What update should I make today?
A question i asked chatgpt today.
Question
I update my website ellenpronk.com one time a week. What update should I make today?
Response 1
I looked at what you’ve published recently and at the much larger arc of your archive. You’ve been posting once a week, with the latest three posts moving through the natural world → music → reading.
For today, Sunday 27 September 2026, I’d make something more personal and visual:
“What I see right now”
Not an essay. A small collection of 5–10 photographs from this week, preferably things you noticed rather than things that are conventionally beautiful.
For example:
* something growing
* something old or worn
* a person or animal, if appropriate
* a detail in your home
* something you saw on a walk
* one photograph that you almost didn’t take
* one thing that made you stop
* perhaps a self-portrait
Then write only a few sentences about what these things mean to you.
That would fit your site particularly well because your archive has a very strong tradition of walking, Rotterdam, drawing, photography, daily observations and personal reflection.
And there’s a nice contrast with last week’s “Where did all the insects go?”: instead of looking at the disappearance of something in the world, today’s post could simply ask, “What is actually here?”
A possible opening: What I see right now
I thought I would show you some things I saw this week.
Nothing particularly important. Just things that caught my eye.
A few colours. A plant. Something on the street. Something at home. A face. A shadow.
Sometimes I think these little things are what my website is really about.
Looking.
One other idea I particularly like for you: go back through your own archive and pick one old post you had completely forgotten about. Re-read it today and write a new post beside it: “Reading myself from 10 years ago.” Your archive is enormous, and that could produce something genuinely unexpected rather than requiring you to invent a new subject.
If you want, I can also look through your last 20–30 posts and your older archive and come up with 5 very specific post ideas for today, each based on something you have already written or photographed.
Response 2
I looked at the site first. One thing that stands out is that your website has always worked best when the update is personal, visual, and connected to what you are actually doing, rather than feeling like you need to manufacture a “topic.” Your archive has a lot of walks, Rotterdam, daily observations, art, books, and reflections.
My suggestion for today: “What I see on my Sunday walk”
Since today is Sunday, I’d make a small, very present-tense post:
* Go for a walk, even if it is a familiar route.
* Take 5–10 photographs of things that catch your attention.
* Don’t try to make the walk spectacular. Photograph something ordinary: a tree, a window, people, flowers, pavement, reflections, a building, something in the sky.
* Write 300–500 words about what you noticed and what was going through your mind.
* Give it a simple title, perhaps “Sunday walk”, “Things I saw today”, or something more specific that emerges from the walk.
The important part: don’t turn it into a “photo essay” or an article. Let it be an update from your life. That’s very much in keeping with the character you’ve established for ellenpronk.com.
Your older writing makes this especially fitting: you have repeatedly used walking as a way of looking, thinking and making photographs, and your more recent archive still contains many Rotterdam walks.
If you want something a little more substantial, I’d make the theme:
“What has changed in my life since I started this website?”
That could be particularly interesting because the site’s original About text describes ellenpronk.com as a place where you document your life, work, walks, garden, photographs, songs and thoughts.
But today, I’d choose the walk. It gets you outside, gives you something real to photograph, and gives the website a little piece of today rather than another retrospective.
If you tell me what you’re doing today / where you might go, I can give you a much more specific post idea and title.
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So that’s what i did! I walked to the Albert Heijn and made some photos along the way. Very enjoyable.
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