An article on how others write blog posts crossed my desk this morning. This is the final day of my commitment to writing. As such, this article couldn’t have come at a worse time. Yet, I needed something to write about today, and this provided the fodder.
How I write
I work all day. A thought enters my mind. The thought festers, and rebounds. I think about it more than once. This thought gets transferred directly to WordPress. I write the entire post in the browser and everything!
I’m pretty sure that is not how I should write a blog post. So far though, it is working for me.
How should I write?
I would be much better off following Matthias Ott’s recommendations in the linked post. The problem comes in that very first phase he outlines as, “Keeping the friction low.” I’ve never found an easy way to rough draft my work in a fashion that is quick, easy, and seamless to then publish out to WordPress. I’ve tried. I have a number of workflows and iOS Shortcuts to go from phone to blog; none have stuck. They all have too much friction.
This isn’t the friction he’s talking about though. His friction is in the thought process. Ott recommends writing the outline and forsaking the errors. Then delivering the roughest of first drafts. These are both great recommendations. They just don’t work for me.
When I jot down an idea there’s a 50% chance I lose all interest in writing it the next day. If I can’t get from idea to motivation to write to writing, if any one of the “to” progressions breaks, the system falls flat.
Without a rough draft, how do you edit
My good friend and reader, that’s the blessing of having no readership; there’s no need to copy-edit. This blog consists of the thoughts and ramblings of one man with no following. My writing is to get thoughts out of my head. It helps me solidify my stance on the tiny and inane subject running through my brain. Even then I reserve the right to change my mind (I kind of want a Mach-E, but wouldn’t as much if it was called a Thunderbird – Big Mustang fanboi energy).
Planning
I have an editorial calendar in Notion. It was helpful for the first week of blogging. I quickly exhausted the topics I didn’t want to throw away and kept pushing the topics I no longer wanted to write. Maybe someday you’ll hear about how I prep for everyday disasters as a commuter or whatever “Stream of Consciousness” is supposed to be about. Until then, I think I’ll keep trying to hit my weekday schedule with a single thought, elongated into a short (or medium-sized) blog post.
