Where to start writing
Published: 2020-05-20 14:57:42

After many attempts to start writing and blogging, and always getting distracted by the many choices out there, I'll try a new approach. I want to get out of my head and my personal bubble and just start here, at dev.to.

## Personal Site or Third Party

Every time I have started in the past, I have always gravitated toward [Hugo](https://gohugo.io/), a static site generator. Though I must admit that the only reason has been the technical side of it. The fact that it's written in [Go](https://golang.org/), it's super-fast, open-source, with many free themes to choose from, and I can set it up to automatically build and deploy for free to [Firebase](https://firebase.google.com/).

The problem with that is you start with the idea of what you want to write, and that's the only thing you had control of. But then, unless you're already very experienced in Hugo, or whatever static site generator you ended up choosing, all the power you had, starts going out the window.

## Vicious cycle of getting nothing done

- **New idea:** I need to start writing my thoughts, let my voice be heard and hopefully help others along the way
- **Tool selection:** Oh, but there are so many choices out there, I need to read some posts and watch some YouTube videos so I can make the right decision

... 2-10 hours later

- **Hugo for the win!:** Wait, I have to install Hugo. Also, I need to learn how Hugo works, select the most beautiful theme out there, and on and on.
- **Let's get fancy:** I love CI/CD, I don't want to go to any UI to submit my content, I want [GitHub](https://github.com/) to do it for me, and now they have this new [Actions](https://github.com/features/actions) feature I wanted to try

... many hours later

- **Calendar notification:** It's time to get ready to work

... idea dropped until the next cycle begins where you have to start all over again.

## Choices distraction

There are countless choices out there. And for each one of them, you can find pros and cons. But that will only distract you from the real goal, which is jotting down your thoughts and sending them to the world, or most likely, to **the future you**.

Many decisions will come to your mind, like the ones mentioned above, and each one of them will take you further and further from the real reason you decided to start your first post.

## Just start, now! Things will fall into place

So this time I'm doing things differently. I've been using dev.to for a while now to consume content. There are many people out there already making things happen, willing to help others. Instead of just going down the rabbit hole of never-ending knowledge and decisions, where you end up with mental fatigue, focus on what really matters. Start writing, put down your thoughts, where you publish it doesn't matter, at least initially. Still, it will get you warmed up, satisfied, excited, and ready for the many more to come.

There will always be enough time to make things better, find the best place to publish, add automation, improve your writing skills, but that will only come with time and a lot of feedback.

> If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late.
>
> -- _Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn Founder_

## Stay open to feedback

This is precisely what I'm looking for with this post, that's why I said, in the beginning, that I wanted to get out of my own bubble. I have seen a lot of constructive feedback in other posts I've read, and many people have gone through this already.

I hope this post can help as a starting point, not only for me but for others going through the same. A place where people can land, and know that all those decisions can come later. Then follow along with a lot of potential feedback from experienced bloggers.

**Everyone's opinion matter, everyone's experience is different, so let's make our voice heard together.**