I went back and took a look at how many posts I've written for [[Taniyn Quest]] this year. I've got about 30 total, which is probably the most I've ever written in a single year - and as of publishing this, it's only near the end of May! Granted, "writing a lot" isn't a worthy goal in and of itself. But I would like to write "anything at all," because I am constantly [[Be Someone's Bigolas Dickolas|combating my own insecurities]]. The more I write, the more I achieve the goal of writing, which creates a nice positive feedback loop. I got asked how I managed to write as much as I've been able to, and I actually have an answer! Getting to this point has been the result of a lot of trial and error and I think I've developed a pretty effective system to get my words out the way I'd like to. ## Gather Every Idea. Yes, Even That One My [[ADHD]] brain is constantly humming with thoughts that threaten to make my brain explode. I've recently written about how [[How I Use Raindrop|collection is important]], and that applies to ideas too. Whenever I have a stray thought that could be piece, I write it down in my [Obsidian Daily Note](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Daily+notes). It doesn't matter if it's as silly as "Destiny is Kingdom Hearts for Jocks" or something that could actually be substantial like how strongly I feel about the fact that [[Marche was Right]]. Whatever it is, jot it down. You don't have to outline them or even add context if you want to. The fact that you've put them somewhere means that you have ejected the idea from your brain. Once that's done, you can go back to review these ideas at your leisure. Maybe that idea sucked. Forget about it or shelve it! But if it's good, now you can dip into it a bit more and start outlining or writing. But how do you get to that point? There's still a few more steps. ## Pick a Day This is, hands down, the best thing I've done for my writing. It's very, very simple. **I. Write. On. Sundays.** I will collect ideas for writing every other day. I'll pick at them throughout the week. I might even outline! But I *don't write*. I used to think that I could write daily. This is a fool's errand for me. I have so many other things that I have to do on those days that I never actually have time to write, and then I feel like garbage for not doing it. Sunday is my day for taking care of my errands (laundry, cleaning, etc.) and writing. I make sure to not have any social responsibilities (or very few), because if I do, I'll be thinking about those instead of writing. Some people call this "Day Theming," but that feels silly so I don't. Sunday is writing day, tl;dr. I don't even have to finish anything on this writing day either! I just need to write *something*. I've found that reducing my own expectations and consigning myself to a ridiculous standard like "writing daily" means that I actually *look forward* to Sunday, because that's writing day! ## Reduce Publishing Friction After picking a day, this has been the biggest impact on my ability to write. I've talked about how nice the [[Digital Garden]] has been for me as far as my mental health, but it's also been shockingly nice for me as far as reducing how much effort it takes to get my words in front of people. With [Obsidian Publish](https://obsidian.md/publish), updating **Taniyn Quest** is as simple as hitting CTRL + P, clicking "Publish Changes," and then pressing the Publish button.[^1] If I make changes, I can just do all of that again and have anything I've written updated in seconds. Obsidian Publish requires money (although you can get a student subscription) but there are tons of free alternatives if you'd rather not spend too, like the DG Plugin! I won't tell you how to do it, but for me this has been instrumental in combating my executive dysfunction - the idea of having to draft a post, copy it into Ghost or some other CMS, making sure it transferred properly, adding tags and a site image and blah blah blah that's not what I'm here for! I wanna write! And finally: ## Embrace Non-Performative Blogging I wrote this when I was first considering [[what if i turned the cafe blog into a digital garden|turning my old site into a garden]]: > ...I don't want to perform anymore. Nor do I just want my website, my only digital footprint, to be narrowed in scope because I feel like it needs to be. I don't want to "compete" with myself or "make content." Writing is stressful. Why am I crafting, editing, and revising with a timestamp? I'm a tiny magazine sending writing off to the printer, and for who? When it comes to blogging, I've moved from casual live-journal entries to writing *articles* and *essays* like some sort of fucking chump. This feels counterintuitive to the main selling point of the internet - there's no "final" version of it. > > I want what I publish to always be open to revision and expansion. I want to free myself from the pressure of getting things right, create something low friction, maybe give people an insight into my process even. Why don't I just lay my imperfections bare and show y'all that I'm a mediocre human being just trying to understand the world. I want a blog, but I also want a wiki, with ideas, snippets, resources, random thoughts, collections, and things that I find interesting and useful. No more performance blogging - let me create a human endeavor. This is the final piece that's gotten me to write more. I'm not some white guy named Nathan writing on Aftermath or some white guy named Chris writing on Polygon or some white guy named Patrick writing on Remap. I'm me - a person that likes to write, but isn't about to shake the earth with my opinions on things. In freeing myself of this idea, I've gotten to write how I want, as much or as little as I want, about whatever I want. The idea of the Digital Garden further supports this method of eclectic writing - a brief look at my [[2024 Cafe Posts]] shows that I've written about pretty much everything, and branched out in ways I never thought I would. Soooo yeah! This is my own personal process, I can't say it'll work for anyone other than me, but if any of this resonates with you, I'm happy to hear it! [^1]: Sorry this sentence has the word "publish" in it about 30 times lol