Why I Choose To Write
About a year ago, I navigated to joshsuson.com, my personal domain at the time. I didn’t see my website, though. Instead, the website was gone, and I found an ad for the domain registrar I now used to use. I had an expired credit card and a spam folder full of warnings that I was going to lose my domain. Rather than take this out on the company I was using, I took the opportunity to rebuild. This time, I was going to include a blog.
Programming is like a dream come true for me. I came to it in a time of need. I just needed to find a job I would enjoy and stick with to care for my family. I didn’t expect to find a craft and something I genuinely feel built to do. My career has become a huge blessing.
Because of this, I have wanted to create content around it for a long time. When you talk to people like me, you’ll often hear them say they are self-taught. I didn’t teach myself. Incredible content creators across the internet taught me how to code and continue to teach me today. Their value to my life motivates me to throw my hat in the ring. Can I do for someone what all these other creators have done for me? Can I create meaningful content that helps someone learn to code or change how they approach technology? I don’t know. But I’ve been wanting to try for a while.
We all know that wanting to do something and doing it are different. For starters, if I’m going to write a blog, I need to settle the debate in my mind: What type of content should I create?
Or maybe I should do videos
Before becoming a programmer, I had a long history of endeavors. One of those was film school. I went to film school for two years. I wanted to make movies. That is until I tried to create one. From there, I took my knowledge of videography and began to work in media at churches, which also need websites. The rest is history. However, during that time, I became skilled in videography. So, when I started thinking about creating content, I started debating. Should I write or should I make videos?
There are some significant benefits to creating videos.
- Blogs aren’t exactly the most popular medium. Videos aren’t easy to get traffic and monetize, but they seem more popular than most blogs.
- My skill set lends itself to making videos. Being on camera comes naturally to me.
- To be honest, it’s easier for me. I’ve used video-making and editing tools enough to be fast at this stuff. Making videos would be easier.
- Lots of people feel like it’s more personal. No one is clamoring to see my ugly mug, but it feels more personal to them when they do.
All of these things show that video is an excellent medium. Making videos would be easier for me. However, videos don’t precisely capture what I want to do with content creation. That’s not to say video can’t do what I want. But it just didn’t hit that sweet spot I was looking for.
So why write?
There are many reasons why I decided to write rather than create content. The main reason is that I’ve always wanted to be a writer. I love the written word and would like to have the skill.
Outside of that, I love the permanence and editing of writing. Again, this wouldn’t be completely absent from the video medium, but it is a different medium. You’re speaking the words, and because of that, they can be more spontaneous. Meanwhile, with writing, the words are typically labored over. I like that.
Finally, this is probably the most important, but I’ve grown tired of large-scale video tutorials. As someone completely self-taught in programming, I think the value of a great-written tutorial is wildly underrated. That’s not to say there aren’t good ones out there. There are. But they are significantly fewer and farther between. So, as I was considering creating content, I had to choose between adding my noise to the plethora of video content/tutorials and teaching in a way that I don’t think is best. Or create content that I would rather consume. So I decided to do that.
That’s why I’m writing. I think it’s an excellent medium that isn’t used to its fullest in learning/programming content. We need more great technical writers and teachers willing to craft a text-based tutorial/learning environment.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you prefer video? Would you welcome more written content in this space? Maybe you love both?