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I want to blog, but I never really am able to come up with topics I think are interesting enough. It's related to the problem Ira Glass points out (http://zenpe
by zck 12y ago
I want to blog, but I never really am able to come up with topics I think are interesting enough. It's related to the problem Ira Glass points out (http://zenpencils.com/comic/90-ira-glass-advice-for-beginners/ http://zenpencils.com/comic/90-ira-glass-advice-for-beginner...), where you don't like what you're creating for a period when you're starting out -- but I don't even really like the ideas I'm having.
The few entries I have on my site are things I don't think are especially interesting, but I had reasons to share them outside of "hey, a blog post", so I wrote them.
This is closely related to the problem of coming up with ideas for a startup. But none of that advice has really helped me. For example, "what should my software do" is restated as "find a problem". Similarly, pg says "An essay doesn't begin with a statement, but with a question." But I don't really come up with questions that seem approachable.^1
So I don't write. Any suggestions for getting over the hump and finding things to write about?
[1] Actually starting things is something I think is incredibly undervalued in society, especially for children. Growing up, I didn't even enter my mind that I could create things. I read a lot, but never wrote. Throwing off this blanket is an extremely hard process I've just started doing.
- Spearchucker 12y agoThere must be something in life that really floats your boat. Blog about that. If that something is new to you, then blog about your experiences. My blog is usually a way for me to record experiences [1], ideas, techniques and even resources [2] I find useful. I don't rate my writing skills that highly but do reference posts heavily in my resume, which gets positive results. It amazes me how quickly I built mine up. And it doesn't get read. Even today, two years after I wrote it, my experience activating a phone is the most popular post [3] (it's the only post that gets more than 10 hits a month - every other post that even gets a hit gets no more than one). [1] http://bit.ly/1tgHUcD http://bit.ly/1tgHUcD [2] http://bit.ly/1tNqWmF http://bit.ly/1tNqWmF [3] http://bit.ly/1EmJopn http://bit.ly/1EmJopn In closing, the part of my site that gets 1000's of hits a month is just plain text with some crappy design that I threw together in 1998, about off-road driving and vehicle recovery techniques. That's not even part of my blog.
- zck 12y agoThat doesn't seem boring to you? My experiences seem to be among a few lines: 1. "This person said this, and I agree". Note how much my earlier post is this category. 2. Huh, this thing isn't great, or is confusing, but I have no real solutions. I wouldn't read anything at all like this. Maybe it's something I do need to push through, but it's rough when I don't know what I'm aiming for and don't like what I'm making.
- Spearchucker 12y agoNot boring. In fact quite the opposite. I go back to my posts often, especially when I'm doing something for work (documentation, for example), and need ideas.
- arvinsim 12y agoI guess if you are a software developer, you can make a blog about hard issues that you want to remember. I am not sure if this will cause problems with NDAs though.
- wodenokoto 12y agoRead the last paragraph of the linked article again and choose that person to be yourself. Or you could also simply choose your grandmother and decide "I wanna explain the stuff I'm working on in a simple way so that she will understand", never mind if she doesn't have access to the internet or is dead, you can still write it in a way that makes sense to her. I write my blog for me. How I finally understood a problem I've had trouble with, or sometimes I just post a funny quote from a book I've been reading.