that's the assumed goal. You want to get as many reads as you can. You need to get the views to get the reads, which means being seen as much as possible. And those will get you the earnings.

How can you make that happen? I'm going to share an "opnion" that has worked consistently across two different platforms and is slowly taking shape on a third. When I'm done, you'll see why my opinion on the rabbit hole makes sense and can work.

Going Down The Rabbit Hole

When I was first getting into writing and self-publishing online I had ideas on what to do with writing, and how it could help my life. Let's first go on record and say I'm no expert. At first, I had no idea what I was doing and frankly needed the last four years to get to the point where I feel like I'm a halfway decent writer.

I have figured out a few things along the way. Along with going down the rabbit holes of writing, what have I learned?

Writers all suck.

It's the truth. Ask any writer, and they'll tell you how horrible they are. Writers are intellectuals, artists, and creatives, and many have skills in areas that they want to share with the world. They'll also beat up on themselves more than any of their readers ever will, and readers can be brutal.

One thing writers are willing to do is to allow themselves to imagine all the possibilities of a story. They'll open their minds to the range of possibilities in the world they're building or the bizarre truths in a story about real-life events. That, however, doesn't make them writers.

You can't please everyone all the time.

It's a life lesson. Very few writers please all of the people all of the time. Some possible exceptions are the most talented storytellers, like J.K. Rowlings. Billions of dollars in sales and movie revenue from the Harry Potter series. The first author to become a billionaire.

She got closer to pleasing all the people all the time than any other writer I've read or followed.

Great ideas aren't always born from the writer.

I've enjoyed some genuine milestones in writing and self-publishing on platforms like Vocal and Medium. They're small victories, or in some opinions, big victories as I've shared them with people over the past couple of years.

Not all of my best ideas were born from my imagination or creative juices. Some were born from the world around me. Every so often an idea comes to mind based on outside influences, events, or opinions. Those have proven to be some of the most read stories I've ever written. What did I do?

Down the rabbit hole.

I've gone down the rabbit hole and explored possibilities. While my first success from going down the rabbit hole explored how people get caught skipping work and find themselves in trouble, I pointed out the many ways a successful supervisor can catch a person playing hooky and how to avoid getting caught. This was nearly three years ago.

I published it on a Friday, and I shared it in support groups for one of the most short-staffed, hard-to-get time off from, and underappreciated professions. On day one I had over 800 reads. On day two my total hit almost 3,000.

It was my second trip down the rabbit hole that continues to yield massive results. No, it's not making tons of money on Vocal, but the smash amount of reads is good for self-esteem when you're trying to find your audience.

The Big Bamboozle Were Phillip Marshall and his kids Murdered Because of Something He Wrote or was about to Reveal? Or Was it Indeed a Murder-Suicide?

This one is a great example of going down the rabbit hole with an idea. I found this story back in 2015, years before I wrote anything about the tragic event. After years of following the story, reading updates and opinions by people who looked into the event, and developing my own opinions, I was writing. I was looking for an idea.

This is either one of the most complex conspiracies in America or an example of how mental health in America was ignored for far too long.

Yet, every year, this story keeps getting read. I was pleasantly surprised to see over 2,000 reads in one day, and the story hit over 10,000 reads all of a sudden.

The subject matter interested me because of my years in law enforcement. The story itself is intriguing. It's a great example of an organic story and remains a subject of debate and scrutiny in some circles. But, over time, I've found that journalistic-style stories aren't where I have fun as a writer.

Regardless of what your forte is as a writer, going down the rabbit hole can yield serious results. The question becomes, what do people want to read? The answer is up to us to figure out.

My third biggest success, one that was down a different rabbit hole, is a story I posted on Vocal and Medium. With nearly 50 thousand views and 40 thousand reads, the question of why it would be impossible to create an exact duplicate of the great pyramids has continually been read for two years.

So, there you have it. Go down the rabbit holes of imagination. Explore the things that are there for critical thinkers to examine. Leave no stone unexamined, and no possibility off the table. Find out what the world is interested in, and give them your take on the subject. I think you'll find that the occasional diversion from your usual style will help bolster your readers. And remember, just because it's not a smash hit today, doesn't mean a year from now it won't make you a nice little penny or two.