The Begining of IRLXD.com
Today is May 4th, 2021. One year ago the pandemic started and I made yet another attempt at blogging. It was sporadic at first and I didn’t even publish anything that I had written until well into fall. This was because I had tried a few blogs over the last few years and they all died out. I wanted to take time and find a regular rhythm before I started publishing.
Officially the blog’s first post was May 1st, 2020 but I know I wrote that post well before the pandemic. But I also had many days in the summer that I didn’t write. With experimentation I found I could keep the pace of writing every day and posting twice a week. That way I didn’t feel the pressure to write something good every day.
I hit this stride on August 31st and have written every day except for a couple missed days. I hated missing them but I don’t beat myself up for missing this streak. I just remember “Never Miss Two In A Row”. That kills. And I get back to writing.
I’ve written other posts on the blogs progress. You can find them here and here.
What Have I Learned From Blogging?
Maybe the main thing I’ve learned is that if I sit down I can always think of something to say. One of my main concerns starting out was that I would run out of topics in a few weeks. This is not even remotely true. I have a spreadsheet that has over 700 blog post ideas on it. I could not think a new one up and still have enough topics for seven years!
Writing has also helped me express myself better when I talk to people. There’s something about having to organize your thoughts and sentence structure that really makes you pay more attention to what you are saying. (What also is helping this is that I’ve been reading a book a week for the last year. Good writers help me speak better. I don’t know how this works but I’m pretty sure of it).
I’ve learned that even though no one reads the blog, it doesn’t lessen my interest in writing posts. That was surprising. The main use of this blog was that I can go to potential investors and partners and say: “Hey, look I think about IRL Experience Design a lot. I’m not just winging it. I research, reflect, and write on this subject a lot. And what’s more important, I make awesome stuff. Lots of it.”
I haven’t had to use the blog for that purpose yet, but it’s still been enjoyable to write and also to see the blog grow over time. I have 110,000+ words on this blog now. That’s over two novels worth of writing. I’m not saying it’s awesome, but great writing is not my goal. I just want to communicate that I’m serious about IRL Experience Design.