2019, Autumn 1
I thought I might start a personal blog.
I've had blogs in the past, and the same caveats lead me to eventually abandon them.
It's been bubbling in mind for some months (maybe even years), and a couple things have nudged me into action.
I thought maybe I could use this first post to outline my thoughts on why I'm making a start on a blog, and set down some house rules to get things rolling.
So, here's a handful of reasons that have been pushing me along the pipeline.
1 ~ I read an article...
...Some weeks ago, and it outlined why it's valuable to have a personal blog, even if you have nothing original to say, no one reads it, and you're bad at writing.
It's a space to write and settle your thoughts into something cohesive. Making the space public provides accountability, motivation, aspiration and possibly even discussion.
2 ~ I like the idea of being a person that writes a blog.
Which (let's be real) doesn't seem all too uncommon.
There's an absolute abundance of blogs online and most serve no real purpose.
Statistically speaking, people rarely even read past headlines in the news, let alone read personal blogs. That's me included – and that's no good.
I figure perhaps by writing more it would give me a better appreciation for other's writing, and make me more keen to read. You can only find out by trying.
3 ~ My game dev log is doing better than I thought it would.
If even a tenth of the folk that read my dev log read this blog, that's more than enough to keep me motivated.
4 ~ I reckon it'd be alright.
I could be crap, but I'll be crossing my fingers.
5 ~ It's a good excuse to be productive on weekends.
I get to bust out the old ThinkPad, and do some old fashioned writing. Weeks can go by quickly, so it'll be a good chance to stop, collect my thoughts, and make a mark.
6 ~ It harks back to a different time.
The internet is continually becoming shaped by only a handful of content spheres. We log in to just a couple services, submitting our content to them and receiving our content from them.
Having recently spent more and more time in more niche nooks on the internet, I've discovered some of the most thoughtful and valuable content.
I remember growing up with the internet, and having a bookmarks folder filled with different gems that were always worth returning to. Places for reviews, comics, stories or thoughts. Learning of new sites was done almost entirely through word of mouth.
With the rise of these few services, discovering content became easier – and that's no bad thing. But now as content is being housed under just a few umbrellas, we hand over a large portion of control to what content gets pushed and what content gets lost. We shape our content to the conventions and rules that these services expect.
So, since this is my corner of the internet, the following are some of my own rules, for the sake of transparency, that I'm going to be abiding when considering
1 ~ This blog isn't for you.
It's for me. But don't worry, that's cool. It's great that you're here.
2 ~ I'll be posting on weekends, but it's not the end of the world if I miss a week.
The 'don't break the chain' method of habit forming (or breaking) doesn't work for me. When I break the chain it usually ends up with me losing all hope and abandoning the chain.
So let's not be too serious about this. This is about good vibes, not rigid expectations.
3 ~ ...And it's not the end of the world if this doesn't work out.
Maybe I'm not the type of person that maintains a blog. That's okay – most people aren't.
4 ~ If I don't update the blog for 6 months, the whole blog gets nuked(!).
There's nothing sadder than an abandoned blog, where no one turned out the lights after being the last one out. I need a point at which I can know that I had a good stab at it, but it just wasn't right for me.
As with all abandoned things born from good intention, there comes a time when we need to thank them, and let them go. That way, we can make sure we're keeping things fresh.
And that just about does it. I've actually been sat on this blog post, half written, for about a month. Perhaps that's a bad omen, but I won't dwell on it.
So, let's get things started, and begin getting words down.
But until then..