Feel free. (This also applies to everyone else who is considering posting their blogging marathon history.)
coming up with post ideas was a slog when I was constrained by only 24 hours for research and multiple drafts
Yeah, 24 hours for research and writing are a harsh limit. I don’t have a problem coming up on the spot with 30 topics I would like to write about, but each of them seems to require more than a day.
simple manuals for software for children, something I hope could one day be used at computer science lessons: graphic editors, music editors, video editors, introductions to programming—with one article per software, and using the recommendations from AlternativeTo, this is at least dozen articles; but I would have to install the software first, get familiar with it, and maybe decide against promoting this specific software, so I would have to install and learn more than one program a day
following my existing “how to make computer games in Java” tutorials: a snake game (interactive animated), a shooting game (collisions, particles), a platform jumping game (platforms, various simple algorithms for enemies), a tower defense game (local menu: buying, upgrading), an RPG game (maps, dialogs, scripted events) -- but this would take a lot of time; I want to always include a demo
math lessons for elementary and middle school students—maybe five or ten topics, the math is not a problem, but I would have to think about the right way to explain it, and good exercises to use
introducing the Czech tradition of constructivist math education (“the Hejný method”) to English-speaking audience, because the current texts written in English on this topic are too abstract and fail to explain how it really works, so I would show specific lessons and explain why they are like that
some crazy nerdy topics: my attempt to reverse engineer the Vlak (train) DOS game; a 100% walkthrough of Eye of the Beholder with maps and all puzzles explained
Trying to do any of this in one day (especially with a penalty for failure to meet the deadline) would feel like an unbearable compromise on quality. I understand that in some sense this is intentional—the purpose of the blogging marathon is not to write highest possible quality; it is specifically to produce quantity. Because if you have the internal drive for quality, this exercise can help you overcome some mental blocks, and then you will find your own way which includes both high quality and a greater quantity than you had before.
Perhaps a smart approach would be to make a new pseudonymous blog for the purpose of the marathon, write the low-quality articles there, and when the marathon is over, rewrite them to the desired quality on your official blog. Threat the marathon content as a prototype that you will later throw away.
I think both those CS software manuals and tutorials would be an incredible and helpful resource if you were able to find the time.
Trying to do any of this in one day (especially with a penalty for failure to meet the deadline) would feel like an unbearable compromise on quality. I understand that in some sense this is intentional—the purpose of the blogging marathon is not to write highest possible quality; it is specifically to produce quantity. Because if you have the internal drive for quality, this exercise can help you overcome some mental blocks, and then you will find your own way which includes both high quality and a greater quantity than you had before.
I suppose I had a different intention with this exercise. My problem wasn’t quantity—I can vomit out words easily and never understood the fear of the blank page. I was hoping, that through brute force writing for the public, I could somehow become a “better writer”.
Perhaps what I really need is a “edit-haven” 30 days of editing, redrafting, critiquing and analysis of my own and other writing with the intent of learning how to better edit myself?
Different courses for different horses, strokes for folks, as they say
I guess they do get some lessons at Inkhaven—and if any of them is reading this: describing those lessons for the rest of us would be a simple way to meet your daily quota. ;)
I am not an expert, but if I tried to give some advice, I would try this:
1) Train your inner LLM. Choose a blogger you want to emulate. Read three of their articles. Then try to write something in the same style. Don’t worry about the content, even if it is factually incorrect or whatever; it just has to look right. Compare the texts, notice the differences, try again. You could use an AI to point out the differences in style.
2) Think about different genres of writing, such as an essay, a manual, a poem, a political call; and try to write each of them. Again, an AI can generate the list for you.
3) Generally, you can ask AI to give you critique. It probably helps if it doesn’t know that the texts are yours. You do not have to follow the advice if you disagree.
Feel free. (This also applies to everyone else who is considering posting their blogging marathon history.)
Yeah, 24 hours for research and writing are a harsh limit. I don’t have a problem coming up on the spot with 30 topics I would like to write about, but each of them seems to require more than a day.
simple manuals for software for children, something I hope could one day be used at computer science lessons: graphic editors, music editors, video editors, introductions to programming—with one article per software, and using the recommendations from AlternativeTo, this is at least dozen articles; but I would have to install the software first, get familiar with it, and maybe decide against promoting this specific software, so I would have to install and learn more than one program a day
following my existing “how to make computer games in Java” tutorials: a snake game (interactive animated), a shooting game (collisions, particles), a platform jumping game (platforms, various simple algorithms for enemies), a tower defense game (local menu: buying, upgrading), an RPG game (maps, dialogs, scripted events) -- but this would take a lot of time; I want to always include a demo
math lessons for elementary and middle school students—maybe five or ten topics, the math is not a problem, but I would have to think about the right way to explain it, and good exercises to use
introducing the Czech tradition of constructivist math education (“the Hejný method”) to English-speaking audience, because the current texts written in English on this topic are too abstract and fail to explain how it really works, so I would show specific lessons and explain why they are like that
some crazy nerdy topics: my attempt to reverse engineer the Vlak (train) DOS game; a 100% walkthrough of Eye of the Beholder with maps and all puzzles explained
Trying to do any of this in one day (especially with a penalty for failure to meet the deadline) would feel like an unbearable compromise on quality. I understand that in some sense this is intentional—the purpose of the blogging marathon is not to write highest possible quality; it is specifically to produce quantity. Because if you have the internal drive for quality, this exercise can help you overcome some mental blocks, and then you will find your own way which includes both high quality and a greater quantity than you had before.
Perhaps a smart approach would be to make a new pseudonymous blog for the purpose of the marathon, write the low-quality articles there, and when the marathon is over, rewrite them to the desired quality on your official blog. Threat the marathon content as a prototype that you will later throw away.
I think both those CS software manuals and tutorials would be an incredible and helpful resource if you were able to find the time.
I suppose I had a different intention with this exercise. My problem wasn’t quantity—I can vomit out words easily and never understood the fear of the blank page. I was hoping, that through brute force writing for the public, I could somehow become a “better writer”.
Perhaps what I really need is a “edit-haven” 30 days of editing, redrafting, critiquing and analysis of my own and other writing with the intent of learning how to better edit myself?
Different courses for different horses, strokes for folks, as they say
I guess they do get some lessons at Inkhaven—and if any of them is reading this: describing those lessons for the rest of us would be a simple way to meet your daily quota. ;)
I am not an expert, but if I tried to give some advice, I would try this:
1) Train your inner LLM. Choose a blogger you want to emulate. Read three of their articles. Then try to write something in the same style. Don’t worry about the content, even if it is factually incorrect or whatever; it just has to look right. Compare the texts, notice the differences, try again. You could use an AI to point out the differences in style.
2) Think about different genres of writing, such as an essay, a manual, a poem, a political call; and try to write each of them. Again, an AI can generate the list for you.
3) Generally, you can ask AI to give you critique. It probably helps if it doesn’t know that the texts are yours. You do not have to follow the advice if you disagree.