2014: The Year I Wrote Better
January 02, 2014 -Getting Better
Those of you who already read my blog know that I’m not the best writer. You’re likely either reading this because you’re either related to me or the technical information has helped you. Thank you for reading! This year is going to be better. More content, better writing, you’re in for a treat. The nice part about not being very good at anything is that it’s much easier to go from pretty-crap to good than it is to get from great to excellent, so this should be easy!
Strategy
Here’s the plot:
- Reduce friction to post.
- Reserve more time to post.
- Find a good editor (the person, not the application).
In theory, these things will lead to higher frequency and better posts. I only wrote 15 blog posts in 2013. Some of which are maybe 2-minute reads. That’s no way to improve and not nearly enough information for people who are looking for it. If you have any other strategies for improvement, I’m happy to hear them!
- Reduce friction to post.
Right now I write notes about the posts I write on my phone or computer wherever I am. Then at home, I type my blog posts on my computer using vim or BBEdit or whatever editor I feel like writing in that day. Then the post is copy/pasted to GitHub's gist system to easily share it with a few of my friends who make comments on readability and grammar mistakes. Once the post has been looked over by everyone, it gets copy/pasted into Tumblr. This is a pretty silly process that is rife with friction. In theory this can be reduced by streamlining the system. There are way better blogging solutions for people who want to do more than post a photo or link to an article. To actually write articles, something more like Wordpress or Ghost or something I haven’t heard of is better.
- Reserve more time to post.
This one’s pretty straightforward. If you specifically block out time to write, you’ll actually write. It doesn’t need to be entire days at a time, just some time on a regular basis. Same strategy developers use to make sure they make consistent progress on their own apps. I’m going to aim for 30 minutes per day, but some more for the this first week to get things started.
- Find a good editor.
I’ve been told by many people that this one will help quite a bit. I know a few people who might be willing to do it. If you want to be my editor, feel free to let me know!