I’ve been following Eric Davis for a long time — ever since I started hacking on Redmine in 2009.  As it’s maintainer, he was extremely helpful to a newbie like me.  Recently I’ve started reading his blog and newsletter about freelancing.  A recent post of his,  “Write Every Day” struck a nerve.   And a comment from Nathan Barry that he linked to hurt even worse “slow, consistent progress is the only way to make big things happen.”

It’s something I’ve been intending to do — and procrastinating for years.  I’m not going to set a goal of 1000 words a day.  And I’m not going to publish a blog post every day.  But I am going to write every day for a half hour or so.  I’m also going to take the time, as Eric suggests, to edit every day.  That will hopefully allow me to make progress on a book about testing tools & automation in the cloud.  If I know I’m going to go back and edit, I won’t be as worried about writing garbage — or something that’s wrong, stupid, or cheesy.  It may even improve the quality of blog posts (no guarantees on today’s content.)

Besides writing a book, my goal will be to publish a monthly newsletter.  With at least 1 article about something technical, 1 commentary about a process or business objective, some personal news (including potentially a hurrah for a client), and a few interesting links.  I think of Mike Gunderloy’s blog A Fresh Cup or A Smattering of Selenium by Adam Goucher.

Will anyone read (or subscribe to) my newsletter?  I wouldn’t count on it, not at first.  But it might help me become a better writer, and even more importantly, it might help me be more focused.