Creating a writing platform - To all the times I've failed before

There are a lot of quotes by famous people about failure. I know because I tried googling some that would fit in to start this post with. There wasn’t any one in particular that I connected with during my search. Then, out of nowhere, when I was down an instagram rabbit hole, I came across one on Classpass founder Payal Kadakia’s profile in a Reel. “Failure is a data point”. That rang true more than anything else I’d read. It struck me that though many successful people will have something to say about rising from failure, very few of them actually talk about why they failed or describe how they adapted their approaches in public while they’re in the middle of building. As a result of this, failure often seems like an abstract concept.?

Today as I talk about my journey in creating my own literary publication, The Abandoned Dreams Collective, I’m going to start with describing my previous experiences with writing for a wider audience and examine why the previous attempts failed before I start to go in deep into my decisions for what I’m doing today.

Writing was something I had done sporadically for years. I write creative nonfiction - personal essays that I often tongue in cheek refer to as "depressive essays about my feelings".

I'd tried blogging in various formats but none of the ones I launched ever quite took off.?

Here's what I tried and what I learned from the attempts after examining them in retrospect:

1. Quill Dreams?

• What was it: This was a blog for writing personal essays with 3 friends.?
• What platform did I use: Blogspot
• What worked: In this blog, we had a variety of voices under one page and brought each of our networks to the collective platform to read all of our work.
• What did not work:?

-Governance: We were running it as equals but had varying degrees of commitment to it. In order to continue running it would have required either all members to have the same drive or one of the members to take a clear leadership position to chart the way.?

-Purpose and target market: We didn’t have one focused theme or niche that would attract new readers to the blog the way I saw many other blogspot pages did. Our writing was on a variety of topics so aside from our existing and growing circles, there was no way or impetus for potential new readers to stumble across us, ultimately restricting our reach.

2. PageAfterNext -?

• What was it: This was my own personal blog for essays after the quiet end of Quill Dreams.
• What platform did I use: Tumblr
• What worked: Here I was on a platform that housed a plethora of writers doing very similar kind of personal emotive writing that I enjoyed. This time I had the freedom to post however and whenever I wanted without worrying whether I was posting too much or too little in comparison to others on the blog
• What did not work:

-Platform fit: Though tumblr did house a lot of emotive writing like I was doing but it was largely short form - paragraphs and poetry. My long form essays weren’t able to find their following here where user behaviour largely includes infinite scrolling down a never ending feed to reblog posts that were “aesthetic” for your own blog.?

-Platform functionality: Tumblr did not provide tools to creators for targeting a certain audience or growing their following. Discovery was heavily organic and in the absence of features like RSS notifications, the interface did not allow potential readers who weren’t already on the platform to follow your writing easily.

-Lack of structure: Though I could set my own pace and schedule, I did not quite know how to or realize the importance of having it at the time. At the time I wrote and posted only when inspiration struck which was not conducive to building a brand or a following at my scale.

3. Pesto Stained Passport -?

• What was it: This was a blog focused on my food writing
• What platform did I use: Wordpress
• What worked: Through my background in the hospitality and food industry and a well documented (via instagram) passion for food, I already had a reputation within my circles as something of a reliable source when it came to anything food. This time around I had a specific writing niche to center my writing around and a platform which was conducive to long form writing.
• What did not work:

-Market fit and timing: I entered this world in 2015 when things in the blogging world were changing. In terms of platform, creators and audiences were spending more time on social media platforms such as instagram rather than reading long form writing.?

-Product format: Within the blogosphere, what was doing numbers was recipe blogs, listicle style tips and tricks for eating out by theme and sponsored content. None of this excited me, none of this was what I wanted to do. I was passionate about telling stories and sharing my experiences. I liked being funny and descriptive and pensive in my writing which wasn’t what I saw in the food blogs that were getting more popular.

-Lack of outreach: Since I did not see much of the kind of food writing I wanted to read, I wasn’t able to create or engage a community that would allow me to grow. Also at this point, I wasn’t comfortable reaching out to the food writers that I did see online, thus limiting my overall sphere of influence. Thus, when other things in life started demanding more of my time, I let this one too meet its demise.?

It took me a lot of time to come to terms with the fact that the failure of these wasn’t a personal failing on my part but part of a journey of growth. Years spent working in businesses after having stepped away from these blogs would tell me that it was really a variety of factors that led to none of these catching on including things I’d learned in business school such as having the right platforms and channels, having a product - market fit, setting a governance structure while working in a team. I would come back to consider all of these when I wanted to try starting something of my own once again.?

In the next post I will describe the landscape as per my experience when I came back to writing a few years later. In the comments do describe your experiences with something you were a part of that never quite found their niche