I follow a few blogs. I still use a feed reader ((Specifically, I use Feverº by Shaun Inman as my self-hosted sync service and I actually consume my feeds using the Reeder app by Silvio Rizzi on my Mac and iPhone.)). As far as I know I’m also one of the few people in my circle of friends who still blogs with any sort of regularity (six posts so far in 2014, not counting this one).
One of the bloggers I follow, Jason Snell of Six Colors, recently posted about short-ish blog posts, a kind of halfway point between the long-form articles you typically find on sites like Medium and the sort of micro-blogging you typically find on Twitter or Facebook.
Jason was riffing on posts from Andy Baio of Waxy.org and Gina Trapani of Scribbling.net. Here’s the conversation as I’ve encountered it so far (go ahead and read these—I’ll wait here):
I like this idea. I tweet several times a week, but when I sit down to blog I typically feel I need to write something relatively long-form. I haven’t really been allowing myself to post shorter blog posts. I wish I had time like Jason Snell to post daily ((Though, in Jason’s case, his free time happened because of a layoff, which I absolutely wouldn’t wish for. I sincerely hope he’s able to turn some mad profit with Six Colors and all his podcasting. He deserves it.)), but the reality of parenting and working makes that near impossible. But, beginning today, I’d like to blog more often.
Here’s my own version of Gina Trapani’s new rules for blogging:
- If it’s a paragraph or two, it’s enough to publish.
- A picture is not required for every post.
- Don’t obsess over proofreading before just clicking Publish.
- Have fun. If it’s not fun, walk away. Play with the kids instead.
What do you think? If you have your own blog, what’s keeping you from posting new content? Are Facebook and Twitter enough of an outlet for you, or could blogging be just the thing you need to get your creative writing juices flowing again? 