Blog plan for 2021

Well yet another year has gone by, and another one is to begin, so it is time to make yet another blog plan type post. I started doing this each year starting in 2018, and maybe it is not such a bad idea to continue doing this at least once a year. In fact maybe I should even consider doing it on a monthly bases also, at the beginning or end of each month maybe. The reason why I think that is that is because one thing that one thing that needs to improve is to have a better plan to begin with, rather than putting in more time, or working hard. Also if I am all ready doing that then planning is the only thing that remains to improve anyway.

This year I am going to continue with writing new posts pretty often, however this might be the last year that I continue doing so. I just have this general idea in mind that as I start to get up to around a thousand posts or so I should start to focus more on the quality of just a single post a week or so rather than trying to write almost every day. I am starting to get to that point, but I do not think that I have to actually get there first in order to change things up a bit.

Some things will stay the same more or less this year then, but there are at least a few things that I would like to do differently this year. I have been at this sense 2017, so it should go without saying that I am interested in continuing this for the long term no matter what. I just think that I should change what that the long term means now and then for this site. There is writing just about every day, but then there is working one something for a week, a month, or even longer, and writing just one long content piece on something that something. I have been writing a lot of posts, but mainly on quick simple code examples, and simple projects that I put together in a few hours or a day or so. I am not sure going in the complete polar opposite direction of that is a good idea, I still want to put my eggs in a few baskets rather than just one still, but maybe going that way a little at least would be nice this year.

1 - Of course I will continue writing blog posts

As of this post I have written some 774 blog posts that adds up to well over half a million words. That might sound like a lot, and for one person I guess it might be, or at least I think so. However just a count of blog posts, total site word count, average word count per post, and so forth is just some factors of concern when it comes to writing a blog. What is far more important of course is what the actually nature of the content is, and if it brings any real value to the table.

This year I will of course continue writing, but I would like to start to change up some things when it comes to my strategy as to what to write about in the first place. In addition I think I should raise the bar this year a little more and not just when it comes to a target word count that I have in mind. So in this section I think I will outline what I will continue doing this year, as well as what I am going to do differently this year when it comes to this blog.

1.1 - Still write around 180+ posts a year

Thus far it would seem that I am writing about 180 posts a year give or take. This is because I still think that I should write about every day more or less. I do like the idea of pushing out just one post a week, or even per month, however I feel as though I still need to learn how to earn that right first. I am not sure what the best course of action is to get there, it seems like I think that I just need to write every day, and write a lot, to learn how to write not so often. On the surface that might sound like madness, but often there is a method behind what might seem to be madness.

1.2 - Focus more on the quality of the writing, not just meeting numbers with post and word count.

What exactly is good writing? That is indeed a good question? I have read one good book on the subject that I have enjoyed greatly that I think I might read again at some point, that book is “On Writing” By Stephen King. Of course Stephen King is a Novelist rather than a blogger, or course he writes fiction in the form of horror stories rather than blog posts on high level computer programing. Still I think much of what he wrote on the subject applies to writing in general.

1.3 - Edit older posts that need some attention

I do not intend to just write a post on something and move on. In fact I consider all of my post thus far, and any additional posts that I will be writing as works in progress. I never truly finish a post, everything might need a little revisement now and then. Still I need to take care as to how much time I invest into editing older posts, I do not want to let this eat up the whole of my day. It seems like that is something that has been happening now and then thus far.

2 - The canvas examples collection will continue to be the new long term project

Lots of developers end up with at least one long term project that they start working on, and then continue working on for months, years, even a heavy chunk of the whole of there life. This is often typically a game, or some kind of framework, however for me thus far it has been these blog posts actually. It is great to have at least something to keep working on a little each and every day, so that each day that goes by that something just keeps growing, and hopefully also improving.

However I would like to have at least one other long term project outside of just writing this content. I can only do so much as one person, but I still have enough time to add on at least one or two more projects like what I have done with these blog posts. However I think that it should be an actual code project, or collection of code projects. Last year I started such a project that I am just calling canvas examples, sorry I am not good at names.

Life is short and I should do whatever it is the I really want to do with programing. So on top of continuing this blog as I have for the past few years I also want to continue working on my canvas examples collection. In fact in time I think I will like to invest more time in that rather than this writing if it comes to that which I hope it does. Writing is great don’t get me wrong, but I grow tired of it standing in the way of me investing the time I would really like to invest working on actual projects.

2.1 - Improve the quality of older canvas examples

As of this writing I all ready have over 40 canvas examples in the collection, however many of them are in need of a fair amount of work in terms of the quality. So as I continue working on the canvas examples collection I think the focus should shift away from creating additional canvas examples, and towards improving the quality of the examples that I have all ready started. I think I should start at least a few more canvas example this year of course, just not at the rate that I did last year.

