I’m not a blogger, but I play one in real life.

I’ve never been much of a writer. I’ve never been much of a productive writer. All it takes is a quick trip through my blog archives to see the vast gaps of time between any two posts.

The funny thing is that writing is sort of what I do. It’s where the vast majority of my income comes from. At some point, I went from primarily writing code to primarily writing about code. So, you’d think filling this blog with a steady stream of new content is my bread and butter!

But it’s not. I find it as tough as anyone to face a blank page.

That’s changing quite a bit for me. The issue, turns out, was never anything to do with knowing what to write. Rather, it’s having a format that supports what it is I want to say.

Blog posts are a format. A blog post might look different from site to site but many (if not most) blog posts share many commonalities: title, content, date, taxonomy, and maybe a featured image. That’s what a blog post needs to be a blog post. Right?

I’ve always approached blogging this way, but that’s changed recently as I’ve reconsidered what “blogging” is. Maybe it’s not always a linear timeline of content in reverse chronological order. Maybe it’s simply having the right vehicle to drive what I want to say.

Sometimes I want to write a long-form post like the one you’re reading. Sometimes what I need is a place to drop notes for the things I want to remember and come back to later. Sometimes all I’ve got is a one-liner that I’d normally reserve for socials.

That’s why I’ve gotten away from writing “blog posts” in the traditional sense. Sure, I still write those. But now I have other “types” of posts that accommodate the other stuff rattling in my head that don’t fit the blog post archetype. I have notes on the stuff I’m reading. I have a place to post what I’m learning. I also have a place for quick one-liners that I’d normally log into a social account to publish.

The “type” of post is based on the size of what I want to say. This removes so many obstacles for me that normally keep me staring at a blank screen. If I have something to say, I can write it how I want to write it and say it how I want to say it.

The epiphany for me was coming around to realize I have plenty to say, but not always the right way to say it. My blog is a lot more active these days, relatively speaking. Counting this, there are exactly 270 posts published on this blog that date back to 2008. A whopping 61 of those have come in 2024 alone, and we’re only in August. It’s not that I’ve had more to say this year than at any other time in the past 16 years. It’s that I’m more free to say it.