A Writing Challenge
Yeap! I do need one.
I haven’t been a freelance content writer for long. I haven’t been confident in my journey for long either.
Isn’t it funny? How long we often take to go for what we want? Urgh, the doubt, the lack of confidence, the procrastination, and second-guessing. It’s interesting how long we take to take that last step to the future we’ve been hoping for.
We plan and make arrangements but freeze when it’s finally time to push the button.
Tim Denning and other long term-writers have illustrated how new writers often give up after the euphoria stage of writing.
It’s only natural that after a while we get less excited about new initiatives. Happens to the best of the new relationships too, no?
Enter my participation in a writing challenge. Lately, that lack of writing mood has been catching up to me.
I choose distractions over publishing an article, line up a draft only to not come back and work on it, or finish an article only to second guess whether it’s good enough before I hit submit or publish.
I am a very new writer on Medium with less than a month here and ten published articles. I read a lot of articles from the platform, there are a lot of brilliant writers whose work I can’t get enough of.
My audience is growing steadily and I am content with my progress and the engagement in the ten published articles.
Even with that, I still need to push myself a little to publish regularly and pitch to potential clients frequently.
I’m past the euphoria phase as a freelance writer.
I am in this for the long haul though. I aim to make an income from it and have an audience that finds my content so valuable and great, that they perk up every time I hit publish. (I’m a dreamer, let me have this one)
Realistically, I want to pursue my writing career and make the most out of it. I enjoy, love, and have a passion for writing.
Writing is an art for me. Most of the time, I use it to express myself; it’s the best way I know.
I want to help myself and others through writing.
For that cause, I am taking up a #100-day writing challenge, a practice suggested by Dr Mehmet Yildiz. I will be publishing one article a day, consecutively for the next 99 days. (Today is day one)
I am ditching perfection, more like cutting out the excuses really and writing everything that I will find helpful for both of us for the next 99 days without second-guessing it or doubting myself.
I have to say, now that I have put it out to all of you, I feel more inclined to follow through than I was when I was just thinking it.
Everyone who has hit a slump quite early like me or even after a while is welcome to join the challenge and comment below if you need a writing buddy to help you stay on track.
With this challenge, I am also upping my pitching schedule and my social media marketing strategy.
I am a writer, and as I said in a different post, I will do what it takes to be a writer, only this time, a full-time, long-term, professional writer.
Quite the motivation there.
Happy writing!
