This is Me Trying

a little behind the scenes on the set of The Weasel Speaks

It’s Sunday evening, and I’m just starting on my weekly blog post. Except for my Wonderland hiatus, I’ve managed to write every week this year - and I’m planning on keeping the streak going. A few folks have asked where my topics come from, and how I approach writing, so that’s what I’m going to share this week.

Just Start (Then Stop?)

I wish I had a great story of how I have a roulette wheel filled with topic ideas, and I spin it looking for inspiration. The truth is that sometime during the weekend - (usually) Saturday morning, I open substack.com, and start writing about whatever is on my mind. The topics may come from work, a book I’ve read recently, a linked in post, or whatever. My goal ever since my very first blog post ever was to just get better at writing. I know from eight million other things in life that the best way to get better at something is to practice.

So here we are.

But sometimes I stop. This weekend for example, I started a post, but wrote a few paragraphs and decided that I didn’t like it. It doesn’t mean the topic is bad - but it probably means that I haven’t developed enough of an opinion to be able to write about it in a way that (I think) will make sense. When this happens, I leave the post around and revisit. My post from two weeks ago sat in this backlog for a few months before bubbling back up to the top. I don’t have a large backlog, but I always have two or three posts sitting around waiting for me to figure out how to make them make sense.

Just Go

And then there’s the writing process. I’m a complete hack. When I wrote HWTSAM, or articles, or chapters I contributed to books (i.e. this stuff) I had the privilege of sending what I wrote to an editor, who fixed stuff, asked questions, and asked me to expand, re-explain, or give examples in order to make my writing better.

For some articles, I self-edited. So, I’d write, re-read, edit, write, re-read, edit…until it was “done”.

For this blog, I write…and then hit publish. It is what it is.

One challenge here that nobody has busted me on (so far) is that sometimes I write a post…and then realize that I’ve already written a similar post before. I don’t have a catalog, and I have a crappy memory. I’m like the old man who keeps repeating the same stories over again, and hoping people don’t care (or don’t notice).

The Obvious Parallel

Someone - probably a software tester who reads my blog only to see what heresy I may say about the future of testing is going to read the previous section and tell me that the editing effort improves quality. It does, and it doesn’t.

If quality is value and you as a reader get no value from reading this, then yes, the quality of this posting is poor. But if you’ve read this far, I’d argue that you’ve found value. This is Schroedinger’s blog. Before you read this post, quality both existed and didn’t exist in this writing.

Or maybe it’s late and I need a drink.

Practice Makes Perfect Better

For just the second time, I’m going to take part in NaNoWriMo. I only made it ten days last time before life got in the way, but I’m going to attempt to write 1500-2000 words every day in November. There’s a close to zero per-cent chance that I’ll ever think of publishing what I write, but I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do - and more importantly, what I learn. I’m never going to make a living as a writer, but writing well is a valuable skill, and I hope someday I can get good at it.

That’s it for this time - looking forward to seeing what I come up with next weekend.