I Wrote Every Day for 30 Days, and Here’s What Happened.
By: Karolina Rickard
Tags: Everyday, Challenge, Persistence, Writing, Dream

But, something always kept me wondering.

Could I?

And should I try my luck with words one last time?

By chance, I rediscovered Twitter this year.

And, oh boy, how much I enjoy the space. People use the power of words to express themselves.

On Twitter, I came across a challenge called “Ship 30 for 30”.

The idea was to join the community and write 30 atomic essays every day for 30 days.

We had to pay $50 but will get it back if we stick to writing for 30 days.

The challenge had a few guidelines:

Choose a topic you have an interest in or knowledge about

For 30 days, you will ship 30 atomic essays about that topic.

Share the atomic essay in public.

After 30 days, you will have established a writing habit

I completed the challenge last night. And was itching to share my findings from the experience.

Here are just a few observations from my journey:

1. Don't try to create a masterpiece every time

I’m new to writing and sharing online. Hence my first thought was — I have to make it perfect.

The unbelievable pressure of being perfect can stop you from writing forever.

My solution was to simply write, read once and publish. Don’t try to make it perfect. Aim to share to write.

And it worked.

I struggled with this concept for a couple of days but then realised that no one was criticising. No one cares. I’m just a small fish in this big ocean.

But I wasn’t on my own.

I was surrounded by people with the same aspirations and struggles.

2. Don’t do it on your own. Join a community of like-minded people

During this particular challenge — we’re divided into groups of 4 people. The people with the same writing experience. That was very reassuring and helped me to have enough courage to share my essays.

The community was there for me, holding my hand when I struggled and wasn’t sure I could keep going.

Sharing your content every day, allows you to learn how to cope with certain content creation situations.

At the end of the day, communities are built to unite people with the same interest and help to flourish.

3. Don’t be afraid to pivot. Change can create more writing.

Writing every day allowed me to discover my passion.

Originally I decided to write about Artificial Intelligence (AI). I thought that was a subject I like and gathered it will be easy to come up with new ideas every day.

But after 13 days, I realised that the topic of AI was interesting but I wasn’t passionate enough about it. That means I didn’t have an itch to write about it every day.

And that’s ok to change direction.

That’s what I did.

I quickly understood that to keep writing consistently, I had to write about the subjects that excite me, the ones that I’m passionate about.

These subjects can differ every day. Get excited every time you have to start writing.

The aim is to create a writing habit. Don’t let any excuses persuade you in a different way.

4. Work out the routine that fits best with your writing schedule

My idea was to try and write while my 1.5 years old son would nap. Use the rest of the day for the research for another day’s topic.

Intentions were sincere, but life sometimes dictates its own rules. I managed maybe one day to accomplish this routine.

Only one day from 30 -that’s all.

But I’ve discovered that the best time for me to work and concentrate is late in the evening when kids are asleep. I was and still am a bit surprised about it as I’m a morning person, but I guess it works better this way at the moment.

Adjust and adapt that works best for you.

It takes time to figure it out, but that’s’ ok.

The journey of writing is a marathon, not a sprint.

5. Writing every day creates a habit.

It absolutely does.

I can’t say I’ve mastered a habit of writing every day yet. But I can easily assure you that I know what I will do every evening — I will write.

Yes, sometimes it’s more a chore than a pleasure.

But it’s ok.

I don’t have to procrastinate or find any other excuses, why I can’t write today.

It’s like a habit of brushing my teeth before going to bed.

I know now I have to write.

I catch myself talking notes during the day about ideas that I could write about.

Writing is my daily companion and it’s at the back of my mind at all times.