Writing

Several years ago, I either read or heard a story that Jeffrey Zeldman told. He was looking for a designer on short notice to step in and finish a project. The person he found had a blog and that was a key factor in Jeffrey hiring him. The point of the story was that everyone should write, it’s important.

I remember reading or hearing that and it stuck with me. I started a blog and started to write short pieces on things I was thinking about related to the web. At first I honestly didn’t have any idea if people were reading it. I finally did add analytics, so I knew at least a few people were going to my site, but I didn’t get preoccupied with that and just kept writing. I also realize that I can improve at this. My grammar isn’t great, it never has been, but when I write I am trying to convey some thoughts and hopefully I succeed at that.

I have had a couple of crazy weeks, which I’ll talk about more in another post, but one of the things that was brought home to me over these past few weeks is that Jeffrey was right. Writing is important. It is a way for people to get to know a bit about you, as well as a way for you to work out your own thoughts. In addition, it is a great way for an introvert like me to participate in my web community.

Jeffrey isn’t the only one who thinks this either based on a tweet from Chris Coyier yesterday. So go ahead and write things, share them. Writing has led to lots of good things for me; getting to know others in the webbish community, working through some tough topics in a more organized way, and just generally boosted my confidence in ways I never would have imagined.