Filed under #writing #blogging #amwriting

Public writing is what I do most of, so it must be what I do best (even though I have my doubts as my abilities as a writer, in general).

So how I would put it is: the majority of my writing it published publicly on the Web, therefore it must be better than the offline writing I do less often in handwritten journals and offline/digital diaries.

What makes GOOD writing GOOD, anyway?

For me it is the barrier to entry, overcoming writer's block, and then overcoming mental barriers, in general, to correspond what really needs to be said in the written form.

Barrier To Entry: Anyone can have a blog/run a blog/write ON a blog. And it is basically free on the Internet and has been since well before 2006 when I started out. So, no special skills needed. Just a willingness to write.

Overcoming Writer's Block: Just do “Intentional Writing” – fire up the text editor, put your fingers on the keyboard, and just write anything/everything that comes to mind. Something worth keeping will manifest itself, and you can keep/publish that and delete the rest, if you want to.

Overcoming Mental Barriers: This is the best one, in my opinion. To be able to truly correspond, with shifting tones of voice (writer's voice) what it is you (or I) want to say and make them clear and relevant. I probably have a more monotone or “dry” tonality to some of my blog posts because they are just sort of day-by-day “filler” in terms of what I am wanting to say. Some things are more relevant, I am more enthusiastic about, are more interesting, so they come across as so in the writing. But I never want to “settle” for just writing something in an interesting fashion, but rather write something transformative in HOW it is written. A hard thing to describe. Nevertheless, ALL barriers would have to come down in order to achieve this. And as soon as a barrier is down, it regrows and has to be KEPT down through practice, trial, and error.

So, nothing is perfect. Just slog away and hammer out words until great things come about – but – great things DO come about every so often. So it is always worth it. :)

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#blogging #writing

I love the #100DaysToOffload series that I have seen so many bloggers participating in. A lot more consistent posts and relevant posts come from writing every single day, or at least almost every single day.

I hope the posts do not die off after the 100 Days are up, or after any participant is finished with their 100 blog posts.

But anyway, I am not “officially” participating in 100DTO because I would be “cheating” because I would have already been writing for 100 days up to that point and would just write through them and keep on going, so why hashtag? lol!

Keep itup though, everyone. Love it!

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Filed under: #writing #amwriting #blogging #latenight

I tried #24Kin24 (writing 24K words in 24 hours). Didn't work out so well. I got 7K words in, had to take a break, and then didn't return to the keyboard because life happened (both times).

So, maybe if I livestreamed (with proper equipment (eventually)) 5K words for X reason, covering X subject matter, for X cause(?). Maybe I can be very meta and just document what it entails/what matters most (to me) when writing a substantial document, like 5K words, as I write 5K words. A livestream of 5K words being written about the “art” of writing 5K words (or more!).

Sounds legit

I'll give myself five(5) hours to do so. That should work. I can easily hammer out 1K words and hour (do it all the time). And I have WiFI now so streaming should really be no problem (when I have a machine capable of it, the phone won't do it).

On that note; I've toyed with the idea of the Linux Mint Box Mini 2 for over a month now, only to realize through numerous reviews that the machine is a total slug/can't handle basically anything (like the Raspberry Pi). So, I am considering a refurb iMac (2011/12) from Mac Of All Trades. This is no way an ad, but I have heard great thing about that store, and want to get one (an iMac) because it would be the same cost as a Mac Mini, only more “efficient” because it would be an all-in-one. No need for my (oversized and ugly) 26 inch monitor and the cable management nightmare that accompanies it. Easy choice.

An iMac can handle that picture-in-picture stream (not that I would do P-i-P), but more importantly, I can simply handle the stream of the text document itself being written. In real time. Fun.

Dunno why this is relevant to me, other than I want other avenues of getting what I like to do, and am good at, out there to the world to “show off”, a little bit, I suppose. (even though well over 50%+ of my writing totally sucks, usually).

I will come back to this...

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Filed under: #blogging

Just found an old blog. Won't name it. But it has few and far between blog posts dating from 2004-2020. The writing quality pre and post social media saturation is right there on the screen. Granted, the person has changed in 16 years, but really, much more disjointed (and angry) posts during the later years. The earlier stuff was more personal experience essay-esque. And quite good. ALL of it was OK, but better in the earlier days.

