Send Out a Search Party

I love looking at my blog stats, to see when people show up, and which pages they visit.

But even more fun is looking at the search terms they use to find my site. Here are a few of my favorites:

• An insect who knows how to wish upon a star – This tickles me, because it feels like it wasn't the first phrase that was used. Or maybe I'm projecting. There are times when you can type in the exact sequence of words to locate that one thing that eludes your brain cells--but not this time. And just so you don't have to look this up, they were searching for my beloved "Jiminy Cricket". Okay, I can't think of him singing that song or I'll get all misty-eyed again.
• Thigh high booted goddess of war – I'm wondering if this female marvel actually has a name or if the searcher was just hoping such a creature exists. Unfortunately now *I* want to know who she is, so I may have to go searching too. This landed on a post where I discussed boots, but I don't HAVE thigh high boots (yet), and I am pretty sure I'm not qualified to be a goddess of war (all in due time).
• Crickets in the bathtub – I happened to mention Jiminy in this post titled "Cricket in the Bathtub". I talked about how trying to get a cricket out of the bathtub was impossible--just like when you try to force a story to go the direction you preplanned for it when it is intent on going elsewhere. This is one of the most frequently searched terms in my stats, and I feel bad because I'm sure people are hoping for a solution with this issue, and instead I'm talking about wrestling a plot into submission.
• Character goals – This is the most popular search term. It makes me happy that one of my posts is actually being sought out by folks looking for writing advice. And if there's a different interpretation, I don't want to hear it. I like my rich fantasy life the way it is.
• I hate Jessica Fletcher – Who knew people would be hating on Jessica Fletcher? Unless. . .maybe it's a support group for all the criminals she busted with her clever ways and trusty typewriter. It's the only possible answer I can come up with. There are also a lot of people who get to my site because they want to know, "what is Jessica Fletcher typing on her typewriter?" Well, I think it's obvious she's writing a bestseller, right?
• Mad at my muse Endora – This baffled me because I hadn't really thought I was sharing Endora with anyone else. And then it hit me. All those times Endora disappeared in a puff of smoke. . . She was consorting with other writers! I'd believed we were writing exclusively. That witch.

Now I'm off to search for my fickle muse Endora. I doubt she's going to like how I phrase the search terms. . . 

Comments

[Melissa]

I have some interesting search terms on my blog also and, like you, I feel a little bad (but not too bad) that a searcher finds me because the terms I used in an analogy matched what they really wanted. For instance, I imagine my "popular" posts found with searches for Gin Rummy or In the Trenches unintentionally misled a few non-writers! LOL

Is there nothing a writer can't connect to writing? Nope. LOL One of my draft blog posts has a title "Hugs and Drill Sargeants." That should bring in an interesting audience. LOL!

[Melissa]

Oops. I guess I meant "is there ANYTHING a writer can't connect to writing?"

Oh, and if comments count in the searches too (I think they do), then I guess you will get the "Hugs and Drill Sargeants" crowd first. LOL!

[Donna Cummings]

Melissa, I'm looking forward to the "Hugs and Drill Sargeants" post! And I'm hoping we both get some hits from that -- we can compare them. LOL

I think everything can be connected to writing. I think that's just how our brains operate -- it's how we perceive the world, and how we describe it. Writing is everything, and everything is writing. :)

[Carol Kilgore]

Fun post!

Thanks for visiting my blog today and commenting on Rochelle's post.

Nice to meet you.

[Donna Cummings]

Carol, it's nice to meet you too! Thanks for stopping by. I enjoyed Rochelle's post--it was a lot of fun. :)

[Quantum]

Donna, you wisely don't mention the other sites that those search terms might reveal.

For example (just guessing!)
*Cricket in the bath tub* might have lead to nude cricketers tossing cricket balls about in a large wash area. LOL

[Donna Cummings]

LOL -- I hadn't even thought of the other sites that might pop up. It might be fun to track them down! And your example is why I love the differences in British and American word usage. Of course there would be a different meaning to "cricket". LOL