I’ve been blogging with Drummer lately, and I found it pretty great in some ways. I like the outline structure of the writing and of the published content. I’ve always been an outline aficionado.
Even more, I like that it feels like I’m working on an ongoing project. With Drummer, my last days and weeks of posts are right there in front of me. I sit down to an existing, full document and add a couple of paragraphs. This is a very different feeling from every other blog I’ve tried to keep. In other systems, everything starts with a blank window. They all feel like starting a new project, several times a day, which is a much greater mental load.
Having my previous thoughts right in front of me makes it so much easier to come up with something to say, even if it’s just a response to something I said earlier. It makes me read my recent posts, confront my recent thoughts, and consider whether I still agree. One of the reasons I like writing to to shape my mushy thoughts into crisp ideas, and this way of writing encourages that process of refinement.
I like the outline, but it’s incidental. I could make an app that keeps a single-document feel. The edit field is at the top, and the last 30 posts are below that. It feels like I’m just adding a new paragraph to an ongoing document.