Do you also delete more than you write?
I recently started a blog, I have merely 3 articles published on it, not a big deal.
And right now it hit me. Oh boy, I've deleted more than I've written... Yeah, I know how that sounds and that it's not physically possible, it just feels like that.
The article intimidation
I'm pretty sure this can feel uncomfortable for people that just start this.
For me it's not that big of a deal, I'm used to spending months on projects and never delivering, but sure it feels intimidating
I published 3 articles, but have written 6 and have additional 13 titles for articles that wait to be written.
The word count intimidation
So, you got that fancy title, that fancy idea! You write and then you find out that's so short it barely fits in 3 tweets.
But you still offer value with that, so what do you do now?
Do you still publish it as a blog article?
Do you publish it on Indie Hackers?
Do you just tweet it?
I used to just delete everything that I didn't use, now I have a better idea.
Recycle everything
When you think about recycling, you probably think about things that were used, that saw the day of light, and were decommissioned.
But think about all the text that you've written that never saw the day of light for different reasons.
Can you find a platform where that content can shine?
Can you adapt that content for that platform?
Practice
Now look behind at some abandoned content and if it's not worthy of any platform, and just put it here as a comment. I will gladly read it!
Really interesting read, Lex, thanks for sharing. I definitely go back and remove articles or decide not to publish if the idea isn't fully "baked" yet. I think this is a natural part of the blogging process and the same is true for corporate blogs. I used to run the blogs at two tech companies and even though we had a full pipeline, blog posts fell through a lot — some ideas never got started or we decided not to publish an idea that came up. I currently publish two blog posts per month on my personal blog and I have a Google Drive folder with some blog articles that weren't fully fleshed out. I've also unpublished older content that did not fit the main topics I wanted to blog about. And I've elected to make some blog posts into tweets instead. :)
Re: word length, I wrote a post called what is the right length for a blog post and have shared my thoughts around managing the fear of publishing new content. As someone who started their first blog 21 years ago, I'm learning that there's always something new to learn about the medium. :)
Thanks for starting the conversation!
Wow, nice stuff you have there!
I have a more organic approach right now, I write what feels right for me, what I would have loved to read at some point in my life.
I am sort of used to exposing myself online, but the fear of publishing is always there and I feel it serves the purpose of always increasing the quality of the content.
I was always afraid of creating a blog due to my perceived responsibility towards writing on it.
I found a solution to that though, writing in seasons - that's what made me start.
I also think the fact that I noticed that the fastest medium to learn from (for me) is written form. Videos are useful when I want to see something done, and podcasts currently don't quite fit into my life, I barely listen to a couple of them from time to time.
I love that approach; that's exactly what I do, too. I find that it's best to stick to the medium that you like to consume the most; blogging isn't for everyone, and people should feel confident to pursue content creation on the channel that suits them.
I keep a separate, unpublished page where I paste all of my deleted content. I go back to those whenever I fall short of ideas.
And yes, I also delete more than I write, and I think it's a healthy habit!
Yes, sometimes.
I am not that hard on myself for my personal blog. If something isn't 100%, I won't submit it anywhere, but it can still live.
On the other hand, for my book I will try to remove everything I can to make it better.
This reminds me slightly of an interesting fact I learned about National Geographic photographers during the heyday of natural photojournalism: for every award-winning photo that makes the cut and is included in National Geographic, each photographer could have close to 10,000 unused photos that never see the light of day. 9,999 photos scrapped to simply yield a single worth image.
I think deleting faaaar more than you publish/ship/save is a healthy practice, and we see that same pattern reflected in all manner of creative outlets.
I find that in general when creating something, you create a lot of content and only publish a smaller percentage of it. It's the curse of being a creator.
I found that having a place to post daily (without deleting anything) has helped me get more out the door. Even if it's only 200 words, I publish something everyday. Then I have a huge list of stuff I can edit / update instead of starting from scratch.