I've had this blog for a long time, and for all the years I've run it, it has been a good place to get some ideas down and publish them quickly.
When I began, I had a rule: no more than fifteen minutes.
If I couldn't write it in that time, it was a big idea that needed to be turned into an essay or a book. Or it could just be that my thoughts were not clear.
Either way, I stopped writing at fifteen minutes, and often I'd hit the "Publish" button.
Some of those pieces wound up generating helpful conversations, and a few of them became longer essays or parts of books. And they wound up making me some new friends and a bit of money as well.
These days it seems everyone has a Substack or a Buttondown newsletter. A few friends have Wordpress blogs. I'm thinking of becoming a late adopter of one of those.
I like the simplicity of this platform, but it's also grown very dated, and it's still got the clunkiness it had fifteen years ago. Blogspot used to be a place to find other blogs, and their writers. Now it feels like an archive for short pieces I wrote way back when.
What do you think?
If you're a writer, what do you find to be a helpful way to be in touch with others who might respond to your writing and give you helpful replies?
And if you're a reader, (nothing wrong with that!) what do you find helpful as a way of staying in touch with writers you appreciate?
Now I'll hit that "Publish" button and see how well this platform still works. Whoever you are, and wherever you are, I hope your day brings you great joy to share with others who need it.
Hello David! You have an email from me on this. I feel compelled to reply because this blog is in my RSS feeds and I did see this post. With that said, I tend to agree that modern blogging platforms have evolved a lot.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jamie! I’ll say here for any readers who might stumble upon this post that your approach to blogging and newsletters is a big part of what inspired me to ask this question.
DeleteDavid, I didn't know you had a blog until I saw a recent post on LinkedIn. I'm glad to have discovered it!
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, I've done a lot of thinking about newsletters and platforms over the past year or so, and I'm happy to share my findings.
I think you're right that Blogger is antiquated and there are many modern alternatives that might serve you better.
Email newsletters are rapidly rising to fill the gap left by the constantly diminishing traditional media, which represents an opportunity with both potential and risk. I do find them to be a pleasant way to engage with news, authors, and other voices I care about. I'd happily subscribe to yours, should you decide to move forward on that front.
I'd also like to bring your attention to (if you haven't already found it) what I find to be a stellar example of someone who thinks constructively using the newsletter format to great effect: L. M. Sacasas' The Convivial Society (https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/).
As far as platforms go...
Substack has its issues. (https://www.platformer.news/why-platformer-is-leaving-substack/)
As does Wordpress. (https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/27/24256361/wordpress-wp-engine-drama-explained-matt-mullenweg)
I personally use Ghost (https://ghost.org/) for my own blog, and it has a newsletter feature which I don't have experience with. I'd highly recommend it.
Thanks, Mike! I appreciate the feedback. I do subscribe to Sacasas' substack, which is great. And an handful of friends have told me about the Substack issues. I appreciate getting each of these pieces of feedback. In part, they remind me that there aren't likely to be perfect solutions, but that's okay. I don't mind switching platforms from time to time, and tinkering with new ways to share ideas and to have good conversations.
ReplyDelete