What comes after 'coming soon'?

So, I've gone and set up a blog because I fancied the idea of writing things. But then I hit my first case of writer's block : what was it that I would blog about? Not having an immediate answer to the question (and, if I'm honest, seeking a way to procrastinate about having to find an answer) I decided to blog about the writer's block instead. So that's what this is. The ultimate meta post, a post about not having anything to post.

Writing isn't easy. It seems like it should be, but it isn't. Most people find it relatively straightforward to talk, even if only to themselves. Surely writing is just the same except you type instead of talk? No, not if you want other people to read it, anyway.

For starters, when we talk we tend to use the first words that come to mind. They're not always the best words. They're not always in the best order and often times we repeat ourselves or go off on tangents that barely make their way back to the original topic. If you've ever tried to read the transcript of a Teams meeting you'll know how difficult it can be to follow what the speaker is trying to convey. Reading a transcript of your own speech is also a great way to make yourself paranoid about how many "erm"s, "ah"s, "like"s and so forth you drop into your speech.

So writing needs structure. It needs a beginning, a middle and an end. It needs to flow from one thought to another and it needs to do so using the words that are best suited to the topic, the audience and the writer's own style. Which comes back to what I wrote above : what topics will I blog about and who on Earth would want to read it?

Most of the blogs I read are geeky ones. Their authors write about the latest obscure 1980s computer they've discovered gathering dust, or about some development in artificial intelligence that enables a barnful of servers to burn through even more power, water and other people's IP. What they have in common is that the author has some piece of expertise which they are sharing with their readers.

The problem I have with writing a geeky blog is that I don't feel I have enough expertise on any particular subject. Sure, I could bore the hind legs off a donkey by telling it all about software development or IT security but there are a million other people out there who know more on those subjects than me and they've already written the blog posts to prove it.

But I suppose you don't necessarily need to know something special or novel if you have a unique take on it or can present it in a new light. One thing I've always been good at is explaining technical concepts in simple terms through similes and metaphors. So I guess you can look forward to articles with titles like "How ChatGPT is like a big Choose Your Own Adventure book"

The other kind of articles I read are the opinion pieces. Generally these are about UK or US politics and usually discursive, polemic or satirical. Again, I'm not an expert on politics or current political issues. And again, that's not going to stop me going on about it at length. Satire in particular is a wonderful tool for poking fun at the absurdities of politicians. With the current inhabitant of The White House and the plethora of foreign leaders who have suddenly U-turned to fawn over him, there should be no shortage of absurdities.

So, if you've stuck with me long enough to reach this final paragraph, you might have understood that this is going to be a blog that covers computers, politics and some other random stuff that comes into my head from time to time. I'll try to keep it simple, satirical and entertaining (I wanted to say "scintillating" to get the alliteration but couldn't bring myself to commit fully). If this sounds like something that you wouldn't mind cluttering up your inbox, please sign up below. You can always unsubscribe at any time if it all gets too much.