reflections on 30 days of daily blogging
I did it! In April, I did one month of daily blogging, one new post per day. Usually I put all my blogging thoughts into the thought-log, but I think a milestone like this warrants its own entry.
I wasn't really planning on doing this challenge; it just "happened." I read a post on another blog and thought "why not?"
General thoughts
The first two weeks were quite easy. From the third week onwards, things started to drag a bit and there were days where I had to push myself to write something. It wasn't a matter of not having ideas, but being too tired or lazy to turn them into a text. There were some posts (like thoughts on minimalism) where I finished writing the first draft quite early, only to push back the publishing date back further and further. There are also some finished entries that are still unpublished, and some that I ended up deleting. So there were some hurdles! But now that I'm finished, it feels really satisfying to look at the post list and see all the dates neatly lined up, with not a single one missing. A true sense of accomplishment.
To alleviate the pressure, I tried out a lot of different post types. Some were on the "headier", text-heavy side, like the minimalism post, the post about art movements or the post about continuous growth. Others were shorter and required relatively little writing of my own (instead centering around quotes or images) like my favourite ... meme?, tower structures of Japanese suburbia or rustle of existence (transcript). Posts like "focusing on the process" and casual wabi-sabi or artifacts: teacup were a mix of the two approaches. I think this was a good way to go about things. I probably would've dropped the challenge if I'd forced myself to write a "proper", essay-like text every day.
Aside from writing, one of the best things that I did was creating an e-mail address for the blog and putting the contact info on the home page. I've gotten a few e-mails from people who have found the blog or the posts, and it's always a big motivation booster.
Positive takeaways
While it wasn't always easy, I think the challenge was a net positive. Here are some positive effects it had on me:
It made me more comfortable with writing in general. Publishing something every day made me worry less about whether a topic was "interesting" or "worth writing about." It allowed me to focus on the process more (in line with the mindset that I talked about in this post). I now have an easier time writing something that I consider to be "good enough." If I really don't like it, I can always go back and change it afterwards. I don't think I'm a gifted writer, but I've definitely gotten better. Finishing something (for now) and moving on is really important. Putting it in a place where people can see it is, too. It forces (or maybe heavily encourages) me to be just a bit more serious or "professionally minded" about the task at hand, even if it's just a hobby. It also heightens the feeling of accomplishment when something turns out well. This is an element that I want to incorporate into my art practice / hobby more.
I learned how to generate more ideas. At the start, I was somewhat worried about running out of ideas. But instead, the opposite happened: Over the course of the month, I came up with more and more ideas for blog posts. I now have more ideas in my head and notebook than before, and I could go at least another month without having to come up with anything new. Writing out your thoughts and arranging them in a format where you can easily "reference" them later creates new mental connections, which lead to new ideas. The same is true for note-taking, but the effect is a bit more pronounced with blogging for me because I end up spending more time with the ideas.
I care less about "post performance." Last month, I hid the blog's upvote counter because I kept checking the numbers too often. However, I still see the numbers in the "Most Recent" section when going back far enough to find my own most recent post, or in the "Trending" section when posts turn out to be popular. Posts like being amazed by banal things, tower structures and Hayao Miyazaki and optimistic nihilism were in the top 10 for some time. On the other hand, some of the posts that I was personally excited to write, like thoughts on the Monogatari series or the strangeness of empty Ragnarok Online maps didn't get a lot of attention. However, I can say that I'm now a lot less bothered by "performance." I just write about what I'm interested in. If it turns out to resonate with people, it's a nice plus, and if it isn't, that's that.
Going forward
While I do technically have enough material for another month of daily blogging, I'm now going to turn it down a notch. I'm setting the "floor" at two new posts per week, even though I'm probably going to post more (I've picked up a lot of "momentum"). Aside from that, I want to focus more on the digital garden aspect of the blog and the approach that I described in what I want (building) this blog to feel like. This includes:
- Editing and expanding old posts. There are some old posts that I want to add on to or edit / change a bit, like the Monogatari series post, the post on personal colour palettes, or the list of favourite Japanese place names.
- Playing around with the blog's design and style. Overall, I want to keep things on the minimalist side, but I do want to add a few more design flourishes (custom styles for garden posts, styling of things like blockquotes or collapsible text sections, etc). I'm also interested in bringing together my art and blogging hobby by adding some original illustrations as design elements to pages or individual posts.
- Rearranging the blog's structure. Over time, I want to move away from the strictly reverse chronological format. I'll still keep the chronological post list somewhere, but make it less front-and-center. I also want to add more pages that don't show up on the feed, like the list of my favourite artists and illustrators. The first big addition is going to be a gallery page for my sketches.
I think I want to do another daily blogging challenge later this year; it could be necessary every now and then to stretch / flex the writing muscles. I'm thinking about July or August. Another option would be doing shorter intervals, like two 14-day challenges over two months.
Overall, I'm happy with how things went and that I came out of this feeling invigorated instead of burned out. Looking forward to more blogging in the future!