3 things I’ve learnt after a month of daily blogging

Hey look, a listicle.

I don’t think I’ve ever written one of these before. Then again, I’ve never completed a full month of daily blogging before, so hey. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt about writing online it’s that you celebrate milestones by writing a big, fat, self-indulgent listicle and shoving people’s faces into it.

I started doing this blogging thing for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because I really, really, really want to make my living writing things down one day, and to be good at writing things down you have to write a lot of things down and write those things down really often. I’m 20 years old, so when it comes to life I don’t really have a clue what I’m doing — but I can say with absolute certainty that people who do a thing every single day get really good at that thing. So there.

Secondly, I needed to prove to myself that I could. I’ve spent a disproportionate amount of my youth messing around, being an idiot and generally doing my very best to avoid doing any sort of meaningful work. That’s not cool. In many ways, I feel like I’m making up for lost time. I’ve also never been consistent at anything, ever. When I began this writing adventure, I set myself a preliminary goal of reaching 50 consecutive posts without missing a day. I’m getting so close to that now, and I’ve absolutely no doubt at all that I’ll hit that milestone and beyond. I’ve never felt so confident in my work ethic, and it feels great.

But what have I learnt? Well, in short…

1. Daily blogging is really bloody hard

It’s not been a fairytale, forcing out these posts every single day. Some of them have required some serious surgical manoeuvres to extract, and have come out kicking and screaming like a series of really ugly, annoying babies.

Sometimes I’ve wanted nothing more than to walk away from my pad and snap my pen’s spine in some sort of dark, ink-splattered murder. But I didn’t. The pen made it through this month. So did I.

If your reasons for doing something are strong enough, if you reinforce belief with powerful habits and a work ethic like a bar of Ramston steel (if you got that reference, text me babe) then you’ll get the thing done. It’s inevitable. But don’t leave it to willpower alone, because you’ll fall flat on your face.

2. It makes you feel like a God

Jesus is a daily blogger. Fact. That’s how the bible was written. Jokes aside, there is a serious power in writing every single day. I’m not quite at the whole walking-on-water stage (yet) but I’ve never felt so sure in my self as I do now, at the end of this month.

There is absolutely no better way to start your day as a writer than to sit down and write. Connecting with the very thing that makes you who you are immediately after waking up is powerful. It’s akin to a tree being hit by a lightning bolt. It reminds you why you’re alive.

I’d strongly recommend absolutely everyone reading this to take up this practice. It doesn’t matter what you do, only that you do. If you’re a musician, wake up to music. If you’re an artist, wake up and paint. The results are startling.

3. I’m capable of terrible, terrible work

Oh man, I’ve written some absolute crap here in the past month. The people who have seen that stuff have seen that stuff, and there’s nothing I can do to take it back. But that’s okay.

Ed Sheeran likens songwriting to turning on an old, muddy tap. At first you’ll get nothing but dirty water as the tap unclogs itself but, the longer you leave it running, the clearer the water becomes. He played 200+ shows a year for three years for that very reason, and look at the kid now. His tap is pretty fucking sparkly. This blog is me leaving my tap on. I’m just waiting for the water to run clear.

Anyway, I’m going to keep going. I’ve loved (and hated) this experience, but the point is that I’ve got a little better. My improvement may be minuscule, but minuscule can very quickly become substantial if left to its own devices. Just ask Ant-Man.