Ten quick tips for keeping a blog

Everyone wants to have written; almost nobody wants the Tuesday evenings. Keeping this journal alive for eight years taught me that consistency is a system, not a personality trait.

Here is the whole system — ten small decisions that remove willpower from the equation and leave only the good part: thinking in public.

Lower the bar to the floor

My only rule: publish something honest every fortnight. Not something brilliant — something honest. Brilliant shows up roughly quarterly, always disguised as a routine post I almost deleted.

A schedule you can keep while ill, busy or uninspired beats an ambitious one you abandon by March. Start embarrassingly small and defend the streak.

Separate writing from publishing

Drafts live in one place, scheduled posts in another, and never the twain shall meet before their time. Writing is play; publishing is plumbing. Mixing them makes both miserable.

Keep a running list of half-ideas — overheard sentences, irritations, questions you cannot answer. Future-you will be grateful on every blank-page morning.

Write the post you needed five years ago. Somebody out there is exactly five years behind you.— The advice that started this journal

Treat readers like neighbours

Reply to every thoughtful email for as long as you possibly can. The conversation underneath the essays has taught me more than the essays taught anyone.

And write for one specific person, not an audience. Audiences make you perform; a person makes you explain. Explanation is what lasts.

Ten tips, one thesis: blogs survive on systems and sincerity, not inspiration.

Start tonight. Two hundred honest words, published somewhere small. Then do it again in fourteen days.