I'm Still Blogging Somehow

This will mark my 300th blog post since this writing journey began a few years back. And it will be as random as anything else that was written during the past few years.

What was learned along the way

Writing is difficult. For many reasons. In the beginning you're constantly thinking and you feel like that is the right approach. It must be, there's so much analysis going on for each word that is written. Is it right, is it wrong, is it offensive. These questions and more run through your mind, many times talking you out of a subject or topic. And if you don't believe that, there are 200 drafts sitting on this blogs database that will never see the light of day for various reasons.

But the more you do it, the less the mind gets in the way and the more genuine your words become. The more you just type and a story unfolds. Sure sometimes you revisit a paragraph a dozen times just to make sure that it sounds concise. And other times something that started one way, turns into a completely different story. And that's fine too.

The biggest lesson learned was that if it isn't fun to write, then it won't be fun to read. Many posts on this blog are like that. They took days to squeeze out and in the end had a sad halo of melancholy hovering over it. And that's not good, for many reasons. For one, it makes one feel like a bad writer. You might just be one bad blog post away from giving up and becoming a vlogger instead.

write what you love

Each post should be like a small mini journey into an idea. Lessons learned are shared along with success stories and even more interesting the not so successful stories. But whatever is written should leave someone with either a sense of joy in the end or with a curious gleam in their eye.

The most popular posts on this blog are the more technical ones. The ones that in fact were not as fun to write and took days. The "how to's" and "top 10's". And the not so popular ones were the ones that were most spontaneous and easy to write. Both are important. The technical ones were difficult to write for a reason. And that is because they're challenging what you think you know. If you're blog post is about a new technology that just came out, then you'd better know that technology. For me, those posts were important for that reason. They had me step back and take a look at what was really known and was assumed to be known.

Ideas are like clouds

Sometimes you're just going for a walk to your favorite coffee shop and you'll get a thought. A random thought. "I wonder why...etc". That's a fantastic blog post, whatever that is. It didn't require any extra effort to conceive. It just popped into existence. And what better way to explore that thought, than to sit down and just start to type.

And don't write until it is finished. If you stop at any point, that idea will fade away. Again, must like the cloud. Inspiration and ideas come in bursts. What made sense one second will be confusing and a mess another. And if you get distracted and jump on your favorite social media site for just a moment, you'll have lost that energy.

Anybody can do it

The best part about a blog, is that everyone has their own unique story to share. Whether it's about ones job, or ones travel plans for the year, everybody has something that they can share with others that will catch someones eye. Not everyone will be interested in your story, and that's perfectly fine. Because there's 1 person out there somewhere that was waiting for your words in that exact moment and they will stumble upon them sooner or later.