Why A Website, Why A Blog?

Date — October 1, 2025

One evening while expressing my sadness over being unable to share my writing in the same way an artist might share their work, a friend of mine proposed an idea, “Why don’t you just upload it online?” I didn’t know what she meant, until she directed me to Tapas, a webcoming site I used to read on, and showed me a webnovel section. This was cool, and ideas started swarming, but I continued to express that an artist can just post their stuff online, what am I going to do? Post an entire script for a movie idea on a social media post? No, but she suggested something more interesting.

“Make your own website.”

My own website? Like I was capable of that. Though, I did have an interest in eventually learning how to code in order to make my own video games one day, perhaps this could be a gateway. I decided to follow along. She showed me her website, entirely dedicated to her webcomic Brothers (amazing read) and showed me around the code like a house tour. Then she directed me to Neocities and her webcomic collective SpiderForest. I must have browsed some of those sites for days. I was told that I could create something like this with a little ingenuity and self study of HTML, CSS, and JS. I was even shown two amazing pieces of prewritten code called Rarebit and Zonelets, which power the header, footer, and the blog on this website. I’m sure one day I’ll progress far enough on my own coding journey to go beyond what those two can do for me, but I’ll always appreciate the assist when it comes to getting my site off the ground.

Despite the excitement I held for making my own website, where was I supposed to begin, what was I supposed to put on it? I was directed to several HTML and CSS tutorials on YouTube, and so my coding journey began. I’m sure it’s easy for seasoned programmers to call working with markdown not real coding, but you have to develop the mindset and the skills to make something amazing. But what do I put onto my website? Well, I had a few unproduced scripts that I’d love to get out into the world, but I wasn’t sure if that was okay. So I messages John and Craig from Scriptnotes and waited to hear their thoughts.

John: “My first instinct is, I don’t think it’s a bad idea. I just don’t think that’s actually gonna be successful for you… My other instinct is, let people read your writing, but maybe just put up the first 10 pages so they can see, and if they want to read more, they can read more. Craig, what’s your instinct?”
Craig: “I don’t understand why you can’t put up random pieces of writing, like an artist might post sketches. Throw a couple of scenes on. Throw one scene on.”

Oh, that was easy, I think I’m going to follow their advice. I also have that one game that I wrote for from a game jam a few years ago. Uploading entire chapters of the book I’m working on could be difficult, maybe I just upload a sample like the screenplays? Then an idea struck me, I should write a webnovel, and completely new idea separated from my other novel. It could serve as a training ground in committing to what I’ve written and sticking to a schedule. No more forty versions of chapter one. So I worked out the webnovel and learned how to make my own website. However, I ran into another road block, what was my site going to look like? I had a few ideas, but I wasn’t an artist like all my friends, I was a writer. I was going to have to hire someone.

“Why don’t you just make your website out of pixel art?” The same friend ask me. I had just started on my pixel art journey and was very rudimentary at it. I decided why not, and tried making some assets for the site. Pretty quickly, I was sucked in and making all kinds of things. I had a blast making everything, and had finally developed enough skills in CSS to make it all come together. If you’re reading this close to the time it was written, the site might seem simple, but I promise a lot of work went into every single pixel. And best of all, it’s all mine. I have 100% control over my website and what’s on it. This sense of freedom and power only available on the indieweb is incredible. If you’re considering making your own slice of the internet, I can’t encourage learning how to do this enough.

Now to answer the easier question, why a blog? I feel like I am bursting with thoughts and opinions on things, and I love to write and share those thoughts. I considered making YouTube videos, but that’s a different skillset that I wasn’t willing to dedicate the time into cultivating. At least not yet, should I ever decide to go down that route. Instead, I wanted to keep honing my writing, my story telling, my game design, my art, and my coding. So it is here where you will find my ramblings of the many things my brain thinks too much about, along with a few other sparse places across the web.

This entire endeavor started over two years ago, so thank you for reading, thank you for visiting, and thank you for being here. I hope you go on to make incredible things.