I’ve published a blog post for over 300 days in a row now, but I’ve got to admit something; sitting in front of a blank page is a killer for me. If the page is blank, so is my mind. The solution is pretty easy, though — I don’t sit in front of a blank page.
When it’s time for me to sit down and write, I always have a list of ideas to work from. As I mentioned back in May, I try to capture every single idea that I have. They all go into my note system, so when I sit down and write I generally have a dozen or so potential topics to choose from. Most of the items that go onto that list eventually become posts on this blog, but there are certainly some that I play with a bit and decide it just won’t work.
As of right now, I have nine more solid ideas I can write about, along with another half-dozen half-baked ideas that I need to work through and see if they’re any good. As an example, if you read my post “You don’t need to build your own server” a few days ago, this is the note that it started from:
The final post ended up quite a bit longer than the note, of course, and even went in a slightly different direction. The key was that I had a list of bullet points and ideas to get me started, so when it was time to write I could just dive in.
When I have a potential idea for a blog post, I try to at least get a few of my thoughts down so that future me will remember why I thought it was a good idea.
Many people suffer with the curse of the blank page, including me, so just do what you can to never have to face it again.
