I Failed The 30-Day Writing Challenge
It is not fair, but it is my fault.
You have probably thought of challenging yourself to write every day, for a month, an article. I thought about that as well.
When it comes to writing, like most writers, I lack ideas on what to write about. One of the goals of July was to challenge myself to this 30-Day Writing Challenge in order to push my limits. Can’t write 2 articles a week? Then I’ll write 7 articles a week. Sounds logical right? Not really, but, I like setting goals that seem impossible to me.
I will be honest, it was difficult. Every day I was thinking of what should I write about the next day. It was a constant reminder lurking in the back of my mind. I can’t say that I was enjoying that, but, it really pushed me.
I was writing about anything. At the start, I was writing about certain events that occurred throughout my day. I wouldn’t say they were boring, but, the stats proved otherwise.
Pretty embarrassing to be honest. I didn’t like what I see. I probably was writing some interesting stuff, for myself, but it wasn’t so engaging for others. I quickly realised that my days became less interesting and writing a story about them wasn’t possible anymore.
That’s when I started to make my articles more structured, thought more about my titles, and was paying more attention to my image cover choice. I started getting better stats, however, such articles required more time to produce. I used to spend 90 minutes on an article, whereas now I can spend 180 minutes on one.
I failed. At the end of my second week of writing every day I got COVID. As much as I tried, I wasn’t able to write or do anything, to be honest. I wrote an article about my experience, it has the best stats (no). After that, I gave up on the challenge of writing only 5 posts. I got 18/30 articles.
Here are some benefits and drawbacks that came along with this challenge. I also included some advice if you want to take up the challenge yourself.
The benefits of the 30-Day Writing Challenge.
- Getting better at writing. I can say for sure that I have improved my writing in these 18 days. I am more confident in my writing. It doesn’t take me a lot of time to start writing. My pauses between paragraphs are no longer there. I rarely stop typing and get distracted.
- Finding more ideas. The hardest part of the challenge was finding ideas on what to write about. I started reading books on writing. Reading articles before writing became a daily routine. Producing more ideas from anything was a standard.
- Being aware of your mistakes. You start paying more attention to your stats. You are more aware of the things that didn’t go well. Maybe your title wasn’t clickbaity enough. You probably chose a generic photo. Your quality of writing wasn’t that good.
The drawbacks of the 30-Day Writing Challenge.
- More quantity, less quality. Finding 2 article ideas in a week is easier than finding 7 article ideas on what to write about. I was writing 3-minute articles. I was writing articles on a lot of niches. My profile became a generic one. This doesn’t go well on Medium.
- Writing every day. You have to think about this sentence more. You have to take ~2 hours every day to write an article. Including Saturdays and Sundays. Including holidays or other events. There is no vacation mode. If you get COVID, no one cares. Any other random event that might happen in your life won’t cut it. It is a challenge.
- Time-consuming. Is it possible to write a good article every day? Yes, probably. However, you need to spend more time on your article. Besides writing, like every other human, I have other responsibilities. Spending more than 2 hours every day on writing wasn’t my cup of tea.
Advice on taking up the challenge.
- Eat the frog first thing in the morning. It is a hard challenge. Like every other difficult task, you should do it in the first part of the day. This applies to everything, including writing an article. I recommend being fasted, you are more alert which makes your brain function better.
- On Inspiration. Consume more content. Read more articles. Scroll through your Medium feed. Search tags that go with your niche. Watch more videos about your niche. Listen to podcasts with the people in the industry. Read books on the topics that interest you and your writing.
- Concentrate 100%. As I have mentioned it took me a lot of time to start and write my daily article. This advice is the most important. Exclude any distractions. Your phone should disappear in this time frame, I put it in another room. Never stop writing. You will have time to correct your mistakes, add more ideas, change your thoughts and so on. Concentrate, you don’t have the entire day.
- Writing is better than not writing. I have mentioned that quality is more important than quantity. However, there will be days when you honestly be lost and don’t know what to write about. In that case, write about anything. Most of the time it will be some personal stuff that will probably be good, but, not engaging. Sometimes you will come across some ideas that you won’t expect. Just write.
Conclusion.
It is harder than you think. However, this challenge will teach you a lot. It will push you like nothing else. You will struggle a lot and get devastated by your stats. It doesn’t matter, that’s the process. You will learn a lot and your writing will definitely get better. You will also find your writing niche, by your stats, writing quality and interest.
I honestly believe you can do it. I failed. It might sound like an excuse, but, it was because of COVID. I will definitely try once again. This challenge is worth it.
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