I have been busy with work lately. This has contributed to a slow stretch in terms of new New Leaf Journal articles. What better way to get back on track than by responding to an article prompt by Anthony Ciccarello, a software engineer who runs his own blog. I quote from his post:
I just got inspired to write some blog posts but I’m discouraged by the long list of previous ideas I haven’t written yet. Plus I usually end up distracted by ideas for improving my site. Anyone have tips on developing a writing habit?
Anthony Ciccarello
While I am loath to present myself as a leading expert in writing posts on the internet, I will note that The New Leaf Journal’s first article went live on April 27, 2020, and I published our 999th full article on May 24, 2024. This is the 1,125th New Leaf Journal full article and my own 1,079th, so I suppose I can call my own number on responding to Mr. Ciccarello’s prompt. Note that while this is a response post, some people who write online may find it broadly applicable.
I’m discouraged by the long list of previous ideas I haven’t written yet.
I have a long list of ideas that I have not written yet. As I am writing this, I also have a non-insignificant number of in-progress drafts, some of which originated in 2024. I can see how a long list of unfinished ideas can be daunting. I covered a related idea in Productivity Window Shopping and Backlogs where I noted how having a backlog of something such as books or games can perversely make someone more likely to engage in activities to grow the backlog rather than engaging with materials in the so-called backlog.
Maintaining a list of blog post ideas is a means to an end. What is the end? The only obvious well-ordered ends I can think of are publishing more blog posts or publishing higher quality blog posts (not necessarily mutually exclusive). If maintaining a list of blog posts does not lead to publishing more quality posts, the list would seem to be useless. If the list is actually interfering with publishing blog posts, it is counter-productive.
Let us consider the next part of his prompt:
I usually end up distracted by ideas for improving my site.
I have been there too. I will confess that I have spent time considering and testing ideas for The New Leaf Journal that were (A) never implemented and (B) would have never been noticed or used by visitors in any event. Here too, we should consider ends and means. In the case of a writing-focused website, the proper end should be presenting articles and blog posts in a way that is pleasant for people reading them. Work to improve the site should be done with the site’s guests and visitors in mind. I dare say the blog of Anthony Ciccarello does a good job of this as is. In considering additional ideas, one should consider whether they add value to guests and visitors. If one is over-flowing with web design ideas, it may be worth considering starting a separate website or project to demonstrate new ideas and concepts (that could even yield blog topics).
Finally let us answer the main question:
Anyone have tips on developing a writing habit?
It is a good idea to maintain a list of writing topics. However, that list is just a collection of ideas – not a task list. It may turn out to be the case that some of the ideas are not worth turning into full posts. For example, I save links for ideas on what to write about or respond to. My judgment when I save a link may differ from my judgment when I study it later with an eye toward developing an idea into an article.
Next, when considering a list of blog topics, it is important to remember that every moment spent fretting over the list is a moment that could be spent turning one of the ideas on the list into a post. A list of ideas is not a task list. The proper end is producing interesting articles and blog posts, not checking off every item on the list in a specific order. If the list contains 30 ideas and 10 of them are something that one could prepare and post in short order without too much additional legwork, just pick one andget on with it. The other ideas are not going to run away. There is one exception – time sensitive ideas. For example, last year I was committed to publishing a research article on Halloween in Japan before Halloween 2024. While I could have published that article at any time, I decided for a number of reasons that I wanted to publish it within a limited time frame. Thus, I singled out that arduous project (it was a pain to cobble together) as a priority, and I did successfully publish it two weeks before Halloween. It may be worth taking a cursory look through a list of ideas to see if any specific ideas should be prioritized for one objective reason or another, which is a way to narrow things down before drawing from a hat.
Speaking of priorities, that an idea has been on a to-do list for longer than a new idea does not necessarily make the older idea a priority. For example, the article I am responding to was published on February 24, 2025. I have many unpublished article ideas that I have been thinking about and even working on long before February 24, 2025. But I saw this post about suggestions for writing new posts and decided that I had something to say in response. Thus, I wrote it without leaving it to ripen on my to-do list.
Finally, I took a look at Mr. Ciccarello’s blog. Like me, he does not limit himself to a single topic. I see photo posts, posts about his tech projects, recipe posts, articles about birding and other nature posts, and more. With so many interests, there should always be something to write about without drowning in having too many ideas. For example, long-time New Leaf Journal readers will know that I publish a good number of photo posts from my walks around Brooklyn despite the fact that they seldom rank among our most-visited articles. I will confess that I have sometimes done this as a way to post something new on the rare occasion when I am pressed for ideas or on the more common occasion that I am too tired, busy, or simply not in the mood to sit down and work on a longer piece. These types of posts are great for developing a writing habit. If one decides to publish at least 3 posts each week, photo posts and small anecdotes are a nice way to fill the gap while whittling down a list of more substantive ideas.
Finally, a great way to come up with new posts is to engage with your prior posts. For example, were I writing about how I come up with my own list of article topic ideas, I would point readers to my article on combining a feed reader with a read-it-later solution for reading articles from around the web. Mr. Castarello’s blog goes back to 2014. On July 5, 2015, he published an interesting post called Why Write?, wherein he discussed why he chose to start the blog. This would seem to be a fun post to re-visit and engage with nearly 10 years later after looking for ideas on cultivating a consistent writing habit. Aside: For anyone reading this who is thinking about starting a blog or a writing website, it would be wise to answer the why write? question as a threshold matter.
