Writers Just Need to Write

Writers just need to write whether that’s online, in a notebook, or on the back of a napkin.

The details on how are less important.

We simply need to figure out what it is that works for us and do that. And not get caught up too much in analyzing the best way to go about it.

The Struggle is Real #

I struggled for a long time to figure out just how I wanted to “organize” my online writing. Most of the advice and direction I received was somewhere along the lines of, “you should niche down.” This meant that I should have a separate cybersecurity blog, a separate health blog, a separate creative writing blog, and so on.

This was frustrating because what if I want to go on a 2 month binge of Typescript/Golang topics only to abruptly stop and become a photographer for the next two months? And what if I typically draw connections between seemingly unrelated topics like how kubernetes (and most of tech for that matter) can be better understood by applying long ranging biological metaphors? Or how drifting is so similar to boxing? I think I’m getting to my point.

As I sat in some tucked away hostel in the mountains of Fukushima a few months ago, I realized that for the longest time the only thing I actually wanted to be was a writer and that writers just need to write. It was as simple as that! I sat there with an empty journal frustrated with myself that it wasn’t filled yet and I wasn’t filling it because I was not writing.

I came to the conclusion that I simply didn’t care to niche down and be that organized for whoever the audience of this will become. I just needed, wanted to write. So I decided that I’ll just write for Troy and whosoever also stumbles upon this. So be it.

Apart from the whole online writing bit, I have been sucking at the whole writing thing in general. Last year in 2024, I started feeling like I couldn’t even cohesively and accurately put together ideas as I used to be able to. And I think a big reason for that was the lack of personal writing and journaling. Even now, as I try to get this out, I am fighting internally with how inefficient and lack luster it all is. The cure however is only one thing. I simply need to write more.

Hugo, Ghost, and Medium #

Hugo & Static Site Generators #

Static site generators are great because you can get your content online, out there, and fast for pretty much free. There is no database or infrastructure to manage you simply send your html, css, and javascript to a host like Github Pages, Azure Static Web Apps, Netlify, or Cloudflare pages and you’re done. If you don’t need any extra features like sending e-mails or maintaining some sort of user database it’s the best thing. If you regularly already write in markdown then it’s even better. I’ve used Gatsby, Hugo, and Jeckyll in the past.

This website is built with a static site generator called Hugo that was written in Golang which works great for lots of content and long form ideas but it gets kind of annoying when you just want to write and add pictures sometimes. And yes I could probably figure out some way or workflow to drop my files in a folder and then use some sort of gallery extension and then customize it so it worked for me but dear lord sometimes I don’t want to go running down the side quest rabbit hole of building something just to post things. Many such cases.

There are times where seeing the inside of an IDE is exciting but there are also times where I’m traveling and I just want a medium to get those photos and thoughts out and not get too caught up in the technicals.

Ghost(Pro) vs Ghost Self-Hosting vs Wordpress #

For that very reason, I have idleTROY, my other blog. It’s built on Ghost which is an entire CMS set up that abstracts away all the infrastructure and code for me and Ghost.org takes care of all the annoying hosting stuff for me.

I did once (actually several times) run my own Ghost installation on Digital Ocean. This was a cheap option for like $6/month at the time but as your blogging set up actually grows it actually makes really great sense to just have Ghost.org manage it for you. Otherwise, I’d have to go set up a host of other things that would probably end up costing me more time and money. But who knows maybe I’ll self-host it again in the future. You do learn quite a lot from self-hosting things.

There is also Wordpress. Apparently they still power a lot of the internet and I made some decent side income setting up Wordpress websites back in college but I think Wordpress is just too bloated for my use cases. I’ve also fallen too far down the rabbit hole of wordpress vulnerabilities as a hacker to want to go there. Also PHP…EWW! (says the guy that was introduced to coding by customizing php forums at 9 years old)

Medium & Social Journalism/Online Publishing Platforms #

Medium as a platform is also pretty cool. I only wish they offered native markdown support. It’s good if you’re pressed to get your articles discovered by the ecosystem or the average joe. Most people in the tech industry seem to like medium as a writing and reading platform. When I was doing a lot of boxes in preparation for the OSCP I started a series on medium. I still would now prefer to host all my own content but every now and then I post stuff over there. Maybe I’ll do a new series in the future.

Traveler’s Journal, Paper Republic, and Leuchtturm1917 #

Actual paper is different and I still love it despite my attempts to “save trees” by using e-ink gadgets like the Supernote.

I’ve been getting in the habit of taking a journal wherever I go again. It’s something I did a lot when I was younger. It’s also a great habit replacement for scrolling on social media.

But I will not do paper planners. What if I miss a day? What if I miss a week? If I miss a day I will literally become depressed and anxious. For now we are working on the habit of just writing again. Those extensive planners are a little too much for me. [But this could also be a personality thing I need to work on.]

I find I’m able to do my best writing in the cheapest and ugliest journals very easily. If it gets a little too pretty there is a friction associated because I don’t want to mess it up. For this reason, I have some nicer journals that I’ve been working on regularly writing in but also some super cheapos from Amazon.

I’m not really happy with this first blog post in a while and I’ll probably edit it but again, I need to get back to the point of this all– writer’s need to write.