A nearly-daily writing cadence built around joy and consistency, not optimization.

Sources:

• Backlog — ideas accumulated over years, mulled over, eventually poured out when ready
• Moment-triggered — something encountered sparks an immediate essay
• Work-derived — a few hours deep in something technical reveals a post worth writing
• Blank page — no thesis, stream-of-consciousness, results in more esoteric/philosophical work

Pre-writing ritual: Don't write immediately after an idea arrives. Go for a walk or shower. Distraction-free time solidifies specific points before sitting down to write.

Primary tool: 750words.com — private daily freewriting, 750 words in ~20 minutes. Writing streak maintained since January 2025; public blogging frequency followed ~9 months later.

Go as fast as possible. Don't slow down for research.

TK shorthand — from journalism, means “to come.” Placeholder for anything that needs to be filled in during editing:

[TK look up specific stats on link rot]
[TK add image or link properly]
[TK verify this claim]

This keeps writing momentum without stopping for research. Fill in during editing.

Reach 750 words → that's “enough” for a post. Sometimes the post requires more.

Copy-paste from 750words → Sublime Text 4. Drop into src/posts/ with Jekyll-style filename:

2026-03-02-my-blogging-workflow.md

• Fill in all TK placeholders with research and links
• Use inline links for citations (not MLA/APA/Chicago — those aren't web-friendly)
• Sublime Text built-in spellcheck, but typos still slip through to production

Standard frontmatter for each post:

title: "How are we preparing for the Long Web?"
date: 2026-03-01T00:00:00-07:00
tags: ["IndieWeb", "Digital Preservation", "Web Development"]
summary: "What will the Internet look like in 2036?"
description: "What will the Internet look like in 2036?"
featured_image: /assets/images/blog/time-capsule.jpg
featured_image_alt: "Descriptive alt text for the image"
featured_image_caption: "Caption with attribution | [Source](url)"

Notes:

• date must include timezone offset (e.g. -07:00) — otherwise Eleventy renders an off-by-one date
• summary and description are identical: one for the site homepage, one for social sharing metadata
• featured_image_alt — always written for accessibility

Images are saved locally (no hotlinking). Sources:

• Wikimedia Commons — primary
• RawPixel Public Domain
• Flickr — Creative Commons licensed
• Edits made in GIMP

In-post images use raw HTML <figure> elements:

<figure>
  <img src="/assets/images/blog/example.jpg" 
       alt="Detailed alt text description">
  <figcaption>Caption | <a href="url">Source</a></figcaption>
</figure>

Push new Markdown file + images to GitLab repo → Netlify auto-deploys on commit. No manual deploy step.

The honest assessment: most of the cross-platform syndication isn't functionally meaningful. EchoFeed + Mastodon is the only fully automated, zero-friction path. The rest is manual overhead worth automating or dropping.

See also Community — Mastodon, Echofeed, RSS and Syncing status.lol to twtxt for the POSSE approach.

Choose joy. Do things the way they work for you.

This is not a guide — you can never replicate somebody's output by replicating their input. The workflow reflects a specific person. Consider it a behind-the-scenes.

The only sustainable writing habit is one that's actually enjoyable.

• IndieWeb Index

• Blogging Platforms
• Community — Mastodon, Echofeed, RSS
• IndieWeb Principles — POSSE
• Creative Commons Licensing (image sourcing)
• Return to wiki home