This is probably some of the most generally applicable advice I've seen on how to write blog posts in the course of time I've been writing and reading. I can resonate a lot with what your friend Nate said over the course of my "writing career" if you can call it that. So, well done.<p>For me, I'm a written communicator at heart, so looking at a comment box or a journal and willing a series of letters to form words that represent what I would like to articulate isn't an activity that's <i>generally</i> hard for me. But there's something about the mental block of preparing something for publication on a blog that changes the game in my head. Perhaps it's the effect my college English professor had on me, but blogging feels like I'm preparing to submit a paper to him for grading, which is good. They taught me how to evaluate my own work critically and how to assimilate and process feedback. When I'm in that mode, I do that.<p>But something they <i>didn't</i> do was ever give me a 100 on a paper. The point of this was simple: <i></i>no draft is perfect, not even the final draft<i></i>. And the important thing that I walked away with is that imperfection is ok.<p>If I could expound on what Nate said in the blog post, I'd emphasize the lesson I summarized above on imperfection. All too often, I catch myself measuring myself against other writers. Then when I'm reading drafts of something I'm preparing, it's too easy for me to get into the snare of saying "this isn't as good as so-and-so's post, so I shouldn't publish it." And I have to beat myself over the head and remind myself that imperfection is ok.<p>Imperfect writings have started and ended wars, communicated heartfelt feelings from one lover to another, and sometimes brought about common understanding where there was none. And in all likelihood, whoever "so-and-so" is at any given time, if they're a writer worth their body weight they probably thought their blog post was imperfect in some way too.<p>Anyway, that's just my 2 cents on what could have been added. Great blog post! :)
Judging by how I just read that post, the way to write a good blog post is to embolden the first sentence of each paragraph. That way, it is easy to skim and get the general idea in 5 seconds.