I started this blog in 2013. That was, at the time I’m writing this, thirteen years ago. It has two rules. The first is, write every day. Write about what is happening, write about what interests you the most, what embarrasses you the most, and what you are most afraid of. I have been able to do that for thirteen years, not missing a day, except a few during which I was unconscious in an ICU.

The second rule is: Publish what you write, but with a small safety window of about 24 hours. This lets me do some minor editing before it goes out, and allows me to avoid the worst lapses in judgment.

Oh, so it’s just a diary.

I’m writing it day-by-day, and I’m not making anything up, so I guess that makes it a diary. Given that this is the only mode of writing that I am truly capable of, and given that this is the mode of writing that, when I see others do it, is what electrifies me the most – more than any short story or novel or memoir – I am not all that happy with the word “just”. But yeah, it’s just a diary.

Furthermore, I am from Germany. I moved to the US in 2010, three years before I started this project. I wrote it entirely in German, and I called it “fortlaufend”, which roughly means “ongoing”, “consecutive”, “continuous”. I put it on Tumblr as flfnd, a contraction that worked surprisingly well.

In 2021, when I met my future wife, who is an American, I started a parallel version in English under the name cnstv (don’t ask). From then on, I translated every single entry from German into English.

After a while, I realized this was not working. The English sounded clumsy and not like anything an American would say, or even think. So I started writing in English, and translating the entries back into German.

I have now reached the point where that doesn’t work anymore, either. I can’t go back and forth between the two languages for every single entry. The blog is now switching to an English-only project called “furthermore”, which is what you are looking at. See the footer below for various other ways in which you can follow it.

— André Spiegel, September 2026