On Building a Writing Habit

I've been really inconsistent with my writing habit online.

I'm good at keeping this blog up and running. It is functional. I've known so many devs who start blogs and endlessly nerd out over tech, rewriting the website in some obscure language and never actually putting any content out.

I started this blog because I've been sold on the dream of writing online and building an audience. Those things are valuable and can lead to: great riches, new friends, personal insights and more. I've seen it happen over and over again. But you have to work for it.

You have to be consistent. I am currently not consistent.

I'm now committing to being consistent. Let's try for just once a week on here. Then maybe we'll up our game later. Once a week isn't a lot, but it's 50 times the frequency of my online writing last year.

I think that consistency is what is needed, but you also have to get readers if you want to be "good". You need some kind of feedback mechanism for what hits and what doesn't. You need to know where to lean in and where to stop sucking.

Then, how do you get people to actually read your stuff? On a damn blog? In 2025?

I still think it's possible – This blog ranks for stuff.

Even with my measly writing habit, people are looking at my stuff!

Imagine if I, uh, tried?

Why write online in an era of AI-Generated Slop?

Many people get discouraged by the plethora of data online. It's even worse now with LLMs that can output text, images and video "fast as fuck boiiii".

But I don't think our writing should be AI-enhanced at all. Not stuff like this. That's gross and cheap. Sales pages? Professional presentations? Sure, maybe those could use some critique from the transistors.

There is something to writing words straight from your brain and transmitting them to other people. An "Art". An ownership over your output. We can't allow that output to become cheapened by LLM-generated words.

There's another benefit.

Clarifying your thoughts and putting skill points into your own reasoning, thinking and insights.

I keep a journal in either Obsidian, paper or my remarkable tablet. But that's only for me, so I don't put much effort into making it legible or understandable. Which is kinda a shame.

We assume we'll be able to look back over our own notes and they'll make sense...but thank fuck if they ever do.

At least with a blog, I'm forced to ship something semi-coherent in the off-chance an internet stranger might come across it. They deserve words that make sense.

And if I write more words that make sense, maybe I'll become a better thinker and decision-maker.

What the hell should I write about?

One of the reasons I've struggled to write online is the lack of direction on content.

What should I even write about?

Just whatever I'm interested in?

Or should you make sure your blog answers questions for others or provides value? Maybe what you're interested in is what they are interested in, too. And that's enough value? Should I do keyword research? Maybe not a bad idea.

Maybe you just have to get the ship going before you can steer it at all.

Here's some topics I hope to write about:

• AI (Overdone tbh, even your mom is writing about AI right now)
  • but for real, I've wrote about AI already on here, so I guess I'm early.
• Making Money Online
  • I've done this, I wanna do more of it. I wanna share it with others.
• Software Development & Career Observations
  • I've been in tech for a while but only recently consider myself starting to get "good" at software.
• Building Shit
  • I like my 3d printer and my CNC machine and I like building stuff with them.
• Humor?
  • Maybe this is more a style, but I'd like to develop humor into my writing more.

Kind of just an off-the-dome list here, but it's a start.

My Prior Writing Experience

I don't think I write bad. I was in G.A.T.E. in elementary school, a "gifted" program for kids who apparently did well enough on some fill-in-the-bubble tests that they got into the cool-kids club. A day or two a week you'd go to another school and hang out with the other bubble-filler-inners and take special classes centered around a specialty.

My answers somehow skewed towards the aptitude for the writing bubbles because I got put into the writing program in 4th grade. I hated it.

You had to just...write shit all the time. Who'd have thunk? That was bo-ring!

I asked to switch to the Math and Science program the next two years. Rockets and circuit boards and electricity and weather all seemed way cooler than indentations and MLA. I was probably PsyOpped into it by Jimmy Neutron and Dexter's Lab.

Anyway, I crushed it on writing in school. Or at least I got good grades.

Then, I tried to write online back in 2012 about 3d-printing and oh-my-god, I should have stuck with it. 15 years ago I could have been writing about 3d-printing? You could have easily built a career around that. I did some interviews with 3d printer founders and kinda just fell out of the habit.

Then, I did a writing course online briefly. But, I think my habit fell apart. Big theme here.

Where else do I write? I write on X/Twitter here and there but I guess I'm mostly a reply-guy right now.

15 years ago was a good time to start writing and so was 50 and 10 and yesterday and today. "Best time to plant a tree" and all that.

Does anyone write any more?

If you're in a little tech-internet bubble, I think it can feel like everyone is already writing online, making $100k/mo and launching businesses, driving lambos and sipping cocktails under palm trees.

But really? The number is probably pretty low. Both for inebriated Lambo operators and consistent content-creators. Or creators of any kind.

Google something like "how many people create vs consume on social media" and you'll find some crazy statistics and power-laws on how few people create stuff. Some say 99-1 and others 87-13. The number who create consistently is even lower.

So writing online and doing it consistently can allow us to have a little back-pat and find some meaning that we're doing the work others aren't driven to do. I definitely prefer this shit to PS5.

Consistency can't be all it takes though, right?

Why some creators succeed and the rest fail

I stumbled upon a small podcast on YouTube recently that had been publishing for 3 years straight. Not a single video had cracked 1k views.

The highest viewed video had... 🥁...380 views. The average view count is 35. 😭

I can't mock them too much, they're way more consistent than me.

But, something's gotta be just...off, right?

Can it be luck? Publish consistently and they will come, right? One video or blog post or tweet or whatever has got to hit.

Sometimes that does happen...but apparently not for these guys.

So it can't be luck.

You could hand this podcast over to someone who's a killer creator and I guarantee they'd see more success. Simple.

So it must be skill then. If success for creating online is dictated by skill, then you must find a way to build skill and "git gud".

My guess is that you obtain skill by doing the thing over and over again and learning from it.

So how had this creator not learned anything? Are they not trying hard enough? Why hadn't they learned anything in 3 years? Maybe their content just sucks.

Let's try to avoid that. (even though they're rocking consistency).

What now?

This is a lot of words I'm almost certain no one will read.

The next steps I'm going to take are that I'm going to hit publish, again and again.

I'll have a topic, who knows what, and I'll develop a habit and some kinda style of my own. Look at all these words already! 1500. And it felt easy. I'll try to find more topics that feel easy. Feels like a good hack.

Maybe some people will even start to read this thing and I'll meet friends, find business opportunities and develop some better introspection. The palm trees and cocktails are just a bonus.

How about you? Do you have an online writing habit?