2 ms·

I put off starting my blog for so long because I didn't feel I was good enough. Each idea worthy of a post felt so inadequate when laid down, because of my weak

I put off starting my blog for so long because I didn't feel I was good enough. Each idea worthy of a post felt so inadequate when laid down, because of my weak writing. It's agonizing to reread the text and be bored by your own creation. Too much context, sloppy transition, feels like fake enthusiasm, and so on. In the end, I partially solved it by separating "posts" from "notes". Posts are the nicely articulated ideas; notes: the one-shot, the straight-to-the-point, the bullet list, really anything with a bit of substance. It's liberating to have something out there, knowing it's not your best. I'm going to writes notes for a while, until I find one that pleases me. And when it'll become a post, it won't be my only public expression.

a_e_k 4y ago
I really like that way of framing the distinction. I may have to borrow that. I've been thinking about reviving my blog by writing up some tidbits from my pen-and-paper notebooks as shorter form entries. I've usually preferred to post larger, more polished pieces when I felt like I really had something to say, but that also has meant sometimes going years between posts.
danShumway 4y ago
I'm planning to potentially start separating my blog posts entirely from my website for similar reasons. I've been trying to think about why it's easier for me to write long replies on HN than it is for me to blog, and I think that putting posts on a pedestal and caring too much about formatting everything and making sure they're perfect is part of it. My thought is, I might start writing posts and pushing each one to a completely separate subdomain or even completely separate domain entirely using something like Netlify. And separately maybe I start to grab some of them and compress them into an RSS feed or copy them to the main site -- but I hate trying to think up-front "how does this contribute to my 'brand'?" And I'm wondering if having more of a "throw it out into the void, link it on some social networks" attitude might help alleviate some of that problem.

a_e_k 4y ago

I really like that way of framing the distinction. I may have to borrow that. I've been thinking about reviving my blog by writing up some tidbits from my pen-and-paper notebooks as shorter form entries. I've usually preferred to post larger, more polished pieces when I felt like I really had something to say, but that also has meant sometimes going years between posts.

danShumway 4y ago

I'm planning to potentially start separating my blog posts entirely from my website for similar reasons. I've been trying to think about why it's easier for me to write long replies on HN than it is for me to blog, and I think that putting posts on a pedestal and caring too much about formatting everything and making sure they're perfect is part of it. My thought is, I might start writing posts and pushing each one to a completely separate subdomain or even completely separate domain entirely using something like Netlify. And separately maybe I start to grab some of them and compress them into an RSS feed or copy them to the main site -- but I hate trying to think up-front "how does this contribute to my 'brand'?" And I'm wondering if having more of a "throw it out into the void, link it on some social networks" attitude might help alleviate some of that problem.