Writing! The Awesome Skill you didn’t know about

Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash

For some context, I am going to tell you who I am before I get started.

I am Ashik, a digital marketing specialist working for Insight Consultants.

I help Insight Consultants with its marketing operations both online and offline.

We recently completed our first successful stall setup and presence in a Conference @Lend 360.

So now I am trying to improve my skills as a writer and intend to do so by writing a lot this year

Why it is important to write:

Story Time:

Video Courtesy: James Grieg https://www.greig.cc/why-you-should-write/

I was checking out this video from James Greig where he talks about how by writing you create a ‘Time Machine’.

Where he also says that by writing other people from various era’s can see what is inside your brain.

Then I had my first AHA Moment!

I realized a brain is a place to create ideas and it was never meant to store them.

Unless we are in the year 2130 and there is a virtual chip in our brains that stores our ideas.

I then realized that it is important that the ideas we create in our brains are stored.

Then I thought about how humans store information throughout history.

Which then prompted me to do what every millennial would do.

I did a google search of “how humans stored information in history”

Here is a fun fact:

Prehistory refers to the span of time before recorded history, ending with the invention of writing systems. (src: Wikipedia)

Then AHA MOMENT number 2.

I realized that the oldest way to store was by writing.

I also realized I couldn’t write gibberish. I needed to learn how to perfect the way of writing.

That’s when I stumbled upon this quote by Ernest Hemingway.

There is nothing to writing. All you do, is sit down at a typewriter, and bleed.”

So I decided to bleed and got the old typewriter from the attic and got started.

What I did to get started:

So I took three simple steps to get started:

STEP 1: Check up on a course that I can refer to on blogging:

So there are many courses out there and I am sure that you can find something that you will find helpful.

I found this course ‘A 100-Day Blogging Course’ by Deepak Kanakaraju.

Its byte size information I receive every day on email about how to get started.

STEP 2: Set A Goal on what I want to achieve:

I set the following goal’s for myself as a starting point:

• Create 24 blog posts (2 a month) for the year
• Write blog posts containing anything between 500–1000 words.

STEP 3: Get a system, process, and tools in place to help me achieve my goal.

So I created a workflow of all the things I need to do for the two weeks leading up the launch.

1. Create a Topic Backlog: Brainstorm and create a list of topics I can develop into an article.
2. Create a Skeleton Structure for the topic — T-12 Days before the launch
3. Research for the Topic and collect all relevant material — T-10 Days before Article Launch
4. Write the First Draft — T-8 Days before the Article Launch
5. Edit the Article — T-5 Days before the Article Launch
6. Create the Catchy Headline, update keywords, images, etc — T-3 Days before the Article Launch.
7. Final Proof Read — T-1 Day before the Article Launch
8. Publish & Promote — On the Day of Launch.

Also one more very important component is the use of tools to help simplify your writing process.

Here are some of the tools I use:

• Google Sheets contains my topic backlog
• I use Google Docs to write the first Draft Content
• I use refind to save any reference links during my research
• I use the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer to create clickable ‘Headlines’
• I use Hemingway Editor to edit my content before publishing
• I use Medium as my Publishing Platform.

What will be my next steps:

As mentioned in the headline this is my journey towards becoming a writer/blogger.

I intend to create content on topics on how to get started with writing.

I hope I can help build an engaging online community of aspiring writers.

In the coming months, I look forward to creating more content around this.

What is your journey when it comes to getting started with writing?

What are the tools that you use to speed up the process?

Feel free to let me know in the comments section below.

Catch you guys in the next one, Cheers & God Bless