Rules For The Blog
As I mentioned in my last (and first) post, I find it helpful to enumerate goals and rules for new projects.
Goals motivate me to maintain good habits, and rules help me keep actions oriented towards my goals.
Since my previous post went over my goals, this one will list my rules.
This is not an exhaustive list.
As I get a better feel for writing on the Internet, I will probably add, drop, and change rules.
Here they are as they stand now.
Revise Every Post At Least Once
Based on my goal of improving my writing, I plan to revise every post at least once.
In school, I formed a bad habit of trying to write final drafts in one sitting, from introduction to conclusion.
Maybe this was halfway passable in middle school, but it became unpleasant when I had to write anything longer than five paragraphs.
Since this process was so unpleasant, I would procrastinate on papers until it was too late to revise them.
This caused a horrible feedback loop.
Even once I stopped procrastinating, I disliked writing so much that I would turn in bad rough drafts early rather than revise them just to be done with them.
Even though it was painful, it was a feasible strategy for school because papers get converted into grades and you never think about what you wrote again.
On a blog it would just be nonsensical.
I hope to be creating an archive of posts I can be proud of.
Success is not determined by a grade, but by how embarrassed I would be to publish.
My conviction that I will revise every post will take pressure off the first draft.
I’ll be better able to allow myself to just get all my thoughts out on the page.
Then when I revise, I’ll be able to focus on improving word choice, phrasing, and overall structure.
Whenever I have revised my writing, I’ve always been appalled at how horrible it is.
In the worst case, where revising doesn’t actually save my writing, at least I’ll feel better about it.
Post Every Other Week
As when I started journaling, I want to optimize for consistency.
There’s not much sadder than a blog abandoned after two posts.
Based on how these first two posts have gone, two weeks seems like a good amount of time to write and revise a post from scratch.
It gives plenty of allowance for days when I’m busy or don’t feel like writing.
I’m less likely to totally give up on the project if the bar is low, and I can always raise it later depending on how things go.
And I would be happy with an archive of 25 posts in a year.
That would be 25 more posts than the previous year.
Write Under My Own Name
In pursuit of this website expanding my village, it’s important that I write under my own name.
That way, anyone who comes across the site knows who they’re interacting with, and it is easier to meet irl.
This should be simple enough given that the website already has my name on it, but it is quite scary to put any work out in public (all the more important that I’m proud of what I write).
I would be much more comfortable if I were anonymous, but that would defeat the point of using this website to expand my village.
Maintain Professionalism
A corollary of writing under my own name is that I must not post anything I wouldn’t want my present or future family, friends, or employers to read.
Again, I’m not currently publicizing this site, but it’s good practice to assume that anything you put on the Internet stays there.