Don’t face the blank page

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.

Originally published at https://www.mickmel.com on September 23, 2021.