I’ve Already Written the Most Popular Thing I’ll Ever Write
The Day My Dog Essay Went Viral
I’ve already hit my heyday as a writer. It took place on March 26, 2013, when I published this essay:
A sick dog. A harrowing medical drama. A moral conundrum. Money. It had everything it needed to go viral. And boy did it ever.
The moment it was posted on the New York Times website, it took off.
Millions of people all over the world read and shared it. All day, friends and family members emailed me to tell me that their friends and family members were emailing it to them.
Here’s my own personal definition of viral:
My ex-husband’s third wife’s daughter emailed my essay to him, without realizing that his second wife (me) had written it.
My editor told me later that my heartfelt little essay about our ailing Bichon was the fifth most popular post on the Times website that day — beating out plenty of far more important stories about world news and politics.
Of course that depends on how you define “important.” To a dog lover, there is nothing more important than a dog.
What did it feel like to go viral?
It was fun! And distracting! I didn’t get a thing written that day. I was too busy responding to all the phone calls and emails about my essay’s absurd success.
It felt wonderful to know that something I’d written mattered so much to so many people.
And? I knew without a doubt that I’d achieved success as a writer. (Even if I still couldn’t afford to quit my day job.)
To this day, I continue to get emails from readers who’ve come upon my story after googling some combination of “dog” and “surgery” and “gallbladder.”
I love the fact that you can write something in just a few hours that can live on and effect people’s lives for years.
And that something I published 6 years ago continues to be read and shared.
I wish everything I wrote did that well.
Do I feel like a writing failure because most of the essays I’ve written since have gotten hundreds, not millions, of readers?
Nope.
I’m amazed and grateful that it happened at all.
Plus, if it happened to me once? It just might happen again.
Writing Coach and editor-for-hire Roz Warren, who writes for everyone from the Funny Times to the New York Times, can help you improve and publish your work. Drop her a line at [email protected]. (That’s Ros with an “s,” not a “z.”)
