On Writing

Writing has never been a necessity for me. It's a practice that's been around in my life since childhood, because I remember trying to write my own novel when I was about 10 years old. But I also managed to go without writing for several years. Journaling included.

It was never my main outlet anyway. Music has always carried that weight.

Still, there was a time in my life when I thought I was going to be a writer. I was about 24, had foolishly dropped out of Physics to enroll in Literature, and a publisher had published one of my short stories.

I was really on a roll, but then I stopped.

Why? Simple: I stopped writing. I mean daily writing, even when I had nothing to say.

I swapped daily practice for inspiration. Meaning I let myself be fooled by those rare moments when I felt carried away by inspiration, convincing myself that those were what had led to the few results I'd achieved. "I write when I feel inspired", I'd tell myself. Forgetting that the short story which eventually got published had actually been written two years earlier, on a morning when I wasn't inspired at all but had simply forced myself to sit at my desk and write.

Here's the thing: writing, like any artistic practice, requires a lot of endurance and perseverance. And most of the time, it's boring. At least for me. It's much easier to skip the effort and just stop writing.

And that's exactly what I did for over 15 years.

But recently I've been thinking a lot about the benefits of writing. I don't think I need to list them. What I can say is that I'm convinced writing makes me feel better.

So for some time now, I've been back to almost-daily journaling. If nothing else, just to restart with something simple, without too many expectations. And I have to say, it's working.

I've therefore decided to put more energy into this blog. Writing posts and publishing them raises the bar a bit higher and gives me an online presence that doesn't depend on social media.

The problem is, I have so many passions and habits, and very little time for all of them. So I need to find a balance. Writing is good, keeping up a blog is fine, but I can't spend days on a single post like I did, for instance, with the article on Next.js. I just can't afford that if I want to keep feeding my other passions. At least not always.

I think the best solution is to write posts that are as spontaneous as possible. Better to cut down on friction as much as I can, even at the cost of a certain level of quality, and be able to finish a post in 15–60 minutes. That way, I can be more present, communicate more often, and experience the blog more lightly.

Spontaneity also has the added benefit of bringing a lot of honesty with it. A very rare thing these days.

That's it, I'm done. Time spent on this post? 20 minutes. Satisfaction and lightness? Maximum.