How I Am Practicing Reflective Writing.
One 1000-word article at a time.
The happiness you feel after packaging your thought process in a well-crafted article is heavenly.
I recently published one after fearing low reads for almost a month. I can say that if you truly know you can write like a few gifted writers who can weave a narrative to keep the reader hypnotized, you owe this art a try!
My understanding of the term “Reflective writing” goes like this:
A form of writing where we peel back layers to understand an event, a feeling, or a phenomenon.
I am sure the literary definition is different, but with my doer-like mindset, I firmly understand that even when I read a well-worded explanation, I can’t fully grasp it until my brain has weaved it through my experience.
Discovering reflective writing
My journey as a professional writer began as a freelancer, which shifted into an in-house content writer position within a few months, only to evolve as an online content writer.
With SEO, you are focused on writing things of value for the reader. The topics are picked based on the core business and arranged in clusters to keep the reader engaged. They carry with them the need to give value fast. This trend suits buyers looking for information online.
After exploring Medium for a few months, I came across a few publications distributing thought-provoking immersive articles which carry with them a resonance readers can feel within the structure. Every paragraph is structured to take you a step deeper.
Failing miserably
My first try was all over the place. I had no idea how to keep adding more to the topic I was writing about. Turning 500 words into an elaborative 1000-word article was a real task which took me a month to hone.
I am not labelling myself as an expert, but failing fast and hard highlighted the areas of improvement. With assistance from ChatGPT, I was able to understand what the term “reflective” means.
Publishing an article a week
I gave myself the target of publishing one such article based on the publication’s specifics.
- To stay in line with the topic
- To stick to my strengths
- To write about my experience
The results of a few rejected posts helped me fast-track my improvement.
- I observed writers in those publications
- Followed advice religiously of a few who have a PhD
- Practised everyday elaborating a topic in any manner
Somedays, I was able to elaborate based on a story. On other days, I find the narrative writing easy to dig deeper into the character’s psyche. Nonetheless, it has been hard work, but an area to improve upon.
Find someone better
With any skill, you need to look for people who have been doing it for years. Medium is an easy platform to look for experienced writers, so I took my time in fishing the ones:
- Who aligned with my natural writing style
- Write about topics I am interested in
- Can seamlessly write on any topic
The variation is important because the mind turns monotonous after writing on a topic. Sentences and paragraphs start sounding the same article after article. A skill needed to create an endless content bank to publish from but is not well suited to exploring the human psyche or emotions.
Improving my writing has been a self-exploration exercise. A practice I never intended to perform until I am doing it every day.
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