On drafting and messy writing

Published on October 12, 2024

I hacked together a drafting feature/workflow for my blog and it's made me write (and want to write) more. I'm surprised by this, but to expand on this idea, it could be that this has freed me to write whatever comes to mind without worrying too much about whether I'll publish it or not.

It's a draft, it's there, it's incomplete, it's whatever. I might work on it. I might not. It's an idea. I could come back to it at anytime or just keep it there on the off chance that someday the idea could be useful in some other, possibly irrelevant context.

I know drafting is obvious for a lot of people, but I've always had a fear that has handicapped my writing for so long. It's a fear of writing inadequately. It's actually this style of writing that has lifted the weight of being perfect all the time off my shoulders. Writing all messy, and on purpose, is wonderful and I have Oliver Burkeman to thank for it.