Like many people with barely-updated blogs, I want to blog more often. I’m not much of a writer but that can only change with practice, right? Plus, I’m a big believer in community and the sharing of knowledge, and I wanted to contribute to that more. But where would I find the writing discipline?
I’ve also been a fan of personal writing challenges for some time. For example, I’ve participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) for many years, where the goal is to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days (in November). The concrete and public goal, combined with the camaraderie of the others involved, makes for a fun creative exercise and certainly helps with motivation.
When I heard about #iDevBlogADay on Twitter, I had to know more about it. It apparently all started when independent iPhone developer @MysteryCoconut wanted the impetus to blog more often, a sentiment that I can definitely relate to myself. What began as an offhand tweet has ballooned into what could become a bonafide movement.
Here’s how it works: Each day of the week is assigned to two indie iOS developers. They must post a blog post on their assigned day. If they miss a day, they’re out and sent to the end of the current waiting list. The next blogger in the waiting list now takes that person’s place.
What’s cool about this is that this kind of motivation helps everyone. The explosion of shared knowledge and inspiration pouring forth from these blogs has been pretty awesome.
It’s now my turn to take a spot on the Sunday roster. I have to admit I’m intimidated, as the quality of the blog posts has been high! I can only hope I can live up to the standards that have been set. (And I apologize for the “fluffy” nature of this postโI had a “crunchier” blog idea that I had apparently been sitting on for far too long, since it was rendered obsolete by recent versions of the iPhone OS. That’ll teach me!)
Hats off to MysteryCoconut for starting a fun “game” that helps and fosters the entire iDevelopment community :)