I’ve been following Eric Davis for a long time — ever since I started hacking on Redmine in 2009. As it’s maintainer, he was extremely helpful to a newbie like me. Recently I’ve started reading his blog and newsletter about freelancing. A recent post of his, “Write Every Day” struck a nerve. And a comment from Nathan Barry that he linked to hurt even worse “slow, consistent progress is the only way to make big things happen.”
It’s something I’ve been intending to do — and procrastinating for years. I’m not going to set a goal of 1000 words a day. And I’m not going to publish a blog post every day. But I am going to write every day for a half hour or so. I’m also going to take the time, as Eric suggests, to edit every day. That will hopefully allow me to make progress on a book about testing tools & automation in the cloud. If I know I’m going to go back and edit, I won’t be as worried about writing garbage — or something that’s wrong, stupid, or cheesy. It may even improve the quality of blog posts (no guarantees on today’s content.)
Besides writing a book, my goal will be to publish a monthly newsletter. With at least 1 article about something technical, 1 commentary about a process or business objective, some personal news (including potentially a hurrah for a client), and a few interesting links. I think of Mike Gunderloy’s blog A Fresh Cup or A Smattering of Selenium by Adam Goucher.
Will anyone read (or subscribe to) my newsletter? I wouldn’t count on it, not at first. But it might help me become a better writer, and even more importantly, it might help me be more focused.
