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Is it common not to be able to write a blog?

2 points by pestaa ↗ HN
Dear fellow hackers,

I'm 20 years old, and a pretty inexperienced hacker in terms of finished projects, but I've been coding for a couple of years now, and had been reading source code since I was 12.

I also love writing, but continuously struggle to come up with topics to regularly write about. It always feels like everything has been documented on the web, and I don't think I have any insights to any field that would deeply interest intelligent readers. I make a blog with a single draft and shut it down; it happens every few months.

Anybody having the same feelings? Suggestions, please?

5 comments

[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 24.6 ms ] thread
gdulli
I felt this way for a while. Then I was cleaning my cats' litterbox one day and an idea came to me from nowhere for a writing project, something it was safe to assume no one had done before. I did it for about 12-18 months and then stopped when I had nothing more to say on that topic.

It would be nice if more people asked themselves if they had something unique to say before starting a blog or a blog entry. If you change your mind someday then go for it, but blogging isn't something you have to do for the sake of doing because a lot of other people do it.

pestaa
Exactly. And I fear having nothing worthy to say will have a negative impact on everything I do.

I guess I should be around cats more often. Or their litterboxes.

maxbrown
There's nothing new under the sun (alright, some exceptions...)- that doesn't mean you can't present interesting thoughts in a unique way. If you find that you can't write, it's probably because you're putting it on a pedestal. Most posts come from everyday experiences that are worth a second thought (many are, if you pay close enough attention).
comice
1. Don't underestimate your contribution. Even when you write about something that's been written about a thousand times, you'll bring something of your own to it. How many times have you read blog after blog about something and it not make sense and then finally one blog nails it for you? It's not always that it's better than the other blogs, just that the blogger happens to write like you think.

2. Writing is fun. Write for the fun of it, not because you think people will read it.

3. That could have been a blog post in itself (and I suppose is :)

comice
oh, also, when I write blog posts it forces me to get my thoughts together on something, which is invaluable (to me :)