So there’s a dilemma I’ve been grappling with for the past year or so; I want to start a blog, since I like writing and would like the public accountability to make me write more often. The problem is, I can’t think of anything worthwhile to write about. I don’t want it to turn into journal entries, but anything I could possibly want to write about has already been written by someone, somewhere on the internet. How do people… get their ideas? As cliche as that question is, it’s still a puzzle I can’t figure out.
I like writing and would like the public accountability to make me write more often.
I can’t think of anything worthwhile to write about.
I would say that those two sentences are in conflict with one another! If you like to write, who cares if others have already written about the subject? Look at how many tutorials are out there for monads in a functional language... If you like it, you like it and write about it. The problem may arise if what you like is not writing per se, but you like exclusively the social status that writing gives.
I read maybe a book a week; I’d read more, but as I wrote in a previous open thread, I have this idea that won’t go away where I need to take notes on what I read or else I “won’t be getting as much out of it as I could”. The constant battle in my head of pros (having a record of my thoughts) and cons (my notes always ends up being a plot summary I could look up elsewhere) has effectively slowed my reading to a crawl.
I suppose I don’t read as much nonfiction as I should, but even when I do, I don’t get new ideas that I feel are sufficiently far from the originals to not count as idea-plagarism. For example, the most recent nonfiction work I read was Tegmark’s Our Mathematical Universe. I would like to expand more on what I consider to be his rampant overuse of the anthropic principle, but I feel like I’d just be reviewing the book and not adding anything that a reasonably-educated reader wouldn’t already get out of reading the book themselves. Maybe my bar for uniqueness is too low.
I would like to expand more on what I consider to be his rampant overuse of the anthropic principle, but I feel like I’d just be reviewing the book and not adding anything that a reasonably-educated reader wouldn’t already get out of reading the book themselves.
There is value to just throwing a bunch of book reviews out there. A blog may not be the best place for it, rather than Goodreads or Amazon or so on.
Oh, and you should probably do it under a pseudonym. So that you can later pretend it wasn’t you. You will develop some skills when writing, but then you might want to burn the evidence that your skills used to be low.
Almost all of the ideas I have stem from problems in my life and work. Ideas I have on a topic accumulate slowly, and eventually reach critical mass. At that point, I think I have enough to make a coherent post. I might suggest first getting into the habit of incubating your ideas in some system, whether a set of text files under version control like I have or Evernote or whatever works for you. You’ll make a lot of connections this way that you would otherwise not make. (Unfortunately I have almost no time to turn my semi-organized outlines into posts at this point, but that’s life.)
Some of my other ideas are responses to other things I’ve read. For books, writing a book review or summary (especially if it includes a bit more than is in the book, i.e., other things you are aware of) might be a good approach for this. Replying directly to things you’ve read online also is pretty easy.
You can’t really write for the sake of writing as a process, especially on a blog. A lot of the motivation to write arises out of the desire to… express, or to do service to some idea. It’s an act of communication, and the message is paramount. If there is no message compelling you to communicate it, then maybe you should consider that writing too little is not your main problem here—rather, not having enough or sufficiently strong interests.
There are times when one would be better advised not to write, such as when one is still a novice student of the subject, that hasn’t done the required amount of reading in order to deserve a readership of one’s own. However, only you know whether you are in this position with respect to what you mean to write about (other people would have to first see you open your mouth to say something silly before they’re in a position to judge).
On the contrary, I seem to have problems getting myself to shut up and not write anything online. After a bout or two of prolonged and especially of hostile debate, I get burned out and consider taking an online “vow of silence” for the time being. And what do I do then? Respect it for a day or two, and then I’m back to my old ways. I have to consciously find fault with what I want to say in order to restrain myself from writing about it—“oh, this article is half-baked and poorly researched”, “this comment is a reply to someone with whom discussion is not usually fruitful”, “the central point in this article may turn out to be wrong”, “it’s not strategic for me to publicly write about this topic, here and now” etc. All of this, without caring a lot about the process of writing; it’s just what I do in order to get a message out there.
What do you usually like to think about (that would be of interest to strangers)?
If there is no message compelling you to communicate it, then maybe you should consider that writing too little is not your main problem here—rather, not having enough or sufficiently strong interests.
Thanks for that—I think I’ve been conned by the people who claim that writing is more about sticking with it than inspiration. I’m interested in a lot of things, but nothing so much that I have anything worthwhile to say about it. I think my desire to write comes from a perceived guilt in only consuming information and media and not producing anything.
It is about sticking with it when a) you have a long and sequential thing to write, such as a book, b) you’re in people’s RSS feed or something and they expect to see stuff from you, and c) you haven’t yet hit diminishing returns in writing skill.
I strongly suggest experimenting with a dialogue rather than authorship format for expressing your ideas for the time being. Many people are better debaters than they are writers, and the nature of dialogue pushes you to explore an idea more fully (before you can expect the other to accept it), gives you ready-made discussion topics and food for thought, and provides feedback in every form, all the time. For me it’s been first forums, then offline journals and logs, then the occasional article here and there.
Don’t feel guilty for just consuming media! It’s generally good to have a proper balance of speakers and listeners. Too many people producing content often translates into too few people giving a proper reading to the content being produced. Nevertheless, it’s generally good to develop your writing skill, so don’t let your final interpretation of your desire to write consist of that. Pursue this activity through ways that help with your inspiration and place a smaller burden on you.
