The Thing About Blogging

I love this blog. I love having a place to record everything that happens with S, a place to have a voice for single parents, survivors of domestic abuse, benefits claimants. I like to be able to write about the things I am thinking about.

And I keep a close eye on my stats. I keep a daily record of how many views the blog has had. I pay attention to where those visitors are coming from. I advertise my posts shamelessly across several social networks. My business card has a link to my blog on the back of it; my email signature includes a link here.

Why then, am I so surprised when people appear to have read something I've written here?

A few months ago a lovely lady in my local shop asked me, "are you Single Mother Ahoy?" and I almost fell over!

More recently, people have commented in person on something I've written, or complimented me on my writing style.

I think the only way to write a blog, and write it honestly and seriously, is to do the whole "dance like nobody's watching" thing, and just assume nobody will read it. If I sat here thinking, "right, here I go, writing a post about being a parent/being on benefis/surviving domestic abuse for all those hundreds of people out there who might well read it" I would fret so much over whether people would like what I was writing, I'd never get to the point of publishing anything!

Also, there is the confidence aspect of it. I've never considered the tripe I blather on about to be really worth anyone else's extended attention. When I started this blog a year ago, the only people were reading it were loyal friends and nosey locals; the friends wanted to support me, and the nosey locals just wanted some gossip. I suppose (despite increased views etc) I'd just assumed that over time both those groups of people had lost interest, and that now they were perhaps skim-reading the first paragraph at most, and then carrying on with their days.

So I tend to just plod along obliviously - and then get a shock when someone tells me they've read something I've written. Or they remember something I've written about, and carry on the discussion with me in person. My mind is literally blown every time it happens.

Do you find this with your blog? Do you forget that anyone reads what you post... or are you constantly aware of your readers?