Completing A Writing Challenge
Lessons learned from daily writing
On the 29th April I pressed publish on the last article I wrote as part of my self imposed writing challenge. During the month of April, I had set out to write 24 Medium articles in 28 days.
Since completing the challenge, it is has taken me a further 11 days to press publish again. This isn’t a reflection of my experience which was a wholly positive one, but a reflection on the reality of life and how easy it is for other things to get in the way of the writing when there are no deadlines, self-imposed or otherwise.
I set myself the challenge in the aftermath of a creative slump having published my e-book earlier in the year. I was lacking the creative spark to try anything new and sought out Medium as a way of reigniting that spark. It seemed like a great way of expanding my writing repertoire, rediscovering what I enjoyed writing about, and I wanted to see if I could write consistently.
I was also hoping it would take me nearer to the magical 100 so that I could become a Medium Partner and perhaps earn a few cents for my writing.
Lessons Learned
1. I can find time to write every day even when doing other work. Because I also have other jobs which take up part of every week, my writing time is variable. This means that whilst I was trying to publish an article most days, I had to think more creatively about when and how I wrote. The best days were when I could spend uninterrrupted hours at my desk, but sometimes I had to go straight from the day job, and on other occasions I wrote from my bed late into the night. I know it was the challenge that kept me going. I wanted to write and I didn’t want to fail.
2. There is an instant gratification in completing a piece of writing that is ready for publication. Writing is often about the long game so spending 60–90 minutes on something which is finished and immediately ready to be sent out into the world is hugely rewarding. I got a definite buzz everytime I pressed publish. Even on those days when I wasn’t 100% happy with what I had written, I was happy I had completed it.
3. Consistency and showing up at my desk each day became a habit I looked forward to. It gave a rhythm and purpose to my writing day. The medium article became the focus and then everything else could follow. The reality was that more often than not I didn’t have time to write very much if anything else apart from for Medium, but it was a good practice for a writer who wants to write more — and don’t all writers want to do that.
4. I can write about different things. The experience of writing about subjects a little different to those I write about on my blog has been liberating. I have felt more free and less restricted than I have felt for a while and have enjoyed expanding my writing repertoire. I wrote on a variety of subjects. I wrote about writing and books and reading but I also wrote articles which were about wellbeing and mental health. I also felt at liberty to write some more personal articles.
5. Everything is copy and I felt like a writer. There is nothing like having to sit at your desk and compose a piece of writing for publication every day to make you feel like a real writer. I found myself listening more intently to podcasts, reading more intently and squirreling away ideas that could be turned into an article at some point in the future
6. In life I flick between careful planning and spontaneity. The same was true in the way I approached my writing during April. I had a plan at the beginning of each week of what I thought I was going to write about, sometimes with fairly fleshed out ideas. I didn’t always stick to this plan, on occasion other ideas took over or I simply wasn’t inspired to write about what I had planned. Giving myself the freedom to write about whatever I wanted lent itself to this flexibility.
7. I know that engagement is really important for growth, and I wasn’t always able to give the time to that as I would have liked. I was so focused on getting my own words out that I didn’t always have the time to read other peoples. When I did, I enjoyed the conversation and the inspiration I could often take from that. This is certainly something I want to do more of as I discover the writers I enjoy reading.
Where Next
I will keep going. Medium has given me a freedom in my writing that I had lacked for a while. I know the pendulum swings between having a niche and writing what you like. At the moment I think I will continue to write what I like. I suspect that will naturally follow the things I am interested in and perhaps I will develop a niche organically.
I didn’t reach the magical 100 followers but I’m getting ever closer and I have been pleased with the slow and steady progress I have made. Of course recognition is important. We all need our egos massaged from time to time and I can’t pretend the claps and comments haven’t done that for me. Still, it is the writing and regularly pressing publish which have given the greatest sense of accomplishment.
I come back to this quote which I shared when I wrote about why I was taking on this challenge and which seems to serve me well in all aspects of my life.
“If you can’t fly then run, If you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward”
I will keep moving forward, one article at a time.
I also write about London, Culture, Travel and Wellbeing on my blog Changing Pages