So there’s a dilemma I’ve been grappling with for the past year or so; I want to start a blog, since I like writing and would like the public accountability to make me write more often. The problem is, I can’t think of anything worthwhile to write about. I don’t want it to turn into journal entries, but anything I could possibly want to write about has already been written by someone, somewhere on the internet. How do people… get their ideas? As cliche as that question is, it’s still a puzzle I can’t figure out.
That doesn’t mean it’s easy to find.
Part of blogging is to supply interesting things filtered through a personality so that people who like that filter can find those things easily.
I would say that those two sentences are in conflict with one another!
If you like to write, who cares if others have already written about the subject? Look at how many tutorials are out there for monads in a functional language...
If you like it, you like it and write about it. The problem may arise if what you like is not writing per se, but you like exclusively the social status that writing gives.
The fact that someone else has already written on a topic doesn’t mean that you can’t write on it as well.
Intellectually engaging with other ideas of other people.
How many books do you read?
I read maybe a book a week; I’d read more, but as I wrote in a previous open thread, I have this idea that won’t go away where I need to take notes on what I read or else I “won’t be getting as much out of it as I could”. The constant battle in my head of pros (having a record of my thoughts) and cons (my notes always ends up being a plot summary I could look up elsewhere) has effectively slowed my reading to a crawl.
I suppose I don’t read as much nonfiction as I should, but even when I do, I don’t get new ideas that I feel are sufficiently far from the originals to not count as idea-plagarism. For example, the most recent nonfiction work I read was Tegmark’s Our Mathematical Universe. I would like to expand more on what I consider to be his rampant overuse of the anthropic principle, but I feel like I’d just be reviewing the book and not adding anything that a reasonably-educated reader wouldn’t already get out of reading the book themselves. Maybe my bar for uniqueness is too low.
I did meant nonfiction.
If they prevent you from blogging at all then the bar is wrong.
There is value to just throwing a bunch of book reviews out there. A blog may not be the best place for it, rather than Goodreads or Amazon or so on.
That’s your first topic!
Generally, when in doubt, start by describing how specifically you are in doubt.
Oh, and you should probably do it under a pseudonym. So that you can later pretend it wasn’t you. You will develop some skills when writing, but then you might want to burn the evidence that your skills used to be low.
Google “writing prompts”.
If you know another language, translate obscure public domain material from that language.
Re-make something in a different style: take a sci-fi novel and make it into a pirates short story, for example.
And when your actual idea hits you, drop all of that other stuff and focus.
Almost all of the ideas I have stem from problems in my life and work. Ideas I have on a topic accumulate slowly, and eventually reach critical mass. At that point, I think I have enough to make a coherent post. I might suggest first getting into the habit of incubating your ideas in some system, whether a set of text files under version control like I have or Evernote or whatever works for you. You’ll make a lot of connections this way that you would otherwise not make. (Unfortunately I have almost no time to turn my semi-organized outlines into posts at this point, but that’s life.)
Some of my other ideas are responses to other things I’ve read. For books, writing a book review or summary (especially if it includes a bit more than is in the book, i.e., other things you are aware of) might be a good approach for this. Replying directly to things you’ve read online also is pretty easy.
You can’t really write for the sake of writing as a process, especially on a blog. A lot of the motivation to write arises out of the desire to… express, or to do service to some idea. It’s an act of communication, and the message is paramount. If there is no message compelling you to communicate it, then maybe you should consider that writing too little is not your main problem here—rather, not having enough or sufficiently strong interests.
There are times when one would be better advised not to write, such as when one is still a novice student of the subject, that hasn’t done the required amount of reading in order to deserve a readership of one’s own. However, only you know whether you are in this position with respect to what you mean to write about (other people would have to first see you open your mouth to say something silly before they’re in a position to judge).
On the contrary, I seem to have problems getting myself to shut up and not write anything online. After a bout or two of prolonged and especially of hostile debate, I get burned out and consider taking an online “vow of silence” for the time being. And what do I do then? Respect it for a day or two, and then I’m back to my old ways. I have to consciously find fault with what I want to say in order to restrain myself from writing about it—“oh, this article is half-baked and poorly researched”, “this comment is a reply to someone with whom discussion is not usually fruitful”, “the central point in this article may turn out to be wrong”, “it’s not strategic for me to publicly write about this topic, here and now” etc. All of this, without caring a lot about the process of writing; it’s just what I do in order to get a message out there.
What do you usually like to think about (that would be of interest to strangers)?
Thanks for that—I think I’ve been conned by the people who claim that writing is more about sticking with it than inspiration. I’m interested in a lot of things, but nothing so much that I have anything worthwhile to say about it. I think my desire to write comes from a perceived guilt in only consuming information and media and not producing anything.
It is about sticking with it when a) you have a long and sequential thing to write, such as a book, b) you’re in people’s RSS feed or something and they expect to see stuff from you, and c) you haven’t yet hit diminishing returns in writing skill.
I strongly suggest experimenting with a dialogue rather than authorship format for expressing your ideas for the time being. Many people are better debaters than they are writers, and the nature of dialogue pushes you to explore an idea more fully (before you can expect the other to accept it), gives you ready-made discussion topics and food for thought, and provides feedback in every form, all the time. For me it’s been first forums, then offline journals and logs, then the occasional article here and there.
Don’t feel guilty for just consuming media! It’s generally good to have a proper balance of speakers and listeners. Too many people producing content often translates into too few people giving a proper reading to the content being produced. Nevertheless, it’s generally good to develop your writing skill, so don’t let your final interpretation of your desire to write consist of that. Pursue this activity through ways that help with your inspiration and place a smaller burden on you.