Unlocking the "blog paralysis"
On changing mindset about publishing blog posts.
As mentioned in a previous post, I’ve started a blog. Surfing on the fact that 2023 is “the year of blogging” and more generally “the year of personal websites”, I’m trying to get in the habit of writing here. Most posts will be about some web development and design-related stuff that I learn along the way. It will sometimes get more personal (just like this very post 🙃), as this is — after all — my very own little space on the web.
Almost a month after shipping this website and its first blog post, I still find myself struggling with writing and publishing. Whenever I take time to focus on writing I find myself overthinking a lot. I re-read every sentence a few times, iterate, and eventually end up questioning the relevance of the topic I’m writing on.
Is this “cool” enough to be read by an actual audience? Is it relevant? Will the almighty gods of web development insult me for writing on topics I’ve just learned about and might not be mastering at 100%? Is my writing workflow too simple, with almost no automation, proofreading, and auto-publishing?
These are the questions that keep coming up, which makes the process time-consuming and heavy — and apparently, I’m not the only one. I’m starting to dedramatize the very essence of the word “blog”, and to shift my approach to a lighter way of thinking:
- This is my personal space, not a worldwide critically-acclaimed scientific review.
- I’m writing for myself first, if it can benefit some folks, well that’s great! But I will not tailor my blog around this.
- Nothing is set in stone, if some posts are no longer relevant or plain wrong I can easily update them (each article is a Markdown file stored in a GitHub repository.
- I’m more than welcoming feedback! If anything is causing debate or needs to be nuanced, fixed, or even removed, let’s get in touch and discuss it — folks can even propose changes by opening a Pull Request.
- I’m comfortable not knowing everything and with being constantly learning, experimenting, breaking, and changing my mental models. It’s ok to be wrong, the important part is to learn and move on.
With all this in mind, I hope I’ll take a lighter approach to releasing blog posts and start making a habit out of writing. It took me less than an hour to think about this post, write and publish it: I might be on the right track!
And if someone reads this: I’m more than open to feedback and would gladly take some insights if you have some.
Until next time! 🐡
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