Re: Blog Like a Painter

A response to Blog like a Painter by Robert Birming.

Robert struck a nerve with one of his latest meta blog posts about blogging. Not only with me, but also a few other people within my Mastodon bubble (namely Jedda and Yordi).

In his post, he essentially talks about how it’s ok to work on your blog on your own terms. Don’t set arbitrary deadlines or goals, don’t join a blogging challenge just because you feel like you have to. And do not not publish a post, just because you think it’s not perfect.

Robert’s post came at the right time and really resonated with me. The past few weeks have been way more hectic and packed with all the uni stuff going on than the preceding weeks and months. Which also had the side effect of me deprioritizing this blog compared to before. It already feels so far away when I think back to the time when I started this blog. Even though it has hardly been half a year.

Back then, I planned to go “all in” with this blog, to write elaborate essays about fancy stuff I learn about regularly. Posts with explainer graphics and all that stuff. If you head over to the essays section of my blog, you see that I published, well, one “essay” since then. And it doesn’t even have a single graphic in it.

Have I failed, because of that? Actually, no. Because this is my personal blog. And working on it, tweaking the design, writing a new post (just like now) should bring me joy. Not be another item on my to-do list that I push from day to day and don’t finish because I feel it’s too daunting.

Just like a painter, I want to create on my website in a more organic way. Raw, imperfect stuff that still projects that I care about it.

Sometimes, it is a longer post, just because I feel like it. Other times, just a short thought. And right now, it’s just a simple response to a great blog post I felt like writing on a Wednesday evening. Just because.

Webnotes

• Robert linked back to this post in his own
• Jedda quoted this post in her own response