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It's only been two weeks since I have written a post every night, and I already feel off if I do not sit down to write as the people around me sleep. This has been a nice routine. I feel relieved that I publish something every day. I was very close today to skipping writing. A brief moment ago, I was extremely sleepy. Then I needed to record one observation.
Even while doing nothing, walking around the house is enough to freshen me up. Putting me back in the mood to get back to the routine. And once I am in the zone, sleep doesn't disturb me. It's only a brief moment of weariness that I need to fend off typically. That I need to overcome it to sit down at my regular place.
And then the words start flowing.
What also helps is I have marked a corner as my #writing place. Every day, at a fixed time, I sit down and start typing on a blank page. Today, I tried writing at a place which wasn't my regular corner. I failed. I was distracted by sounds. Or the lack of regular sounds in my corner.
The moment I returned to the writing place, the process became easier.
Being productive writing only at a particular place/time or in a particular environment isn't sustainable. But it's a hack that works for me and might help pull me out of the writing slump.
Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work. ― Stephen King
With Snoopy's last vaccination done, today was his first walk around society. My wife and I had carried him around earlier though so that the surroundings weren't so new for him that he would go crazy whenever we take him on his first walk. That effort in the past must have helped because Snoopy behaved as if he had been on walks for ages. He didn't run around sniffing and biting and eating stuff. He walked and jogged and played with my daughter, never feeling overwhelmed by the large world around him.
I have noticed peculiar behaviour, though. People judge you when they see a pet with you. They visualize you as idle and workless, living a worthless. Their eyes speak, “you care for a pet; you must have so much time”.
I am tired of these looks. I am tired of the questions. I am tired of the suggestions. Don't be an asshole, man. Don't ask me a question to satisfy your puerile opinions. I may not answer as per your wish.
One of my routines for the past week is spending a good couple of hours on my laptop reading and writing stuff before I go to bed. This all started with my change in daily routine, where I begin the day late and stretch it late. Mornings never allowed me a good couple of hours for anything. At night, I feel in control.
Knowing that I will spend time writing during the night, a task right at the end of the day also frees me from feeling burdened in the morning. Otherwise, I felt I had to get words in before the grind began, or I would ruin my chance.
Sure, #writing to a writer shouldn't feel like a burden. But with my recent slump, the only way I knew was to push myself to get at least 100 words in every day. On anything and everything. I have been doing that for the last few days, mainly looking inwards. In a way, these are all my journal posts.
My growing liking for the write.as platform was timely too. I haven't announced this blog's feed to other known places. I don't share these posts at all. No crossposting either. These thoughts aren't open to comments in any way.
Would you write more (+freely) if you know no one is reading?
I had quipped recently. If these past couple of weeks are anything to go by, it's true for me, at least.
Will I never publicise this feed? Or share any of these posts? No idea. But if I do or someone stumbles across this place and follows the feed, I am happy to gain a reader organically. After all, who doesn't like his words being read?
The software that I use is generally not a conventional option. I don't subscribe to the established #platforms. I either find them miserably dull or overly shiny for my liking. It helps that I know deep down that I am supporting a new and upcoming player for whom my business is worth. It means something; I mean something as one more customer. Not “just another customer”.
This also means that often the software is not fully baked. Some essential features are missing, or there are bugs around corner cases. I am an early adopter who pays more and still works as a tester. Sometimes, I get frustrated and switch to the popular option only to get out and back soon.
It is ok for me if you don't have all the features, but deliver whatever you do differently. Have an identity. Stand out.
I often forget that stealing hoursfrom sleep is not worth it — I have to pay back soon, usually on the very next day. Today was one such day.
I stayed up till late, doing nothing unavoidable. I read, or rather skimmed, some purposeless writing. I found nothing that interested me, but I kept on browsing with the hope that I would. And before I knew it, I was well past my routine bedtime. Thus I woke up late, which cascadingly screwed up my whole morning routine.
Missing my morning tea, though, was the most catastrophic effect this had today. I usually need my cup before the #life's chaos in gulps it down. I couldn't have my tea till the sun had risen more than I liked. I knew my productivity had gone for a toss.
The evening was better, though. I went on an unplanned walk around the neighbourhood, taking care of an unplanned but long-pending task. I hoped to mend the tea saga in the morning, so I drank jaggery tea at a nice-looking eatery. The tea saga only worsened, and let's leave it at that.
