A challenge of blog questions
Not been around on the blogosphere for long enough to ever get tagged but I’m so glad that I got my first tag. Thanks, Sathya!
Why did you start blogging in the first place?
I’ve always wanted to say things out loud. Growing up, I always felt unheard. A blog gave me the space to voice my thoughts, my feelings in the raw-est way possible. My first blog was over on blogger and it was really raw. I had some really nonsense opinions over there - a lot of which I don’t carry with me right now, but it was as much me, as the current blog represents me.
What platform are you using to manage your blog and why did you choose it? Have you blogged on other platforms before?
I started over on blogger. Ironically, I think I blogged much much more on that platform because it was easy.
I then graduated to some static site generators - Pelican and then to Hugo but having to write somewhere, and run a bunch of commands to publish just added too much to my already existing inertia and I just didn’t blog all that much. In hindsight, a SSG was just a terrible idea. For me, the gap between though and writing should be as less as possible, and only then will I sit down to write anything. Consider this blog post - it wouldn’t have been written had I not known that if I throw this file in a directory, the tool will take care of making it accessible on the web for me. Maybe I’ve gotten old 🤷🏾
Currently, I blog using Blot which I’ve found to be a wonderful balance between the static site generators and full fledged CMS’. Just write things in text (ish) files in a directory inside dropbox / google drive, and Blot does the rest for you. It just works™️
How do you write your posts? For example, in a local editing tool, or in a panel/dashboard that’s part of your blog?
I write everything inside VSCode. I want to move to something like Typora because VSCode is also my everyday editor for work and it is getting annoying to switch folders.
Note: See what I mean by gap between thought to writing? I am a hard customer.
When do you feel most inspired to write?
Mostly when I am sitting alone, after finishing everything for the day, with some music in my ear.
Do you publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit as a draft?
I have 2 levels of drafts - one in my head, and one in my folders. The number of head-drafts are much much larger than the folder-drafts .. something I wish to get cracking on sooner than later.
In my GCPP course we were taught something called freewriting where you just set a timer and dump. I start all my posts that way, and in drafts. Once all said dumpage is over, I sleep on it and edit it the next day and publish. I need to take myself less seriously, and having this tight deadline to publish, helps.
What’s your favorite post on your blog?
I think it has to be Your toughest opponent, best friend and strongest competition. Its one of those things that successfully went from idea-in-head to remember-the-experience to write-about-the-experience.
It is a reminder to me, of what I can do when I put my mind to it.
Any future plans for your blog? Maybe a redesign, a move to another platform, or adding a new feature?
Write, write, write, write.
Thanks to folks like Thejesh, Sathya, Divya et al, I’ve been pretty regular at doing WeekNotes since the start of this year. I hope to keep up with it!
Who’s next?
Tag, you’re it Vinay Keerthi. Come out of that slumber!