So Thej tagged me and Pradeep on a post asking some questions about blogs. If you don’t know the two men, well, you don’t know them. To me, both have been incredible people to know. I’ve learnt a lot from both of them and I wish I could be closer friend to them!
Here are the questions and my answers…
Why did you start blogging in the first place?
My first published blogpost, that continues to be around, is from Jan 2004.
No, I dint make a typo. Been 20+ years. Prior to that I used to write on some Yahoo services. These are not online anymore.
Since this is long ago, I may not recall what I was thinking. I can go read those posts but I am not inclined to. I don’t want to delve in the past.
I can speculate why I would have started writing. Lemme postulate.
1/ At the time, I wanted to be famous. I thought writing could make me famous. I think Chetan Bhagat had just release his book around the same time, if I am not wrong. I must have thought if he can, why cant I.
Oh, I was enamored by the chase of fame for a long time, to be honest. But then life happened and I realised my foolishness and naivety.
2/ I wanted to see my name on a book (which eventually happened!). No, this is not same as being famous. Book was going to be a tool but I also wanted to share my thoughts to whoever was listening. I would joke often about just two or three people reading my texts.
3/ I grew up in the days of dial-up models, ICQ , Yahoo Messenger, Orkut etc. And that had made me love the medium of texting. Writing was a natural progression. There was probably no grand plan or reason about why I started writing. But, oh boy, am I grateful?
4/ I was (and still am) an self-concious, self-sabotaging introvert. I have had many connections but very few friends. And thus writing probably became the outlet.
I think this.
What platform are you using to manage your blog and why did you choose it? Have you blogged on other platforms before?
Right now, I am on a self-hosted wordpress. I dont know much about it but I get by.
I chose it because, well, everyone else chose it.
In the past, I’ve used blogger, typepad and others. Again, am not a good person when it comes to answering about past.
I used to be a tech person back in the day. Now, even though its easy, I dont want to be. So, wordpress is ok.
How do you write your posts? For example, in a local editing tool, or in a panel/dashboard that’s part of your blog?
This depends.
Like this post, I opened wordpress, opened a new post and started writing. Some posts, I write on notepad and then copy paste. Often I write on flights. I write those in notes / Google Notes offline and then copy paste.
So there is no standard method.
When do you feel most inspired to write?
I can answer this in many ways. There are many times when I am inspired to write.
1/ When I am mindfucked, I try to write. Often I will not write about things that I am mindfucked by. But writing helps.
2/ When I see that I am failing at this game of life, I write. I get a bout of inspirartion and then I write. Hoping that it would inspire someone, somewhere and I would get the rub off. And I would get some unfair, God Mode advantage.
3/ When the time to write is here, I write. For example, I publish a weekly note (again, inspired by Thej) and I know that I have to write it over the weekend. So I carve out time to write.
4/ I write for work. If I see something incredible that is happening around me and I feel the need to pass on my opinion on that, I write. For example, I wrote a memo when the Steve Jobs book came out.
So that.
I’ll also mention when I cant write.
- When I am bored, I cant write.
- When I am ASKED to write something, I cant write. Even this post has been on my mind for a few days and today I am writing becuase, well, I dont know 😀
Do you publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit as a draft?
In most cases, yes, I hit the button right after I am done. This done could happen in one sitting (like this post) or could take multiple (most of my weekly notes). This post will get published as soon as I am done answering. I wrote this in one go, on a saturday morning.
In some cases, I show the draft to few people and take inputs.
In rare cases, I revist what I’ve written. I let that simmer. I then edit and then publish.
Oh, I almost never read again what I’ve published. Unless someone points a large flaw in my thinking. Like recently Pavithra made me think about one of the things I had published.
What’s your favorite post on your blog?
None.
I am indiffernet towards what I’ve created. Once I hit the publish button, I dont care what happens to it. When I get some feedback, I often go back edit. Often I dont. Depends on my mood, to be honest.
Any future plans for your blog? Maybe a redesign, a move to another platform, or adding a new feature?
I would like it to be designed better but i dont have the time to do that.
I am ok with WordPress. I dont want to move.
I would like to add a feature that allows people to subscirbe to my posts. Its such a simple process and tool that I am ashamed that I have not been able to figure this out.
Oh, I would like to import all my posts from blogger into this wordpress website. I tried many tools, plugins etc and I failed. Apparantly, my blog on blogger is way too big to be imported. In case someone can help on that, I would be grategul!
Who’s next?
I’d say Derek. I will email him and see if he is inspired to write 🙂
This is it. Was good fun!
