Author's Joy — The Only Fuel That Matters

Blogging Outside Format. A manifesto, post #6/14

Why are some bloggers popular and others aren't? Is there a secret? A formula? A cheat code?

No cheat code. But there is a pattern. I've been watching the bloggers I actually like, and they all have three things. Not a formula — more like a cluster of coincidences you can't reproduce from instructions.

Three ingredients

First — they're magnetic. Not looks. Charismatic, competent, sometimes sexy, sometimes controversial. There's something about them you want to be near. You don't follow because "useful posts." You follow because being around this person is interesting.

Second — they've been doing it for a long time. At least five years. More likely fifteen. Which means they almost never do something in their blog that goes against their nature. They don't force themselves. They experiment, try things, throw some out, keep others. It doesn't feel like brutal labor and crushing obligation. It feels like life. Third — at some point they do something that catches the zeitgeist. A post, a video, a format — and it explodes. Not because they planned it. Because years of experimenting eventually hit the target.

The rest of the time, the audience grows slowly. And they keep doing what they love, pulling along the people who care.

The mask comes off in layers

I wore a mask for years. In Moscow, at work, in my career. Without it I wouldn't have survived — wouldn't have made money, built a career, passed the corporate filters. It was a necessary mask. But it was a mask.

Now I'm taking it off. Slowly. Because the mask isn't one piece. You can't just rip it off all at once. You peel one layer and find another underneath. You learn who you are gradually. I'm still far from understanding my actual self.

I used to have references — bloggers I wanted to be like. Now the reference is me. And the blog is the tool for that process.

Research backs this up: people who constantly mask themselves — hiding their thoughts, playing a role — are more likely to struggle with anxiety, depression, low self-worth. Taking off the mask isn't weakness. It's work. And a blog can be the place where that work happens.

Enjoyment is the only fuel

The core fuel of any living blog is the author's own curiosity, energy, and genuine enjoyment. Not discipline. Not a content calendar. Not "I need to post three times a week." What burns inside.

Lately my enjoyment has been steady. But it hasn't always been. Depression, immigration, identity crisis — all of that happened. And in those moments the blog went quiet. That's fine. The blog isn't an employer you owe anything to. The blog is you.

But enjoyment is necessary, not sufficient. Enjoyment without discipline is a ghost blog with three posts over two years. Popular bloggers enjoy it AND put in the work. The spirit of play doesn't mean no effort. It means the effort doesn't feel like punishment.

The blog makes the author

Montaigne wrote his Essays for thirty years. A prototype blog — in the sixteenth century. He said: "I have no more made my book than my book has made me." That's exactly it. A blog isn't just a tool for expression. It's a tool for self-knowledge. You write — and you discover what you think. Not the other way around.

In the nineties, the Riot Grrrl girls made zines — handmade magazines. Written by hand, copied on a photocopier, handed out at shows. Their slogan: "We must take over the means of production in order to create our own meanings." A 2026 blog is the same zine. The same act. Taking the means of production back from the algorithms — back to yourself.

Zines, early 2000s blogs, IndieWeb — these are repeating waves of DIY publishing. Every time the industry turns writing into a conveyor belt, people show up and say: enough. I'm doing it my way.

The secret of popular bloggers isn't a formula. It's a way of life: doing it your way for long enough that at some point you sync with the world. And the only fuel that can carry you that many years — is enjoyment.