This post was written almost a month before it goes online, but this long-from discusses several “easy-to-follow” tips and hopefully motivates you to blog. I steadfastly remain committed to this format, because it allows me to write by keeping the central idea in place (and adding my perspective) to the mentioned context. Needless to say, it helps me enrich myself personally.
Why and how to write things on the Internet | benkuhn.net
The easiest way to get demotivated about writing is to compare your first post to the polished output of your favorite writers, conclude you’ll never get that good, and give up. This is a mistake. Almost nobody’s first post is amazing (see e.g. mine); instead, most writers learn incrementally about what works and what doesn’t as they publish more. The two commandments above are about going through that feedback cycle as fast as possible. All the specific advice below is given with the intention of optimizing for this.
I was also thinking of writing about the “long-formism”, i.e. putting in ideas for long-term growth. Blogging, obviously, is one way forward, but will break up the ideas into small digestible pieces to gain meaning around it. That’s for some other time, though.
Here’s another very good point:
Separately from the quality of your writing, consistency is also important for getting readers. People are less likely to subscribe to your blog, or remember to check it, if it looks like it updates very infrequently.
Finally, blog posts are one of the ultimate examples of searching for outliers—the best ones are massively better than the average. And one of the best ways to improve your chances of getting an outlier is just to take lots of shots on goal.
I don’t link to my previous writing, on purpose. These are dynamic ideas; in a state of flux. The posts are only intended to introduce the concept and lead the reader to discover it on their own.
Plan your writing instead of Twitter threads. Those only work for “signalling” you as a thought leader. Writing long-forms offers something more intimate instead. Personal enrichment. That’s the goal.
RadOncNotes 