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.
