a quick reflection on the writing process (pt. 4)

It has been 10 months since I first started writing this blog. And so far I’ve published 50 posts.

✍️Here are some things I’ve been noticing at this point in my writing journey:

1. Hesitancy due to idealism/ perfectionism

Recently I started noticing how I had a lot of ideas in my mind, but it was hard to start writing because I was imagining my posts written in a more fleshed out, more concise, and more researched manner. I looked at my old posts and felt the desire to improve some things.

I realized I got stuck because instead of starting work and implementing small changes along the way, I’d started daydreaming about my ideal version of a blog post instead. So I wrote a post, which was imperfect in my perspective, and published it anyway. At least it got rid of the hesitancy.

2. Organization of the blog

Another thing that’s been on my mind is how should I organize my blog going forward. So far I have 50 posts, and they’re about a variety of topics. Do I organize by personal development posts? By poems vs. articles? By other topics?

I’m trying to think of a way to make this site more accessible for my readers. However, it seems I need to keep writing and wait for some patterns to emerge before I start categorizing my content.

3. Emerging patterns of writing mistakes

This was one other reason why I hesitated from writing. After re-reading some of my old posts I could see these patterns become more apparent to me.

Going forward, I’d like my writing to be more concise, organized, and direct (though I might change my mind on this). It also depends on the kind of writing style you need to employ for a specific kind of post. Whatever the case, it’s becoming more clear to me how I’d like to polish some things.

4. Journaling before posting

I’m finding journaling about some topics before I publish them here useful. If I’m journaling, I can write down my thoughts in an uncensored, and unorganized manner. After that, I can write them down here in a more concise way that is suitable for readers.

This way, I can fully explore a topic the way I want to, making it as personal as I need to for myself while publishing a post that’d edited to be easy to read for others. This takes care of balancing authenticity with privacy thing too.

5. Writing just for the sake of writing

Recently, I’ve been reading Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. In that book, she makes the point that creativity is a part of our humanity. We’ve been creating things since thousands of years ago. We don’t need someone’s permission to create art. Or create for the purpose of saving or helping someone even. Or to master a creative skill. To build a reputation for ourselves.

We can just create for the sake of creating. Because we want to, and because it’s fun. In fact, we don’t even need to come up with a reason to create. I’ll be keeping this idea in the back of my mind while writing. It’s something that frees you enough to keep going and doing whatever you want to do.