REFLECTIVE WRITING
The Challenges of Writing for 90 Days Straight — Week 11
Follow me on my journey as I discuss this week’s contemplations and opportunities for growth.
Day 78 of my 90-day challenge, which means it’s Week 11 — the penultimate week of the weekly reflections.
The last couple of weeks have flown by, and it’s hard to believe how close I am to the end now.
In recent days, the writing has been enjoyable, but socially it’s been a little hectic which has made it trickier to maintain the streak than usual.
I’m happy to report that despite how busy this weekend has been, I stayed strong and got through it in the end. I do have to admit; it does feel good to have this week behind me, though!
Followers
From the outset, I’ve made it clear that I want to build a group of loyal followers, who enjoy the writing but also believe in what I’m trying to do.
This week I’ve gone up by ten followers which pushes my total up to 55 now. It’s a nice feeling to see I’ve hit a personal milestone of 50.
It’s been interesting that although the followers have gone up, the amount of views has seemed lower than I’d expected this week. It could be for any number of reasons or a combination of a few, but at the end of the 90-day challenge, I will analyze all 90 posts to see what worked, what didn’t and if any patterns start to emerge I’ll share any findings.
The Last Week in Stories
A Recap of Last Week’s Reflections
“Learning without reflection is a waste. Reflection without learning is dangerous” — Confucius
Contemplation 1: Finding Inspiration
Last week I mentioned that I’d read a post which shared a couple of tips for idea generation. I’ve been keeping lists in my journal for the four categories I mentioned:
- Quotes I liked
- Posts with Titles I just HAD to Click
- Life Experiences
- Random Thoughts and Ideas
It’s such a simple suggestion, but it worked very well. I’ve already got a list of possible stories for the week ahead, and I’m sure I’ll continue to add lots more over the next week.
If you’re not already, I’d recommend starting something similar.
Contemplation 2: Updating Previous Stories
I’ve been through several of my earlier posts, and it’s been an interesting exercise. The stories themselves weren’t too bad, but the presentation wasn’t the best — It wasn’t bad, it just looked a little bland.
Looking back, some of the original pictures were a bit generic and overused, so I’ve changed these. I also felt that some of the earlier pieces lacked structure, so I’ve edited this a bit too.
It’s a good exercise because it allowed me to see how much I’ve grown as a writer and also put some of the more recent ideas into practice. It’s another useful idea, and something else I’d recommend everyone does every couple of months.
This Weeks Contemplations and OFG’s (Opportunities for Growth)
· Contemplation 1: Thinking of Titles as Headlines
· Contemplation 2: Images with People
Contemplation 1: Thinking of Titles as Headlines
Something I’ve struggled with since the first day is the titles. The title, along with the pictures are essential to get views on the stories.
OFG: On the Medium Daily Digest, I came across a post which suggested thinking of the titles more as blog headlines and not book titles. It hadn’t clicked before, but this has been my issue. I think my titles have been too cryptic and don’t give enough insight into precisely what the piece is going to be about. The post suggests it’s a good idea to have a preliminary title but then once you come to publish, using the summary from the SEO settings to help you settle on an appropriate headline. It seems to make a lot of sense so I’ll have an experiment this week and let you know how I get on.
Contemplation 2: Images with People
I noticed this week that a lot of posts that I tend to click on have pictures of people. It might be a coincidence, but it’s worth exploring because I wonder if it may make the story feel more relatable.
OFG: In the last couple of days, I’ve tried to use pictures with people. I’m going to continue with this over the coming week and see if it has any impact. I’m interested to know if it makes a difference if it’s a male, female, if they’re happy, deep in thought and also play around with different colours, e.g. bright, black and white, etc.
Closing Thoughts
I can’t believe it’s come around so quickly, but next week will be the last weekly reflection post of the challenge.
On day 90, I will do a post to share anything that I’ve found particularly helpful over the whole writing journey so far.
Although the challenge is coming to an end, it feels like it’s just the start.
Thanks for reading,
— Dave
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