on my writing
I was asked via e-mail how I write so much, what tools I use for that and how I make sure to do it. Oh no, it’s another dreaded blogging metapost on Bearblog...
I talked about it a little in why and how i blog but I want to expand on that, especially because I mostly don’t relate to blogging advice found elsewhere.
First off, I don’t set any goals. I write when I write and how much I want to. No daily or weekly goal, no word count, no deadlines. I think it’s counterintuitive to force it. It’s a confidence thing - if you don’t think your thoughts and the things you’re interested in are great and worth talking about and you’re having fun writing about it, no amount of goals and alarms and word counters will help that. You have to undo the shame piled on all these years that made you think your opinions are worthless and your interests are childish or you’re not a true fan or not knowledgeable enough. I’m sure when these roadblocks are moved, the words will flow.
If you wanted to do it, you would just do it (except if you struggle with executive dysfunction, I guess, but that’s a separate thing to tackle). If you were passionate about what you were going to say, you’d write more than a couple sentences automatically. If you felt like you had something worthwhile to say, you wouldn’t sit in front of a blank document trying to find something, anything to talk about - you’d open it ready to fire. You have to change how you think about yourself and your output.
Related: I recently asked my fiancée why she sends so many anonymous asks on Tumblr instead of attaching her blog, especially because it is never hate mail, but compliments and engaging, thoughtful stuff. She said “the mortifying ordeal of being known”. Research that sentence, it’s a commonly talked about thing online. Anyway, you have to get comfortable with being known and perceived, it’s holding you back from blogging.
Second, I don’t write to impress the reader. It’s introducing new unnecessary roadblocks and shame and makes blogging feel like a chore, an exercise or a tightrope walk. You end up just worrying about some unwritten rule you’re potentially offending.
Your writing is the most engaging when you are happy with it and passionate about it, and the right people are captivated by it because of how fun it is to read someone passionate about their hobby, or how it matches their opinion or is about a topic they love - or you. You don’t have to write with them in mind, they will find you anyway. Writing with them in mind creates a different, palatable version of you that you will not be inclined to keep up because it’s exhausting. You already need to mask at work, why would you do it in private? This will just make you fall off every few months because you don’t even like the voice you try to write in. And what if your engagement drops? Are you then desperately trying out every trick under the sun and contort even further, alienating the rest? Sounds miserable. Write like you’re writing to a loved one. Or write like you’re the president now and you can’t do any wrong, that also works.
Do away with all that shit “people stop reading after x time! Respect people’s time!” My longest post with a ton of links and footnotes is my most shared one, was on the HN front page, shared in other dev communities, on X, Mastodon, Bluesky and the KDE link planet thing and was read at least over 20k times. I didn’t even have to POSSE, because I don’t have any social media accounts to syndicate to. I think if that advice was true, no one would read my blog ever, even less that giant post, but here we are.
I think “respecting people’s time” is probably the last leg to stand on if you cannot think of something at all so everything is short and slightly vapid. People will read anything no matter how long as long as it’s engaging and up their alley. If you write to keep the people who click away after a minute or two, you’d have to attempt to write for everyone, which means you write for no one in particular, not even yourself. What a disaster. And even if you have reader retention - did it hit though? They read it to the end because it was short, but do people email you that your writing touched them? If not, then what’s the fucking point of stifling yourself like that? You cut yourself off and nothing stuck.
Would you read your blog if someone else wrote it? If yes, then everything is good, stop worrying. Don’t insult yourself and your writing by thinking “I have to reduce the word count so it isn’t annoying, my posts would only waste your time otherwise! And only x times per week to not be annoying!”
self expression > making an impact on someone > number of people who read to completion
Last point, it looks like I’m consistently active but I’m not always. Most posts in the last two weeks were older finished drafts that I just scheduled to be released in that time via Bearblog’s published_date attribute. There are going to be lulls and if you are uncomfortable with posting too much in a day or a week you can keep them around for slow times. I write so much that I now again have at least 6 drafts to post some other time.
I don’t feel like I even write much. It just happens and then I am baffled at the amount of posts. I think this is because a) I did this since my early teens, b) it is cathartic and fun and makes me think so it never feels like something I have to practice or specifically make time for, and c) I have very little time wasters left in my life (I mean no socials etc) so I think I automatically have more time to think and therefore to write. Oh, and d) there are almost no topic limits; if your blog is for something like personal projects that simply take time and take weeks or months to finish and write about, it’s different than being able to yap about whatever.
I acknowledge this post may be a total miss because I can’t really relate to blogging struggles - you’re not studying blogonomics at university, so why make a science out of it? You don’t need to sit down and practice writing a grocery store shopping list, and this is similar. If you force it, I’m afraid you’re going to sound like you’re at a PowerPoint karaoke.
And as always, no AI, no letting others proofread, no grammar checker, I am rawdogging it. Written in a hotel bed at 15:34 on my phone. Happy new year!
Published 31 Dec, 2024