The Ineffable Loneliness of My Stories

If no one has any time to read, why do we write?

Photo by Ed Robertson on Unsplash

I’ve posted a few stories that accrued no views at all. They escaped everyone’s notice. Maybe the headline was too boring or maybe it just wasn’t noticed at all. Or maybe, as some have it, nobody has time to read. We are all too busy.

Well, *I* read. Perhaps it’s only me; I can’t see other writers stats, so who knows? Maybe I am the sole reader who will ever read your loneliest story? Maybe I am the only person who ever reads anything at Medium? No, probably not.

Just this morning I had clicked on a story and enjoyed it enough that I read another by the same woman. “She’s such fun”, I thought, “I should follow her.”

When I went to click the button, I found that I already am a follower. I checked her latest half dozen stories to find that I had not read any other than the two I had just seen. Why? Not enough time, I can’t get to everybody.

So why follow anyone? Why not just let the winds of Medium bring me what they will and I will read what I can? It seems that’s effectively how we all operate. You follow me, I follow you, but neither of us really follows. Clicking that Follow button is more like a little extra ‘Hey, I like your style!” It doesn’t mean that we will actually come back to read…