Why (and how) I write

I had two rules for myself when I decided to start this newsletter:

1. I had to write and publish every other week - I realised I needed a schedule or it just wouldn’t happen.
2. I could not use gen AI in the writing of any article 😅 - This is not to disparage AI, I use it in many, many, aspects of my work. But I found that I lost the purpose in writing if I wasn’t the one stringing the words together myself.

Here, I want to share more about the reasons I write and how the process goes in case it’ll inspire you to start writing too.

Why I write

1. To learn

This has always been my primary reason for writing since I started over a decade ago. On March 3rd 2015, I wrote my first article on my blog, bitsofcode. I wrote that I was starting the blog to “share my ever growing knowledge about web development”. Back then, it was a way for me to stay accountable in progressing my web development skills.

Today, I write to continue learning on a broader scale. In the past few years, I've learned so many new things and I've always found that the best way for me to consolidate my new knowledge is to share with others through writing.

2. To not lose the ability

Going back to my no-AI rule, I found that I was starting to get used to not writing entire prose myself. I would write rough outlines of what I wanted to say (if even that), and had AI do the actual writing. And while this works for many purposes, I found that it was getting so much more difficult for me to be able to write something end-to-end myself. I would still have ideas of what I wanted to say, but I really struggled to be able to articulate them in full prose.

Writing this newsletter every other week enables me to keep that muscle alive. The other day, I had to write a document for work and it was the sort of thing I would typically start off with a rough outline then have Claude flesh it out for me, but I ended up writing the whole thing myself, relatively easily too. This sounds ridiculous to say but I was genuinely so proud of myself for doing that 😅

Something I have been thinking about a lot is the value of writing in a world where most attention is given to videos. At times I have considered if I should, instead of writing this newsletter, create content in video form. But ultimately I decided that, even if I do want to venture into video in addition to writing, this reason of not wanting to lose the ability to write keeps me from stopping writing completely.

3. To document

I think all human beings like to document their lives and have a record to go back to. I love going back to my earlier articles, especially my annual reviews, to read what was important in my life then.

This is also why I called this newsletter “open daybook”. There isn’t one specific topic I am writing about, unlike bitsofcode which was about web development. It’s a public diary of sorts, where I can log important aspects of my professional and educational journey. And I hope sharing these aspects of my life resonates with you in some way.

How I write

I love hearing about how others do work, so here’s a little insight into my process of writing.

1. Deciding on a topic

This is definitely the most stressful part for me, I often freak out thinking I will have nothing to write about. I try to keep a list of potential topics in my notebook and keep adding things whenever I think about them.

Funnily enough though, writing is what gets my creative juices flowing the most, so I almost always have an idea for what my next article will be while I’m writing the current one.

2. Tools for writing

My text editor of choice is Bear, a markdown editor. I love the clean interface, the font (which is very important to me), and the general user experience.

3. The writing

I try to find a quiet space where I won’t be disturbed and lock in for an hour or so to complete it. Starting is always difficult, but once I’m in the flow, it gets much easier. I don’t usually have a length my newsletters need to be, but they usually end up between 600-1000 words.

4. Publishing

My website is built with a custom 11ty template, and published on Netlify. Finally, I use Buttondown to send emails from new posts to my website's rss feed.