I have not written with any regularity in several years. It doesn’t matter how long exactly, because once I get out of a groove it might as well be one thousand years. It takes an incredible amount of willpower and exertion to get back into a habit. I’ve written things on-and-off, of course, but nothing to completion. And I’m miss that.

I have an idea for a web services oriented toward creative types (initially writers). I hope to make it easy for people to take an idea, flesh it out, receive feedback from others, and take that idea to completion. This is something I’ve wanted to use so I can write and share with my friends. In addition, I’m trying to learn Ruby on Rails, so this seems like a perfect project to tackle. To be sure I design and build something useful, I need to be a writer and user of the product. I’m hoping others will find it useful as well.

My goals aren’t grandiose. I simply wish to chronicle my thoughts and learn more about them. How often have I half-thought some idea but not solidified it in my mind? There mere act of putting my thoughts into words has a profound effect on teaching me what I actually think.

The format I envision is small pieces, articles, blogs - whatever name will work. Bits of information about what I’m thinking or what I have discovered so far in my life. None of this will be any more than my opinion. My thoughts in many areas have changed significantly over the last several years, and I don’t expect that trend to change. It’d be silly to think my mind will solidify now. This means I expect things written in the future may not agree with what I wrote in the past. That is fine with me. Life is an experience and I hope to grow and work new information into my mind as I encounter it.

I’d like to write small bits that can be references and linked to one another. I don’t see this being a single tome. Short pieces will help my focus stay tight. If I wish to explore branching or interleaving ideas, I will, but in a different piece.

This will also help me write more, improve my writing abilities, evolve my thoughts over time. Eventually, I’d like to have all this hosted on the web service I’m trying to build. I’d love to use it to receive feedback on what I write.

I’m writing to scratch an itch. Maybe someone else will find it useful as well.