Blog Rules Explained
Years ago I accepted writing as part of my life. It’s just something I did every day (mostly in an informal messy journal type style), so I accepted it. I was like, yeah, this practice has been part of my life long enough now that I feel comfortable saying it will be part of my life forever.
^When it comes to journaling your boy has been putting up stats. I’m organized, too. Pre 2018 was less organized, more Hilroy notebook style. You can’t beat a google doc for three reasons 1) Easy to organize 2) Always with me (via phone / internet connection) 3) Easy to search and find old entries.
I find writing to be the easy part. Writing well is hard, but doable. I just need more time. Sharing what I wrote is the most difficult part. Sharing, man. I struggle with sharing.
I don’t like social media.
I like having a website but I find it a pain in the ass to manage. Even though it’s easy as pie to manage a website nowadays any idiot can do it and I fit the description of any idiot to a tee. I still don’t like the management of it even though it is easy. Just because something is easy doesn’t mean I should like it. Right. I tend to mix up convenience with joy. These are two very different things.
There’s a saying writers say: I don’t like writing but I like having written.
I don’t like websites but I like having website. (Doesn’t quite have the same ring).
I don’t like social media but I don’t like social media. (OK.)
I love writing because writing is thinking practice. People who write well are people who think well. And I just want to think clearly. All I really want to do is think clearly. I believe this skill helps me with life.
So here comes the blog again. Blogging is writing. And blogging is also sharing (the aforementioned “hard part”, remember?)
Nowadays I see the blog as a means to work out my thoughts publicly with the intention of eventually, possibly, letting these public thoughts evolve into a published work. Most likely published work in the form of: a book. Life is so rich and I’m a writer so I feel it would be a violation of my integrity to not write and not share. There’s no immediate pay off with this stuff. Nobody reads it. That, thankfully, is not the point. The point is to think clearly. And leave a record of life behind to prove I was here and I was awake and I lived.
So here comes the blog again. I’m sketching down a few blog rules to establish internal control.
These rules are a work in progress, ever evolving, and ever subject to change. My plan is to continually update them as I continually evolve and update.
Blog rules:
The blog is unapologetically about my life. I write about my life. I don’t write about other people’s lives. I write about me. I write about how things affect me. So what does this mean? I don’t write about the NHL, I write about my hockey. I don’t write about international politics, I write about my politics. I don’t write about the economy, I write about my money. I don’t write about what’s wrong with the world, I write about what’s wrong with me. At its best it’s refreshing and honest and real. At worst it’s egotistical, self involved, and mildly narcissistic. I’m OK with all of that. It’s just a fucking blog.
Grammar and spelling and proper writing is not important. It’s just a fucking blog.
Blog posts are not supposed to be filtered, well thought out, finished pieces of writing. The book that comes from the blog posts will be all of those. The blog is quick and messy and unfiltered. The blog is the practice court. The book is the main show.
I don’t have to share every post publicly. Some posts will be shared (on social media or via email blast), some will not. It depends what I feel like.
Don’t sit on posts. Write it and post it. If I want to delete the post later, delete the post later. Don’t hold it back. Push it out.
No post is ever finished. Published posts can be revised, rewritten, or removed later on if I feel like it.
Practice posting writing I don’t think is very good. Develop the muscle that says this writing is mediocre but I’m still going to post it because it’s just writing. It’s not me.
My writing and my thoughts are not me. My writing and my thoughts are about me, but they’re not me. Check in on this difference every now and then.
Speak up when I feel like it. There’s no pressure to say anything. Don’t post on a schedule. Post every now and then.
I’ve created a separate post called Blog Rules that just lists these points without my explainer. This post will be called Blog Rules Explained.
So here comes the blog again.
