Two Years of Blog Post Writing Club
by Željko Filipin
Smokers pressure you to light one, drinkers pressure you to drink one, we pressure you to publish one.
Hrvoje Šimić, Word rafting
Introduction
Two years ago Word rafting by Hrvoje Šimić inspired me to try starting my own blog post writing club. The club has one important rule. You have to publish a post every month, or you have to leave the club. No exceptions. In the last couple of years, seven people have been members of the club. For the last year, it’s three members strong. Of the people that left the club, some of them stayed only a month, some of them up to a year. The club never had more than four, or less than two members. (It would be sad to have a club with just one member.)
To celebrate the two year anniversary of the club, and one year anniversary of the three of us publishing like we mean it, I’ve proposed that we have a video meeting. Unfortunately that was impossible to organize, since we live on different continents, in different countries and time zones. Tyler proposed that we write a blog post instead. Very appropriate.
I wrote a post about the club last year. This might be a new end-of-the-year tradition.
The format of the post was not strictly defined, but I liked Tyler’s idea of answering three questions:
- Why did I join?
- What did I learn?
- What’s still a puzzle?
Why did I join?
I would like to write more, but it’s not a priority for me right now. I would like to write more, but I always struggle to find the time. I would not like to stop writing, so it’s a great incentive to at least publish one blog post every month. It’s not much, but it’s twelve blog posts a year. Much more than zero.
I’ve fully embraced that blog post publishing minimalism in 2022. I’ve published exactly one blog post per month, usually at the very last day of the month. That’s down from 25 posts in 2021, or about two per month.
What did I learn?
I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by. Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt
In a true Eastern European spirit, I consider the rules (in general, but also the rules of the club) more a guideline than something written in stone. 😅At least once or twice I’ve published a half-done post on the very last day of the month. The rule only says you have to publish. It doesn’t specify quality or quantity. (I do have the discipline to polish the post later, mostly early next month.)
Apparently, I enjoy publishing as close to the deadline as possible. In that tradition, this post is published on my last working day of the year.
What’s still a puzzle?
I don’t think having a lot of members would be good for the club. Three members is good enough. But, I think the club would be even better with four or five members. I’m not sure how to make that happen.
In the last year, we did a good job reviewing and commenting on each other’s posts, either drafts or published ones. I wish we would do more reviews and more comments. I’m not sure how to make that happen too. I’m guilty of not commenting on drafts and posts, or doing that days or weeks too late.
Members
Blog posts from other members of the club, in all of their glory:
- Tyler Cipriani: Writing raft ✏️⚡🔪 The club that’s write or die.
- Kosta Harlan: A year of writing club