Even if you don't want to make your website from scratch, you still have a lot of options to make a good looking website.
A blog might be appropriate if you want to compile a number of articles under many different topics or if you want to simply have an online journal. There are a number of different free blogging services, including Blogger, Blog-City, TypePad, WordPress, and Moveable Type. You can quickly compare the features of each blog service with this article from the Online Journalism Review: Blog Software Comparison Chart.
A wiki is a website that allows visitors to add, remove, and edit the content of some or all of the website. Some wikis require registration, while others are completely open. Wikipedia is an example of a large (and useful) wiki.
If you are thinking of starting a wiki, read this artilce from Wikibooks, Wiki Science/How to start a Wiki.
If you are willing to get your hands a little bit dirty, using a CSS template can be very rewarding. You don't have to start from the very beginning, but you can customize your site to no end. Check out the section on CSS Layouts for more information.