When Hugh Macleod launched his latest book: Freedom is Blogging in Your Underwear, I counted the days till Amazon delivered it. Hugh's love letter to blogging describes:
- Independent decision making
- Picking yourself
- Bypassing the approval of others
Similar to how "writing for yourself" addresesses blogging self-sabotage, experimentation, the writing process, and writing's iterative nature are also important.
1. Experimentation Drives Improvements In Writing
A personal blog is an adult's sandbox for experimentation, learning, and sharing. William C. Taylor, author of Practically Radical and co-founder of Fast Company magazine shared these thoughts about writing:
"The third thing I did differently with this book, which I guess is not so different anymore, is that I used blogging and other social media to experiment with my ideas before I commited them to a book."
"For a writer, what's great about the Web is that it allows you to experiment with language, to tell stories, to tease out lessons, and to see quickly what material strikes a chord with readers, what really engages them."
Listen and Learn. If the audience doesn't respond, you received a gift. The readers taught you something valuable (just keep looking). If they responded with criticism, open your mind and listen.
Record the learnings in your idea notebook (so you can these lessons in your next blog post). It's all part of your "permanent beta" to continue learning, iterating, and improving.
2. Writing Is About Action
- Focus
- Simplify
- Repeat
Showing up and doing the work is everything. It's not glamorous. It's about repetition and discipline.
3. Iterative Design RULES (Especially in Digital Media)
Dan and Chip Heath took a design approach to writing latest book, Switch:
"We were much more iterative in writing Switch--we went through many drafts and many cycles of feedback. Chip and I have both been inspired by the "design thinking" that's taught at Stanford's D-School and elsewhere, and the more iterative writing approach was our way of moving in that direction."
Ship Your Work -- That's What Counts. There's nothing wrong with tweaking and modifying after pressing "Publish." Take advantage of digital publishing's "permanent draft mode."
Get your work out there. Get your art out the door. Publish it. And, don't look back ...
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