How personal should my content be?

Question

Efri Dereje · Accepted Answer

Be personal enough that people can understand your perspective, but not so personal that you routinely regret the cost of publishing.

Personal content can include experiences, values, mistakes, preferences, relationships with work and moments that shaped your thinking. That does not mean the audience needs access to every private detail.

A useful boundary is to ask whether the story is processed or still actively happening. If you are posting to regulate an emotion, punish someone, prove something or get reassurance, wait. If you can explain why the experience is useful to the reader without needing the reader to take care of you, you are probably in safer territory.

Also consider other people’s privacy. Your story can still expose someone else.

Good personal content creates context for your thinking. It does not require turning your entire life into inventory.