I don't even wanna know what my first blog post was. It was on AOL, so, gone now. I called the blog “O'Leary's Corner” (and yes, there is a .com blog by that title on the Internet right now, also (not me)), and I just remember writing about the parties I had just gotten back from in 2002. Go out on a Friday night, come back in the wee morning hours of Saturday, sit down at the Gateway 2000 machine and start writing about what I experienced. How drunk I was(?). Not a terrible time. I may have bee blogging about GED studies at the time, as well (ended up getting an expedited high school diploma later, though). I might have been tried to write some short stories on there, I don't know.

Fun stuff

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Filed under #blogging #writing #amwriting

the last time I checked, I had 2K blog posts on W.a and that was close to a year ago (I don't know where to find that number anymore – I just “happened” across it somewhere in Settings, I think). And I average 300-700 words per blog post. So the actual avergage is 500 words per blog post. 500x2000=1,000,000, so, 1M words written for Write.as on this blog. At least.

I did a blog post titled “3 Million Words (and counting!)” on here about my blogging history, and I came to the conclusion that I wrote 3-7M words, in all actuality, between 2006-2018. Not many people know this, but on Tumblr you get “achievements” for every 1,000 blog posts you do and a small digital “Achievement Unlocked” plaque e-mailed to you. There is also one for 5K blog posts, and one for 10K blog posts, and I received all of those. All of them occurring between 2011-2016. (btw, you get an achievement for 5 blog posts and 10 blog posts, too (everything counts)). They do count reblogs in that number, as well – but I reblogged very rarely, and most of the blog posts were 500ish words written from scratch. So, neat!

Suffice it to say, I write too damn much. But that's how it goes.

More later

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Filed under #blogging

I watch a lot of YouTube. Not an unhealthy amount, but a good amount throughout the day. The videos I like to watch the most on there are from people who make 2+ videos a week, and just make them for the sake of making them. They are not YT affiliates, they don't get invited to Maker Studios (or whateverthefuck) in Hollywood or wherever, they don't get mega-payouts from their video content,and the majority of them (the ones I watch) don't even run ads on their content. They just document, via video format. For the sake of doing so.

I try to replicate this model on W.a insofar as to be

• ad-free
• update often (several times a day, every day of the week (because writing a blog post is easier than filming/editing/uploading a video))
• not care about consistency (topic-wise) or traffic
• and also follow the POSSE philosophy (Publish on Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere)

If I had a blog on different platform, with a clear topic (theme), that ran ads, updated once per day maybe, and just spent my days promomarketing that shit on social media – I would be miserable (+ it wouldn't be consistent with who I am as a person). So, this is much better.

Why do it?

Why NOT do it? It's fun. It's therapeutic. Keeps me healthy. Keeps me on my toes. Keeps me accountable. And I enjoy it :)

That's all

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Filed under #blogging #life

Amazing how much your (my) brain chemistry changes when you stop a habit that you (I) have been doing for so long. I've taken days away from blogging and whatnot before, but this time it made the biggest “resonating” impact as far as the mental freedom I felt from not “having” to write. But still, it is not HAVING to write – I still NEED to write, if that makes sense?

Having to write: meaning there is a purpose, goal, or end-point I am trying to get to/achieve and I am more satisfied when I reach a mile marker or the end-point, itself.

Needing to write: I am almost a dysfunctional human being without the hobby at my fingertips at any given time.

I suppose things could be worse: at one point I NEEDED to Tweet/use the Big Blue Bird, and then I quit. And life has gotten better ever since. Same with alcohol or video games; at one point I NEEDED to partake in these things. Now I don't. In terms of writing/blogging/journaling/whatever, I don't exactly see anyone knocking down my door saying “Stop this unhealthy habit! You could get mentally ill!”, so, why stop a “good” thing?

But I still HAVE no HAVE. No one is counting on me. I get traffic/readers, which I am grateful for, but not HUGE numbers. I don't run ads, I don't make money from this, I have access to no special privileged information nor insight. Just me, hammering out one text line after the other.

There is no more

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