My year in blogging

In 2023, I started asking myself: what new types of content could I write on this blog? I wanted to explore new ideas. I was finally ready to challenge the notion that this blog should be primarily about coffee or technology, a sentiment I held in my mind for a long time. Reading blogs like Rubenerd's blog, which focuses on no specific topic, helped me feel that I, too, could step out of my comfort zone and explore different topics.

Series

Throughout the year, I have explored many topics, from the changing of seasons to moments that made me smile to Taylor Swift. To help me explore different topics, I started writing series of posts. I started three series, which I wrote in addition to blog posts on more technical topics:

1. Moments of Joy;
2. Fun with Words, and;
3. Advent of Technical Writing.

In Moments of Joy, I documented moments that brought me joy. This helped me become more aware of my surroundings and the little beauties that are around us in daily life. I documented many joyful moments in environments you may consider mundane: train station platforms, or gazing out a window. I started to build a new writing voice, one that is grounded in observation of my surroundings rather than knowledge of a specific topic.

For the Fun with Words series, I made a list of words that I found interesting and wrote about them. I tried to write my own definitions, with reference to online dictionaries. This series was inspired by a long-time propensity I had to share interesting words with other people and proclaim them my "Word of the Day." Somewhere in life I stopped doing this, but it brought me joy. What better place to explore weird and wonderful words once again than this blog?

I studiously documented words throughout my day as I wrote editions in Fun with Words. When I had "saved up" enough words, I wrote a post. Over time, the series started to feel less interesting to write so I put it on hold. Perhaps one day there will be a revival!

Technical writing, imposter syndrome

Toward the end of the year, I wrote a blog post on technical writing entitled "My experience starting as a technical writer." In this post, I explored how I started writing technical materials professionally. I knew I wanted to write something on this topic for months but I never knew exactly what I wanted to mention or how I would make the piece flow.

Starting with my personal experience, I felt more comfortable writing. Being explicit to myself that I am writing my experience rather than generic advice gave me the confidence I needed that I could write something valuable on the topic. Indeed, no matter how many words I have written, I sometimes get a feeling of imposter syndrome. I will talk about this more in a minute.

After I wrote my post on my experience starting as a technical writer, I felt proud. I had finally managed to write a post that I had in the back of my mind for a while. A few days later, I started thinking about whether I should do another Advent series on my blog, in which I write and publish one post every day from December 1st to December 24th. Technical writing was on the forefront of my mind and I thought to myself "maybe I should do a series on technical writing!" That series is still going on now, with seven more posts to publish.

This time last month, I wasn't sure what to say about technical writing. When I started writing, I felt more confident. This came after several attempts to write about technical writing in the past. This was a process, definitely not something that happened overnight. But now, I feel more confident. I have explored different topics. I learned that perhaps I knew more about technical writing than I gave myself credit for. It is easy to forget about the things you can do when they feel routine to you. I went on a few writing sprints, excited to explore different ideas. In some cases, I wrote words and realised my content could be better, so I tried again.

Confidence

2023 was a year in which I became less "protective" over my words. Through writing on new topics and working with great editors (professionally), I feel more comfortable discarding drafts or paragraphs that aren't ready and that I want to re-do. I am starting more posts that never quite get finished, but that allow me explore a topic myself (or determine that I'm not yet ready to write about it).

In addition, previously I may never have started writing on a given topic because I felt that it "wouldn't fit in with the theme of this blog". Now, I am exploring more ideas. This took practice. I started slow, with one edition of series like Fun with Words and. Moments of Joy. Then I wrote more. Some ideas became full blog posts.

Every opportunity to write -- whether what I write is published or not -- is a chance to explore an idea. Like with my experience writing about technical writing, sometimes all it takes is one blog post -- even if it took months to figure out what you wanted to say -- to spark a plethora of new ideas.

There is always work for me to do to explore myself as a writer. I want to start a new series of content. I am unsure what I want to write about, so I shall have to don my metaphorical thinking cap.

A message to budding and current writers

If you ever find yourself saying "I'm not good enough to write about {topic}", say instead "I know {x, y, z} about {topic}. I wonder how I can share that knowledge with other people!" If you say "I don't think anyone will be interested in {topic}," say instead "I already have an audience: myself. This writing is going to help me think and learn. And maybe other people will be inspired, too!"

If I have learned one thing from writing, it is that one blog post can create magical moments that you never thought were possible. Let me share one example. I received an email earlier this year about a blog post I wrote on monitoring plants with a Raspberry P a few years ago, The email author said they enjoyed the series. Seeing this email, I thought "hey, something I wrote a few years ago is still inspiring people!" And what about the people who didn't email me and still found it interesting?

One blog post that you write could make someone happier, help someone learn a topic, change their mind about a perspective they have, encourage someone to create a project, and so much more. Writing is powerful. The best way to realise that power? Write. Also, don't forget to have fun! (Says the person who wrote a blog post on technical writing that started with the words "Taylor Swift" that was featured on Hacker News.)

And with that, I wish you all happy blogging and writing for 2024! I am excited to keep writing!