Whenever I think about this blog, I feel slightly disappointed in myself. My internal impression is that many of the posts are written at the last minute about nothing with any lasting interest. Most frustratingly, I want this blog to be a tool to improve my writing and communication, yet I’m not convinced I’ve set up a framework that lends itself to that goal. I began to think about a change.
My ideal vision is to reach a point where posts exist on a tight spectrum between the kind where I explored the Space Force, and the review of Dr. Feelgood. If I pick a topic to dive into, I’d like to have the weekly posts document my process and progress, culminating in a final post that reads as an essay. If instead the topic is a “one-off”, it may just appear, but I want the standard of quality to be higher.
At the same time, there’s a battle of time and will. Blog posts happen on a short timescale because I have other obligations. It slips my mind because I don’t take it seriously. Do I believe that I value these high-minded goals for the blog more than I value other projects?
As I began to write out these thoughts for this post (over a week before I planned to publish it!) I went through the archives of this year. While there are surely some short posts that were done at the last minute, or a few days late, they are all speaking to something important in my life. Other posts are better than I remember, even if they weren’t as enjoyable as Dr. Feelgood.
So, it’s a consideration of an external framework against internal motivation. Just as the best curriculum will do nothing for a student committed to not caring, telling myself that I will focus on larger topics or higher-quality pieces of writing is no guarantee that I’ll produce such bits of writing any more frequently than I already do.
All this to be said: I plan to nudge myself more frequently via my task manager to keep my blog in mind. I have the time to squirrel away to give it a bit more attention, to produce better ideas, and develop an editorial process that jives with both my available time and my intended goals. I am not going to consciously pick topics or projects that are vastly different than what I already do; I simply want the form of communication to steadily improve.
This will remain a weekly blog for now, with a mix of posts across the categories I’ve created over the years. But, I will be improving my processes with the meta-goal of feeling good about this blog. Ultimately, that’s more important than anything else.