Writing is exercise for the mind

Deep down, I know that part of what has held me back from writing more is the feeling of shouting into the void. There is not a large reader base waiting for me to publish again, and so the pressure is less than in other areas of my life. However, throughout the course of this year, I have learned that writing is a helpful exercise for me and my mind. I do not need an audience. I am my audience. The act of processing my thoughts sufficiently to express them is healthy and productive, and requires no other validation to be worthwhile. Hopefully I can remember that.

Source: Just Write (Ben Norris)

Amen. I started writing a semi-daily journal while on vacation. It was therapeutic. I looked forward to the end of each day, or the start of each day, as a chance to jot down thoughts for nobody other than my future self.

There's no pressure to write 2000 words and optimize for search or worry about content discovery or audience profile fit. It's just writing for the sake of writing and, honestly? There's nothing wrong with that. Go back ten, fifteen years -- to the old-school blogging days of Livejournal and TypePad and Blogger -- and that's exactly what it was.

People wrote for the sake of writing. And it was good. The slice-of-life snapshots were stories. A hell of a lot more compelling, in many cases, than the here-and-gone visual scrapbook of Instagram or Snapchat.

That's why I like this platform (Standard Notes + Listed) so much. I don't feel pressure to do anything but write. I'm not overwhelmed by the infrastructure like I am in WordPress, but I'm still pushing words out to the Open Web through free (as in speech and beer) software.