2.2 - Move at a much slower rate when it comes to new canvas examples

As of this writing I am working on a simple hyper casual style space shooter where I just move around and blast blocks. I started this one in December, and have been working on it a little almost every day for the month. I think I will continue working mainly on this one for at least a little while longer into the beginning of the new year at least, but I am not sure that I want to keep working on it long term over all the other examples. There are a few other canvas examples that I manage to put a fair about of time into thus far also, and I would like to get back to working on each of them.

I wanted to break the pattern of starting a project, working on it for a few hours, or at most a few days, and then move on to the next thing. I have broke that pattern with some of these canvas examples, witch is a good start, but just simply doing that alone is not enough I have found. This kind of typical pattern is just one habit to break, there are other bad habits that need to stop.

However maybe it is not just about stopping bad habits, but also just starting and continuing good ones. Such as just starting the habit of continuing to work on one or more canvas examples that I I find to be fun, or just simple a little addictive maybe. After all if I find one of my canvas examples boring, or I loose interest in playing after a few minutes, then of course that should end up being the case when other people play one for a while. So if that happens then of course it makes sense to play my own game, and if I find it boring take a moment to change something to make the game not so boring.

However it makes sense to not just add any feature that comes to mind, and it is also a good idea to try to not rush things. Creating and maintaining a project at a slow steady rate, making features solid, and only working on features that truly add values to the experience of playing the game.

3 - Will continue learning Python

I love canvas, there is so much about canvas related projects that is fun. However in life not everything is fun and games. Outside of the canvas examples collection there is of course continuing to work on this blog, which is an example of something that I do not really want to do. However I still do it anyway because I want to expand outward into other areas outside of game development, and pursue things that might not be all that fun, but might prove to be a more realistic path to take when it comes to getting a job, or making a little money on my own.

At the end of last year I started learning python, something that I have been meaning to start teaching myself, but finally got around to doing before the year was out. This year I think that I should continue learning python, and maybe start out or two additional projects with it. However regardless of what I might do with python in the long run, there is not thing that is certain, there will be more content on it to say the least in the form of additional blog posts.

So far I have a getting started post on python that is all ready in decent shape to begin with, and over the course of the year I think that I am only going to continue editing it as I learn more about the basics and beyond with python. In order to get a better idea of how I should go about editing it I am just going to need to write more about the basics of python. When doing so I will have a better idea of what should and should not go into a getting started post in python.

There is all ready a few posts on python in general, and I will of course keep working on that until I have a nice set of content on the basic of python itself.

3.2 - New Word Count standards with my python content

Because I am starting a new collection of content I have a chance to do everything a little different from the very beginning. When it comes to older content collections I have had not real minimum standards when it comes to the quality of the content. If I wanted to just write a few hundred words on something and move on I would. However this time around with python I would like to rise the bar a little to begin with. I am so far aiming for a minimum of one thousand words, and as i continue editing I think I would like to make each post close to at least some where in the ball pall park of eighteen hundred words.

However there is not just raw word count when it comes to blog post quality. I should also do a better job of proof reading the posts, and make sure that I truly am writing decent content on python. This means fact checking things that I might manage to get wrong, and also just taking a moment to think about how I am conveying things.

3.3 - Some python examples

After I get a good grasp on the basics of python there will then be the question of where it is that I go from there. So this year I think I should maybe work out a few python example projects in a similar way to that of my canvas examples collection. However maybe this time around I should focus more so on quality rather than quality right away rather than later. With python I am not just learning a new language, I have an opportunity to do lots of other things differently.

4 - Better planing, maybe on a monthly or even weekly basis

Last but not least I am going to want to try to do a better job of planing things out to begin with. This is something that has been bothering me for a long time. Writing a blog post such as this is a step in the right direction at least, but I think I should do more to draft out what I want to write about for each month, week, day, and maybe even down to the hour if I find that going that nuts actually makes sense.

4.1 - Work out a collection of draft folders for things I want to write about

One thing that has been driving me nuts is this situation in which each day I need to figure out what I am writing about for the day, do the research, work out some code examples, and then finally start to write the post for the day. This can get pretty taxing after a while, and any additional stuff that happens outside of this is just more stress. So it is a good idea to draft out what I want to write about in advanced, and also have draft folders for each thing I want to write about on a per post basis.

This is what I have been doing with my python content thus far, and I have to say that it has been helping me to reduce a great about of stress. Whenever I get some free time, I like to work on a canvas example, but not all the time. If I am not feeling like working on a canvas example, a nice break from that is to work on a draft folder with my python examples. At any moment I have around five to ten draft folders, and each of those folders contains some current standing code examples for a blog post on a certain python related topic. This way each day I can just pick a draft folder that is often all ready in good shape to begin with, maybe just add to it a little, and then write about that.

Conclusion

There is a lot that I aim to do in the next year, things have all ready been shifting a little in terms of where i should be placing my time and energy with this blog. I do now want to let this writing eat up to much of my time as I want to work on some actually code too, and not just quick simple code examples that I make purely for the sake of having something to write about for a blog post. The canvas example collection is a good start when it comes to having an actual project, but even with that my attention is divided. So there is much more work to do, nut just when it comes to doing actual work, but when it comes to planing things out better.