This is actually my third attempt to start a blog. My first idea, years ago, was one dedicated to boardgame design call ‘The Boardgame Cabinet’. I had a great idea for a web design based on that premise, and played around with some obscure blogging software and hosting services to run it. Alas my web design skills were not up to the challenge and the project died on the literal drawing board. (I still have my notes for planned posts so it might revive in some form). Strike one.
My second attempt at the start of 2015 was a sort of New Year’s resolution. My ambition then was for a person blog, with completely separate themes for major parts of my life (professional, personal, gaming etc). The main page would be clean and profession focused and my personal stuff would be in sub sections with individual themes. This time I got the initial site up and running! With a domain and host space and everything. I set up Wordpress and got the basics going. I ported over some blogs based on completed projects I had done, so it even had content! But I never really got the design working the way I wanted and with no driving reason to actually blog, the site lay fallow till I killed it when the domain expired a year later. Strike two.
So that leaves me here. For years I have wanted to put my thoughts and ideas on paper and publish them to the world. When I tried I often spent too long working on the site itself and not the actual content, and even when I got something up a lack of real focus distracted me from working on anything.
I have learned some lessons from my previous attempts that will hopefully help this attempt. In terms of content I want to find a balance between too narrow (just Boardgame design and too broad (everything about me). I want to keep the platform of the site and its design secondary. Finally I need a key driver to produce content so that I can actually get the ball rolling and not feel too high a hurdle every time I start writing.
So here we are, third time’s the charm, hopefully I’ll make a better run of it this time.