In 2021, when I went independent, I decided to get serious about becoming a better writer, and so I started reading books about writing and using their exercises. Soon after that, I started a podcast to share what I learned. As of today, there have been four seasons and forty-three episodes. The last one was in April.

Write While True is a podcast about writing for software engineers who want to write better by a software engineer who wants to become a better writer. The title implies that writing is an infinite loop, which is how I think of it. You become a better writer by writing. Each episode is short and ends with an exercise.

I announced Season Four at the beginning of the year and published the first episode in March. The idea was to podcast while I was writing a book about tech debt so I could share tips along the way. The first four episodes were how I was applying The Four Disciplines of Execution to design a process that would help me finish a book by the end of the year.

It’s November, and I have 40,000 words of unedited text. I will definitely finish, but not by the end of the year. My original goal of 10,000 words in a pamphlet size book grew as I learned more about my topic by sharing my work with others. I was able to do this, in part, because I gave up things like the podcast.

Now that most of the book is written, I’m ready to podcast again. I am going to pick up Season Four where I left off. But, instead of sharing tips as I learned them, I can share them with the benefit of some hindsight. The script for episode forty-four is written, so I hope to get it done this weekend.

If you want to listen, subscribe to Write While True in your podcast player.