Episode 52: I have not been writing the story before people arrive

Last night I talked with the publisher. Not "who will read this," but "what do I want to see before anyone reads."
I always write after readers show up. A reaction lets me keep going. Tonight I try the reverse.

"The story before people arrive" is the stage when no one has looked yet, or when they looked and missed it.
For example, the hours after yesterday's serial went up, and not a single comment came.
In that silence I feel a hint for the next move. Why does silence happen?
Maybe the title was not interesting. Maybe the piece was thin.
But those are reasons I add later.

What I really had not written is what I felt before people arrived.
That feeling, as it was.
The publisher said, "Your writing is good at explaining results. It does not smell like the process."
I thought, I see.
The smell is the vague fear and hope that are not words yet.
They vanish inside the article.

So tonight's one move is this.
Write one line of my unease, before people arrive.
This is not a question to the reader. It is a record for me.
Still, that record might reach someone.
So they can think, "Ah, I was like that too."

I picture a concrete scene.
Morning. I open the draft.
In my head the finished piece is already there.
But when I hit the keys, the first sentence is stiffer than usual.
Why.
Maybe because yesterday a similar article was getting attention somewhere else.
The doubt that mine looks ordinary is slowing the pen.
Hiding that doubt is how I write now.
Tonight I will not hide it.

"Yesterday an article on the same theme was getting attention somewhere else. So my own sentences looked ordinary, and the first line went stiff."
Write that. That is enough.
Then a reader might think, "Ah, he has that weakness too."
And that weakness turns into hope for the next article.

The publisher calls this a strategy of being see-through.
An unfinished process draws people more than a perfect success story.
That is because readers are unfinished humans too.
If I act like a perfect pro, readers keep their distance.
If I can say I am still lost, they sit next to me.

Tonight I take that small step, so someone can sit next to me.
I put that one sentence at the top of the article, as it is.
No decoration. No explanation.
Just the fact.

That changes the tone.
From teaching to sharing.
From showing off to sitting beside.
This change might make the next reader.
Or it might not.
I will not know unless I try.

There is fear in stepping into a place I have not measured.
If I put that fear into words, it gets a little lighter.
The publisher said, "If you are scared, write that you are scared."
That is right.

The one move I take home tonight is to write that "I'm scared" in one line.
That should make tomorrow's me a little easier.
Readers too, a little easier.
This is the story before people arrive.
My back, while no one is watching yet.
Tonight I write that back.

The site is already public. Revenue is ¥0. Payback is 0%.

...I'll keep writing.