Write About What You Love
Table of Contents
Finding things to criticize is easy.
Spend an hour online and you can collect enough disappointments, mistakes, and bad decisions to write about for the rest of the week. A terrible movie, a frustrating product, a bad idea, or a stranger who is wrong is always waiting.
I do not want to create that record.
I would rather spend my words on the things that made life better.
Attention has limits
Writing takes time. Even a short post asks me to sit with an idea, decide what I mean, and find a way to express it. That is time I cannot spend on something else.
I can use it to explain why I disliked a book, or I can tell you about one I could not put down. I can document every way a piece of software annoyed me, or I can share the small tool that solved a real problem. I can give more attention to something I already wish I had avoided, or I can return to something worth remembering.
This does not mean criticism has no value. We need to name some problems. Honest feedback can make work better, warn someone away from harm, or challenge an idea that deserves scrutiny.
It means criticism does not have to be my default.
My attention is one of the few things I can choose where to place. Writing about something gives it more of that attention. I want to make that choice carefully.
Enthusiasm asks something of us
Criticism can seem like the more serious kind of writing. Finding flaws can make us sound discerning. Enthusiasm can feel simple, sentimental, or a little uncool.
Sincere enthusiasm is not simple.
Saying that I loved something is easy. Explaining why requires more. I have to notice what stayed with me. I have to understand why one detail worked, why an idea arrived at the right time, or why someone else's work made me see the world differently.
That kind of attention teaches me something about the work, but it also teaches me something about myself.
What do I admire? What makes me curious? What do I want more of in my life? What kind of work do I hope to make?
Writing about what I love helps me answer those questions.
More than a recommendation
I have written before about why I do not use scores in my reviews. Deciding whether something deserves seven stars or eight is not the part I care about. I would rather explain why it resonated with me and let someone decide whether it might resonate with them too.
The most useful recommendations are not declarations that something is good. They are invitations.
This book asked a question I am still thinking about.
This movie showed me something familiar from a new angle.
This person made a difficult idea understandable.
Someone made this small program with care, and using it feels different because of that care.
Specific enthusiasm gives another person a way into the thing. It helps them understand not only that I valued it, but what they might find there.
They may not love it as I did. That is fine. A recommendation does not have to become a verdict that everyone accepts. A recommendation is one person saying, “This mattered to me. Maybe it will matter to you.”
Make appreciation visible
Good work often disappears quietly into our lives.
We finish the book and put it on the shelf. We use the tool and continue with our day. Someone says exactly what we needed to hear, and the conversation moves on. The work helped us, but the person who made it may never know.
Writing about what we love makes some of that appreciation visible.
It can help another reader discover a book, another user find a useful tool, or a creator understand that something they made reached someone. Even when the person responsible never sees the post, the writing adds one small note of gratitude to a culture that has no shortage of complaints.
Not everything I love needs an essay. Some things are better enjoyed without turning them into material. But when I feel the urge to write, appreciation is a good place to begin.
Leave a record of joy
A blog becomes an archive, planned or not.
Over time, it records what held my attention: the projects I was building, the questions I was asking, the books I was reading, and the ideas I was trying to understand. It preserves versions of me that I will eventually outgrow or forget.
When I return to that archive years from now, I do not want to find only a catalog of grievances. I want to remember what delighted me. I want to see what made me hopeful, what I admired in other people's work, and what I thought was worth sharing.
There will always be something bad to write about. The internet will not run out of arguments without my help.
The things we love are easier to take for granted. They deserve our attention too.
Write about the story you keep recommending. Write about the tool that made your work easier. Write about the song you played until you knew every note. Write about the person whose idea changed yours.
Tell us what you love.
Tell us why.