I started this writing journey with one goal in mind: write every day for 6 months.

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I didn’t have any expectations about what I hoped the outcome of that action would be, I just wanted to stick with it and see what happened. Since then, I’ve accomplished some small but meaningful achievements:

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I launched my website, which has had 111 unique users visit the site over the past month.
I launched a newsletter, which has 39 subscribers.
I wrote every single day of January. Some days I wrote more than others, but I made sure to post something to my website every day.

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I’m glad I’ve reached this milestone because I can look back on where my mindset was after 1 week of writing and see what has changed since then. Here’s what I’ve learned:

‍

I need a mechanism to get more people reading what I write. I went into this challenge knowing that not many people would be reading my writing from the jump, and making a daily blog post on my website has had little impact in expanding my reading audience. In fact, the only people who are reading what I write are my friends and family (i.e., people who actually know me). If I’m going to expand my readership, I’m going to need to start putting my writing in more public places, which leads me to my next point…

‍

I’m going to start experimenting with different writing formats. There’s many different places where people can publish their writing to get more eyeballs on it: Reddit, Quora, Medium, Twitter, etc. Each of these platforms requires a different style of writing. I don’t have a strong gut feeling about which of these will be most impactful, so throughout the month of February I plan on testing them all and seeing which one feels the most natural to me. I will still repost what I write on my website because I like to have a chronological record of what I’m writing every day.

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Writing has given me an outlet to express my thoughts & feelings, which in turn has initiated more meaningful conversations with people I know. It wasn’t until I started writing every day that I realized how much was rattling around my head. As you enter adulthood, everyone becomes busier. People don’t always have time to sit on the phone and talk with you for an hour. But people do have time to read a three minute piece of writing, and then if it piques their interest, they will share their thoughts back with you. This happened several times throughout the month and left me feeling very fulfilled.

‍

I’d like to learn from other creative people. I recently had the thought that I should spend more time with other creatives—artists, musicians, writers, etc. I’m not exactly sure how this will take shape, but it’s something that feels like it would benefit me as I continue to develop my writing style. People spend too much of their life attempting to do things alone and not asking for help. But when people have a shared interest or mindset, it can be an incredibly powerful tool to get creative work accomplished.

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My best writing occurred when I had a story to tell. Even though opinion pieces help me to formulate my thoughts on a topic, I think my best writing from the past month occurred when I had a compelling story to tell. I hope that in the future, I can continue to meet interesting people and go to interesting places to find inspiration. But even if I’m not able to, I’ve been amazed at how many captivating things happen in day to day life. Sometimes the best stories are the ones hiding in plain sight.

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That’s all for now. If you’ve taken any time to check out my writing over the past month, thank you.

‍

Let’s see where this journey takes us in February.

What I've Learned After Writing Every Day For A Month

January 31, 2023

3 Minutes

I started this writing journey with one goal in mind: write every day for 6 months.

‍

I launched my website, which has had 111 unique users visit the site over the past month.
I launched a newsletter, which has 39 subscribers.
I wrote every single day of January. Some days I wrote more than others, but I made sure to post something to my website every day.

‍

I’m glad I’ve reached this milestone because I can look back on where my mindset was after 1 week of writing and see what has changed since then. Here’s what I’ve learned:

‍

I need a mechanism to get more people reading what I write. I went into this challenge knowing that not many people would be reading my writing from the jump, and making a daily blog post on my website has had little impact in expanding my reading audience. In fact, the only people who are reading what I write are my friends and family (i.e., people who actually know me). If I’m going to expand my readership, I’m going to need to start putting my writing in more public places, which leads me to my next point…

‍

I’m going to start experimenting with different writing formats. There’s many different places where people can publish their writing to get more eyeballs on it: Reddit, Quora, Medium, Twitter, etc. Each of these platforms requires a different style of writing. I don’t have a strong gut feeling about which of these will be most impactful, so throughout the month of February I plan on testing them all and seeing which one feels the most natural to me. I will still repost what I write on my website because I like to have a chronological record of what I’m writing every day.

‍

Writing has given me an outlet to express my thoughts & feelings, which in turn has initiated more meaningful conversations with people I know. It wasn’t until I started writing every day that I realized how much was rattling around my head. As you enter adulthood, everyone becomes busier. People don’t always have time to sit on the phone and talk with you for an hour. But people do have time to read a three minute piece of writing, and then if it piques their interest, they will share their thoughts back with you. This happened several times throughout the month and left me feeling very fulfilled.

‍

I’d like to learn from other creative people. I recently had the thought that I should spend more time with other creatives—artists, musicians, writers, etc. I’m not exactly sure how this will take shape, but it’s something that feels like it would benefit me as I continue to develop my writing style. People spend too much of their life attempting to do things alone and not asking for help. But when people have a shared interest or mindset, it can be an incredibly powerful tool to get creative work accomplished.

‍

My best writing occurred when I had a story to tell. Even though opinion pieces help me to formulate my thoughts on a topic, I think my best writing from the past month occurred when I had a compelling story to tell. I hope that in the future, I can continue to meet interesting people and go to interesting places to find inspiration. But even if I’m not able to, I’ve been amazed at how many captivating things happen in day to day life. Sometimes the best stories are the ones hiding in plain sight.

‍

That’s all for now. If you’ve taken any time to check out my writing over the past month, thank you.

‍

Let’s see where this journey takes us in February.

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