Standing at the Finish Line of 20–20–30
What an incredible month!
On the last day of May 2021, I announced that I was entering David Majister’s 30 day challenge. I was doing a modified version of the challenge, but I was going for it. The original challenge rules can be found here:
My original challenge commitment post can be found here:
I actually finished a few days early. I sent my 20th submission to a publication on June 26th. I wanted a few days to unwind and really reflect on what this challenge meant to me. I also wanted to begin to focus on planning next month.
The Experience of the Challenge
I will begin by saying that I have a tremendous amount of respect for everyone who has completed the 30–30–30 original challenge. During weeks 2 and 3, I had trouble getting five posts out the door by Friday. I was playing catch up until Week 4. I can imagine what the 30–30–30 was actually like to complete.
Besides falling behind during two of the four weeks, I loved the challenge. It made me contemplate topics I hadn’t written before or hadn’t written about in a long time, like my 5 Non-App Tools to Use for Writing or my Dear Universe poem.
I want to thank so many publications for taking a chance on my writing. I had two publication owners approach me during the challenge and ask me to write for them and that was an amazing feeling.
Falling in Love with Shortform
A few days before I committed the challenge, I found Katie Michaelson’s publication, The Daily Cuppa. I found it through Kris Bedenian’s post on plastic bags- that the world lost their minds over toilet paper, what would be next? I chuckled and read a few more posts. After reading a few, it was something that I knew I wanted to try writing.
I have currently submitted 5 posts to Short form publications: 3 to The Daily Cuppa, one to Rule of One and one to The Shortform. I have immensely enjoyed writing in short form as it requires conciseness and precision.
Other Forms I Enjoyed
I rekindled my love for writing poetry through two poems I wrote for A Few Words and Know Thyself, Heal Thyself. I wrote a rant with the Venting Machine and open letters in both Open Letters and Mini Mailer. I enjoyed all immensely, but I’m not sure if I would have tried them without the challenge.
I also wrote a few personal essays and listicles, which are in my usual wheelhouse.
Creativity Challenged
A few of my posts were in response to prompts given by the publications. I enjoyed getting out of my own box to complete these pieces. I’m grateful that some publications are beginning to do these on a regular basis as it helps on those days you struggle to find a topic.
Results
Works submitted: While I did write 19 articles to submit to 20 publications, I actually wrote a few more pieces. My total was 23 in 19 publications.
Rejections: I was only rejected once this month- from The Brave Writer. Looking back, I think I might know why. When I was a semi-active writer for them, they had a different set of rules for submissions. I submitted under the old rules. Maybe they still would not have accepted, but important note to self: check submissions guidelines regularly going forward. This was a piece I resubmitted to Writer’s Blokke and was accepted a few hours later.
Followers: I can’t speak with certainty on this as my challenge happened when Medium was cleaning out spam accounts. My original number was 918 which increased to 952 which then decreased to 792 and I am currently at 823.
Money: The majority of the money I made this month was from an article that I wrote last month that went semi-viral. So, I decided about half-way in that I was going to discount that article from my total. My goal was to make $50 and with the article included, I made $40.84. Not too shabby, it’s enough to pay for my next month of coaching and my membership. With the article excluded, I made $10.80 which was my third highest earning month on the platform. Prior to the challenge, I had taken a 5 month semi-hiatus from Medium. With the exception of May which had the viral article, the challenge let me bounce back strong from months off.
What Advice Would I Give Future Challenge Participants
- Do a digital submissions tracker/content calendar. There are a lot of moving pieces to this challenge and it’s hard to keep track of using paper and pen.
- You’re going to want to give up. Don’t. See it through. Determine your why before starting and write it down. Come back to it when you need encouragement or a reminder.
- Get creative- with topics you’re writing about, formats, and subjects of posts. One of my best articles for the challenge was a piece on diversifying your reading list. Something that I really believed in, but wouldn’t normally write. Take the pressure off and find a way to enjoy what you’re writing about. Work outside your niche.
- Keep the well running. Seek to regularly come up with topic ideas. Look at what inspires you and come up with multiple ideas a day. Consider it a warm up practice.
- I’m going against the grain by saying this, but a content calendar is not necessary. I tried to write out a content calendar at the beginning, but I didn’t feel inspired to write about many of the topics on it once I was actually inside the challenge. I had my list of ideas and pulled from there, sometimes even on the same day.
A Final Thank You
I want to thank David Majister for creating this challenge. I learned a lot about my own personal writing journey through it and I’m grateful. I’d like to thank Sam H Arnold for editing two of the pieces I’m most proud of completing during this challenge. I also want to thank all of the editors of publications that I’ve worked with this month, and everyone who has commented, liked or supported my work. Thank you.
