86 Simple Steps
I build keyboards and drink fussy coffee and play D&D. From the outside, making this website must look like another nerdy hobby. Despite that surface-level appearance, this website's existence is out of character for me. Before this website, I had never built anything in public, sharing my failures and asking for help along the way.
On the home page, I say:
I made this website because I am curious about how websites work and want the challenge of making something new. Also, Sophie Koonin's blog post about building personal websites resonated with me.
I am not a programmer or developer, so I am learning as I go. This website isn't much, but I'm proud of it. Learning how to build it has been a lot of fun!
All of that is, and remains, true. It also undersells my experience. Making this simple, derivative, doesn't-do-anything website has been joyful.
Every time I try something new and it works, I feel like I've leveled up or gained some sort of super power. Every time I've asked a question, I've found knowledgeable guides – never condescension.[1] Every time I try something new and it does not work, I feel like I'm on a quest. Getting something to work after an initial failure brings a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment that is difficult to describe.
I do not think I'm alone. I think there are plenty of folks who want to make their own space on the Internet, but have no idea how. A few months ago, that was me.
If, like me, you are starting at zero, go immediately to Blake Watson's HTML for People. HTML for People is a masterpiece and I am so glad I started there. HTML for People is also a wonderful example of how to teach something complex to a novice. Blake assumes his audience has no foundational knowledge, but treats his audience with respect. That is no small accomplishment.
After devouring HTML for People, I found Eleventy and remade this website from the ground up. I haven't scratched the surface of what Eleventy can do, but I'm learning. As a non-programmer, I suspect I am not doing things in the best, most efficient way. I don't care. At the end of the day, I made something that is important to me, and I'm having fun as I go.
And I've been taking notes. At first, those notes were just for me. If I messed up, I wanted to know how to get back to where I was. Pretty quickly, I came to the opinion that my notes were worth sharing. Those evolved into the How To section of this website. That section is not a guide or a cook book. It does not represent best practice. It does, however, show everything I did to make this website, step by step – but filtering out some of the mistakes a made along the way. If I somehow destroy all of this, following the steps in the How To section would bring me back to where I am today.
Reading that section gives me a sense of accomplishment. It shows me where I started and what I've learned. I say this to encourage anybody who is on the fence. Learning and building and sharing your work is joyful. I recommend having a website and building it yourself, even if you do not (currently) know how to do that.
This experience may be related to my use of Eleventy. It seems that a friendly and helpful community has grown around Eleventy, and my experience asking for help on their Discord server has been wonderful. ↩︎
Subscribe: Blog Feed