A few nice cafes have sprung up nearby that I had no clue existed. Neighbourhood passes you by as you pass by driving.
I wish I had taken a couple of pictures during the walk. Maybe next time. Without a tea saga of any sort.
Another thing that works in write.as's favour is that I can hardly change anything with how things look. Theming that is possible is bare. Customization in the way things work is minimum. This will ensure I don't get too distracted by anything that's not words, the #meta stuff.
Of course, there is a risk of me getting frustrated with the loss of control. Well, there's Micro.blog for that which I am not getting rid of any time soon. The platform is too valuable and near perfect not to keep as primary.
Haven't I gone through a similar fascination with Svbtle? I wrote a lot there for a while but eventually got frustrated with how restricting it felt. So why's write.as any different? Well, for one, it allows publishing a titleless post. Second, the interface to post is minimal, with very little to configure. Svbtle felt bloated in that regard.
So where does this leave me? Well, I have started a 14-days trial with write.as. I want to try it to the fullest and see if and how well I use it. Is this just a fad?
A blog, for me, is a space for unformed thoughts. This is that place. And, Hey 👋 I'm Amit Gawande.
why?
I recently realized I do not enjoy updating my primary abode on the internet, my website hosted elsewhere. I realized I don't gravitate to the posting page, so I write less. Some might say I don't write much because I don't want to. Never blame the tools and like that. But then I open the editor here at write.as, and the place feels welcoming — with its blinking cursor waiting for my unformed thoughts. I start writing, and before I know it, I have a few thoughts jotted down.
So, I wanted to bring some unstructuredness to my blogging. No fixed pattern, no predefined topics, and no forced post lengths. Just write.
what?
I write quick posts journaling whatever is at the top of my mind. The posts have no throughline, nor can you expect any structure limitation. They are a brain dump to relieve me of the thoughts crowding my mind. I am currently posting pretty regularly, with at least one post daily. But I am also not putting any pressure on myself to stick to a schedule.
I enjoy writing here. So I do not expect me to write short notes or quips. I may do that at microblogging-focused platforms. I also do not expect to write long-form, thoughtful essays or detailed guides.
The words I enjoy writing the most are in-the-moment unpretentious thoughts. Usually, in around 200-250 words. That I foresee myself publishing with this space.
I started working on a side project today that I know, deep down, I do not have time or energy for. Yet, I began because I wanted hard not to change too many things with my writing process. But I am not happy with how things are set up today. It's the same old battle.
I get bored with the setup I have. I find faults. And Micro.blog, my primary hosting platform, doesn't want to fix the editor. I don't gravitate to the posting page, so I write less. This platform needs a good editor (at least I am), and I wanted to attempt to build one. A couple of hours down the rabbit hole, I know I don't want to do that. There's a reason why I stopped hosting my blogging engines. It requires attention that my life cannot afford.
Some might say I don't write much because I don't want to. Never blame the tools and like that. But then I open the editor here at write.as, and the place feels welcoming — with its blinking cursor waiting for my thoughts, unformed as they may be. I start writing, and before I know it, I have a few thoughts jotted down. Sure, often they are #meta thoughts, as of now.
But that's blogging to me. No fixed pattern, no predefined topics, and no forced post lengths. So the editor need not be so bare that I lose interest. It also need not be so polished that I feel burdened. This place looks to have got the balance right.
I love the writing interface for write.as platform. No-nonsense. It does what it is supposed to do. Plus, all the other options, though available, get out of the way while I write. Grammarly works as expected. The posts are auto-saved in an intelligent way. At the same time, I can also build a list of drafts while working on them. The word count is visible, not the character count, as with Micro.blog that hosts my main website.
That last point tells you about the priority of these two #platforms that are very similar, yet different in many ways. Micro.blog compares itself to Twitter; hence considers itself closer to microblogging (well, it's in the name). So the writing interface looks similar to the one on Twitter. Or, for that matter, most social media platforms. A bare text box that accepts Markdown text.
Write.as, on the other hand, calls itself “a place for focused writing”. This shows with the editor. Every time I use it, I want to write long. I can't say the same for the text box that Micro.blog provides. It's suitable only for microblogging.
Sure. Given the platform's well-supported APIs, a list of clients already supports publishing to Micro.blog. So this is not an issue that many may face. However, most are only written for the Apple ecosystem, something I am not part of.