I started this blog because I wanted to be a better writer. I also thought it would help me while I built my first product (still working on that!). In retrospect, that was not a strong enough motivator to keep the habit going. For the curious, my original goal was to write one article a week. I kept it up for about the same amount of time someone tries to go to the gym after new years. About a month. Pretty lame.
So if you know about the stages of change, I was more or less in the action stage for a month and relapsed out. This post is more or less a preparation stage step pep talk as I move back up to action stage.
About writing
There’s a lot of things I need to improve, but I would say first of all I need to write faster. I am not sure if it is possible, but I would like to think that if I write more often it will get easier in general. For now, my goal is to write 500+ words (not only blog posts) every day I work on my product (so 5-6 days/week). I hope it can translate to 2-3 posts a week.
Second element is finding my style. I liked doing technical posts because they made me sound smart, but it’s not always useful. I will probably do more, but I need to focus on writing things that are useful first and foremost, but also good/fun to read. I tend to have a weird sense of humour and I am not sure if it would translate into writing either. I think it is something you have to get comfortable over time with.
Making this post useful
So I’ll finish with some, hopefully, useful information. I have to say that not taking writing seriously sooner will probably end up being a huge mistake on my part. To go back on the stages of change, this was me in the contemplation stage as I have gained a better understanding of what it means to build a product when you are no one, I started to realize that I neglected a very useful way to reach out to people.
Distribution/Marketing/Growth on the web is primarily about getting people to know you even exist. It is also a way to educate your market which is critical when dealing with a new market scenario. There are multiple ways to create traction and it is a very poorly discussed aspect in startup literature. So I plan on expanding on that topic in the future.
What about your product!?
I am “pretty close” to putting something out, but not quite yet. It’s going to be all sorts of embarrassing, but you have to start somewhere!
So here we are at 505 words. I don’t think I’d want to read a longer mea culpa. That said, I hope to look back and see this as a starting point, but who knows really. Also this distraction free writing mode is pretty awesome!