An article a day, sure no problem…
At least it didn’t sound like a problem, but it’s 21:56 now and I’ve just started writing this. I might need a creative definition of “article” and perhaps “day”.
I agreed to do this as part of my peer supported goals. Part of a podcast, where a friend and I talk about programming and life in general. We also like to keep each other accountable to a list of goals. I could, of course, cheat and list things I’d do anyway, but that’s not in the spirit of the agreement. I post articles often, but not at the rate of one per day.
If I do two articles tomorrow, that’d average out to one per day. No, I can’t do that. I need to keep the flow going. This flow is both for me to write, and for the expectations of readers online. I need to feed my social profiles on a regular basis otherwise they might shrivel up. That’s an exaggeration, but regularity is definitely helpful in the so-called “social media engagement”. Do you feel engaged?
I can interpret day to mean my day and not some arbitrary period of 24 hours. As long as this goes up before I go to bed, then I’ll consider it part of my day. Though going up after I’ve gone to bed would be more impressive.
My readers are mostly in America. This will be a comfortable afternoon post. I wonder if that’s a good time? I’ve meant to track the results before, but it seems pointless. Every article is unique. I couldn’t tell whether an increased viewership is due to timing or quality. I’d need a lot of pieces to make any kind of reasonable analysis. An article a day could help in that sense.
No. I need to focus. All attempts to track time in the past have shown no strong correlation. I can instead, if I remember, retweet the initial post at multiple times during the day. Don’t hate me for this. Don’t blame me for how Twitter works.
Having solved the timing issue, I need to consider the content issue. When I said “article”, I meant any of a technical article, essay, or even flash fiction. These all fall under the same umbrella term for me. I don’t want to say “post” since that could include a lot of small stuff. For example, I do Commaful prompts often, but that micro-fiction and poetry is too short of a goal. I won’t say it’s easy since I still put an effort in.
Does this flow-of-thought writing count? It falls under the moniker of personal essay. It might be bending the rules a bit since I didn’t have any purpose, or idea when I started writing. Let’s count this one as an experiment. I’ve done this style, but only as writing exercises where the result is tossed.
Can I make this interesting enough? This is where you come in. “Like” this if you think it’s acceptable. Leave a suitable comment if you disagree, such as “please don’t rob me of my precious time” or “I started reading, but went back to watching my pizza cook”.
Not so bad, it’s 22:11 now. Post editing it’ll be hard to tell how much I wrote in this short period. For all you know, I could have typed the first line, then this paragraph, and crammed the other stuff in after. I wouldn’t do that, but my editor might have a different opinion. Since I won’t have time to submit to an independent editor today, I’ll be playing that role as well. That only slightly improves the odds of a shared opinion.
Great, I’m at 670 words as well — 622 post-editing, to tighten things up. I aim for ~800 words. It’s a typical length. It’s about the right length for simple editorials, diatribes, venting, and unresearched fluff. Beyond that and I’m just stroking my own ego. If I had something to say, I’m positive you’d keep reading. If you love this, feel free to say, “yeah, keep it coming” in the comments — haha, I’d better quit daydreaming and get back to the goal.
One article per day, can I do it? Regarding writing ability, I definitely can. Concerning having suitable ideas and the right motivation, an absolute maybe, or possibly.
Lately, I have been writing enough material. Earlier today I finished one article, part of a job application. I’m also getting back from a “Shut Up and Write” event, where I managed to finish a few paragraphs of a short story, start another article and another story. If I had any sense, I would have worked on something I could publish today instead. Thanks to my meetup buddies for pointing that out at the end of the meetup. You guys are great!
This is long enough. I’m judging myself, but I still have standards. I’m not above cheating myself, but I’d prefer to do that later by introducing potato chips into my diet.
I’ll be publishing this without any review. I usually wait a day and do editing. Then wait a day and do proofreading. Or something close to that pattern. If I’m lucky, I can convince a lovely lady to help me with the editing. I do that to spare her the agony of seeing so many mistakes — editor’s blood, it flows funny.
Let’s see what happens after my editing. I think I can post before midnight, thus rendering the whole section on defining “day” moot. I can’t remove it though, as that would lower the word count too much.
That’s it, I’m done.
