Hello World

I don’t know about you, but one of my guilty pleasures is finding and reading the first blog post on people’s websites. It’s something that started out as research - I wanted to publish my own blog, but got stuck on writing that dreaded first entry. What do you write about when there’s no other content? What’s the perfect way to start? What’s the winning formula to capture readers from the very beginning?

The result of my extensive research is this: some people write first blog posts that are bad, the rest write first blog posts that are terrible. And that’s only to be expected, right? The more you work on a skill, the better you get at it. But knowing that doesn’t really make it any easier.

There’s an exercise that folks in the arts use to overcome the dreaded blank page syndrome - the art block one might experience when starting a new sketchbook. I’m not sure if this exercise has an official name, but it generally involves making some random marks on the first page, turning it over, and taking comfort in the thought that the worst drawing in that new sketchbook has already been made, and anything that follows will be better.

This is my version of first page scribbles. If you’re here looking for inspiration to create your own first post, join me in getting the worst out of the way fast, and just start writing.