I’ve been falling short of my normal storytelling quotas recently. I like to have at least 3 posts on API Evangelist, and two posts on Streamdata.io each day. I have been letting it slip because it was summer, but I will be getting back to my regular levels as we head into the fall. Whenever I put more coal in the writing furnace, I’m reminded of just how much momentum all of this takes, as well as the regular exercise and practice involved, allowing me to keep pace in the storytelling marathon across my blog(s).
The more stories I tell, the more stories I can tell. After eight years of doing this, I’m still surprised abut what it takes to pick things back up, and regain my normal levels of storytelling. If you make storytelling a default aspect of doing work each day, finding a way to narrate your regular work with it, it is possible to achieve high volumes of storytelling going out the door, generating search engine and social media traffic. Also, if you root your storytelling in the regular work you are already doing each day, the chances it will be meaningful enough for people to tune in only increases.
My storytelling on API Evangelist is important because it helps me think through what I’m working on. It helps me become publicly accessible by generating more attention to my work, firing up new conversations, and reenforces the existing ones I’m already having. When the storytelling slows, it means I’m either doing a unhealthy amount of coding or other work, or my productivity levels are suffering overall. This makes my API storytelling a heartbeat of my operations, and a regular stream of storytelling reflects how healthy my heartbeat is from regular exercise, and usage of my words (instead of code).
I know plenty of individuals, and API related operations that have trouble finding their storytelling voice. Expressing that they just don’t have the time or resources to do it properly. Regular storytelling on your blog is hard to maintain, even with the amount of experience I have. Regardless, it is something you just have to do, and you will have mandate that storytelling just becomes a default aspect of your work each day. If you work on it regularly, eventually you’ll find your voice. However, there will always be times where you lose it, and have to work to regain it again. It is just the fight you will have to fight, but ultimately if you continue, it will be totally worth it. I’m very thankful I’ve managed to keep it going for over eight years now, resulting in a pretty solid platform that enables me to do what I do.
