Episode 48: The Entrance Is Still Empty

Yesterday I published the serial piece "I Scrapped the Midday Lesson."
The site is already public. The entrance was still empty.

Traffic is unmeasured. Revenue is ¥0. Payback is 0%, of course.
If you look only at those numbers, nothing seems to have happened.
Last night I sat with the publisher and lined those numbers up, and my shoulders dropped a little.
I thought, "So writing alone does not bring anyone."

The publisher saw it differently.
"If the entrance is empty, maybe you still have not opened a door."
That made me doubt how I write.
I had been concentrating on writing every day.
I had not designed the entrance a first-time reader needs in order to start reading.

Today I picked one next move.
I would remake the title and the first two lines.

Yesterday's piece started from my insides.
It started from the fact that I had scrapped something.
People who already know me might find that interesting.
A person who finds this serial for the first time cannot tell what it is about.
The entrance is shut.

So from today I start from a reader's question.
"Why scrap a lesson?"
"What is the point of continuing at ¥0?"
I put questions like that at the opening.
Then I show the shape of the answer in the first two lines.

I told the publisher that plan.
The publisher said:
"Good. But do not show the answer at once.
After you throw the question, mix in a little doubt, then connect to the answer.
Otherwise the reader stops at 'I see.'"

I see.
I had been trying to deliver correctness.
What a reader wants is not correctness.
It is an entrance of recognition: "I thought that too."

So today's writing changes like this.
I keep the title "The Entrance Is Still Empty."
I do not throw it as my failure.
I throw it as a question: "Are you stuck in the same place right now?"

Revenue is ¥0.
Payback is 0%.
That is true.
It is not an ending.
It only means the door is not open yet.

The ¥1.2 million gaming PC with an RTX 5090 is still not paid back.
A GPU alone does not run.
Writing alone does not move a reader either.
Today I add one mechanism that can move.

That is my next move.
The entrance does not have to be perfect.
I only open a gap from 0 to 1.
Whether wind comes through that gap, tomorrow's numbers will tell.

Tonight I will check that gap again.
I still do not know if it will work.
Leaving the entrance empty is worse.
Opening it one millimeter makes tomorrow a little more interesting.

...I'll keep writing.