I like to put out. Words, that is. I’ve been writing ever since I was a little girl. When I was too young to have a job, I used my allowance to buy hardcover bound writing journals with pretty pictures on the front. I started putting my pen to the pages on a regular basis back then, and I’ve never stopped. At home, all of my journals are lined up in rows on various shelves of my bookcase. My first kiss, the story about how I lost my virginity, and other experiences are all well-documented.
I started putting words online in 1995. One of my many jobs during my years in college was with a campus group that taught students how to create their own “personal homepages”. One of the guys that I worked with at the time eventually became the VP of Napster. At that campus job, we taught people how to hand-code every line of their homepages from <html> to </html>. I had my own personal homepage as well. From those early days, my online presence evolved. I started posting a “web journal” online to document my experiences living and kissing boys abroad, among other things. The pages came up. The pages went down. Some years I was more active online than others. In 2005, I started doing what’s now called “blogging” here at the FBC, and I started blogging for Nerve magazine at the beginning of this year. As silly as it sounds, one of the totally unexpected consequences of my writing has been this: people are actually reading the words that I write. When I started this blog (originally at funkybrownchick.blogspot.com), my monthly readership was about 90 page visits a month. By the end of 2006, it was up to 9,000. I’m curious to know what the number will be at the end of this year. If trends continue as they are, by the end of 2007, I’ll have as many readers in a day as I used to get in an entire month. With the internet, my private writing habit has suddenly become very public.
I write as a form of therapy, and all of my words are personal narrative. I never really expected that I’d have an “audience” for my writing. So, I’m extremely flattered by and appreciative of the folks who continue to read my words on both of my blogs. And, of course, I have extra special love in my heart for the people who pay me for my words. Starting with Nerve and increasing in recent months, I’ve begun pitching article ideas to various websites and print magazines. One of my articles is coming out in print in November, and my next online article goes up very soon. At the moment, one of the things that I’m really excited about is this: I just found out that one of my favorite magazines is sniffing around for a new dating columnist. I recently sent an email to the editor and thereby threw my hat in the ring. Sending out the pitch was a personal pleasure that I can’t quite find the right words to describe. When I started writing and doodling in my journals as a little brown girl in central Illinois, I would have thought you were lying if you told me that, one day, I’d be a freelance writer in New York City. I probably have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting the dating column for the particular magazine that I pitched. Nevertheless, I’m excited about the possibility. Inside I feel like the giddy little girl that I was when I first started writing. Wish me luck! I don’t know where this crazy little train is going, but I’m enjoying the ride. Fingers crossed!
[Photo credit: I want to give thanks to Mike Goldsmith for taking the beautiful photo in this post and giving me permission to use it on my site today. If you're reading this, big drippy kisses go out to the sweet baby toes of your pretty little feet.]
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Good luck! I don’t think you need it though… Let us know if it pans out?
hey T,
I was reading your other blog today and I liked it very much; somehow it felt very personal. Will try to follow both, eventhough its a bit tough since I do all my internet reading during my lunch break as I avoid the computer at home (spending 8 hs a day behind one isnt enough?). but yep, congratulations, I loved the text about NYC.
XXX/A
You shouldn’t be surprised at your popularity. You are insightful, interesting, and entertaining.
By the by, most of us blog-hackers would *kill* for 9000 hits per month. We are jealous.
Have a nice day and go get that columnist job!
Good luck with the job! (this is also a test of my ability to comment!!!)
Maybe we should start a “give FBC the dating column” campaign? We could do banners, pop-ups, hand out leaflets at Piccadilly Circus/Times Square! It could be like a presidential campaign and you would be like “oh, my readers are so loyal and lovely, I never asked them to do this, im so overwhelmed”.Yay, im so excited! Woohoo! We/you can so win this!
Okay, I only meant to say “good luck even though you don’t need it” and got a bit carried away …. although I still think it’s a good idea.
If you use my dating rules suggestion as your first post as a dating columnist, I’ll be looking for remuneration!
Ella: I’m leaflet-bombing the midwest as we speak.
well here’s to future congratulations to you!
i know with all your insightful, witty, and personal commentary any publisher/editor would love to have you on his staff.
I know I would write and ask for advice…I mean that’s if I needed dating advice (but in retrospect, what heterosexual guy doesn’t need some type dating advice on the ins of a woman’s mind)
but back on subject…if anyone deserved a dating column it’d be you!
you’re kinda the black carrie bradshaw od sex and the city :P
@ MamaChristy: Oh, yeah, I’ll definitely post an update if I get it.
@ Antonio: I’m really glad to have “found” you again via Facebook after all these years. You soooo HAVE TO come to New York and/or I have to go visit you.
@ Baba Doodlius: Thanks for the complement. You’re always so kind.
@ Ella: Oooooh, I wanna stand in Piccadilly Circus and hand out fliers / leaflets!!!! I miss London. I went there in January of last year. Before that trip, I hadn’t been in AGES.
@ crazyleprechauns: I’m posting “dating rules” over at Nerve on Monday. :)
@ Baba Doodlius: Thanks for the bombing. ;)
@ Brandon: Wow. Seriously, thanks for the kind words. Just visited your blog, but it won’t let me comment unless I do it via Facebook. :(
@ Carolina Pereira: Carrie Bradshaw? Never heard of her. Who’s she? :) I’m kidding. For better or worse, I think everyone who writes about sex, dating or relationships gets compared to Carrie Bradshaw now.
Good luck with the dating column. That sounds like a perfect fit.
Thanks for the good luck wishes!
How exciting! I wish you all the luck in the world (that’s right, the WHOLE world!)…I can’t think of anyone who is more fit to have their own dating column. Lord knows I come back to this site every day to live vicariously though you (and to be entertained); why wouldn’t others do the same?? Good luck and keep us posted! I commend you for putting yourself out there – that’s the first step, after all.
@ Mitch: Not sure why your comments keep going to spam. Found the one above via search and recovery. :( Try clearing your cookies. (Google: how to I delete my cookies.) That should clear the problem.
@ AmyD: **THANKS** :-)
Um…am I the only one who seems to think the phrase “try clearing your cookies” sounds really dirty and innappropriate? Probably, huh? Haha! ;o)
I bet Mitch has nice cookies. ;)
Good luck Funky!!!
Thank you. :-)
Hey! Fingers and toes crossed for you!
THANKS!!!!!!