About 15 years ago, inspired by a fiction novel I had read, I vowed to start a diary. I found a nice notebook, a functional pen, and penned down a few paragraphs of my thoughts. I signed it off as “Goro Hojo Des”. It was my Chinese name translated into Japanese. I thought it was imperative that I should christen my diary with that name.
The diary ran on for a grand total of less than 5 days and then withered out. I was convinced that I lacked the skill to write interesting posts. Maybe my life was just too boring to be vocalized. I told everyone from then on that I “could never and would never keep a diary”.
4 years ago, spurred on by my forays into America, I again picked up my pen. “I’m literally going to live a life completely different from before,” I mused. “How does that not make for interesting writing?” Yet this dream went stillborn again. I found a Word Document in a far-flung folder that outlined my first blog, but that blog was never made. It seemed like keeping a diary was never in my DNA.
Today, I mark my first blog-month with this review. I’ve written 8 posts over a span of 30 days, at roughly a clip of 2 posts per week. It started out as “Wednesday Tidbits” and “Saturday Perspectives”, but gradually became “Midweek Tidbits” and “Weekend Perspectives”. Life goes out of control sometimes; but this arrangement, I could keep.
And I have to say, I am very happy with my decision to finally start.
What changed? I think that firstly, a vigorous spark was ignited. I had been giving advice over coffee this past 6 months or so. People seemed to like it. That gave me an impetus, a confidence boost, and even a theme on which I could start writing about.
Secondly, the timing was right. I was at the biggest crossroads in life. I had some time and lots to think about. I also had just been introduced to Medium by jordangonen. It was all a happy confluence.
Most importantly though, if I were to be perfectly honest, I was just itching to produce content. My belief is that (especially in this day and age), producing individual content is incredibly important in separating yourself from the pack. It’s like how Bruce Henderson first wrote business opinion articles and mailed them out to hook his initial clients. It’s a visible insight to your perspectives, and a great conversation starter.
As of writing, my articles averaged 135 views each, with a read ratio of about 54.9%. Average recommendations stand at a dismal 2.4 per article. They’re solid numbers for someone who’s never written at this pace ever, but there’s still so much room to grow.
So what’s the way forward then?
The general long-term idea is that I’ll consistently produce content for many years. I’m starting with prose, aka blogs, but it may well take other media forms in the future. I’m convinced I’ll be in this for the long haul.
Specifically, in the next 6 months or so, I plan to achieve 4 things:
- Get my drafting time down to an average of 1 hour per 4-min post
- Get feedback on my articles, and write even better
- Start narrowing down my writing themes
- Increase my readership, and eventually build a subscription base
This list is daunting. It’s a lot to achieve, especially when I’ll be starting work and adapting to life in NYC as well. But this really excites me at the same time. I’m gonna have to stretch to make this work, and I’m gonna have to go deep to hit my targets.
