Introduction
This post isn’t original. It certainly isn’t the first of it’s kind. I would need a scientific calculator to come up with the actual number of What I Learned from Writing posts on Medium.
I’m still publishing this regardless. Why? Because I recently finished writing every morning for the last 30 days. For many established writers out there, this is child’s play. Many speak to the importance of writing every day and blocking off time to be creative.
That’s not me though.
I had never written for 5 days straight before this. Let alone for a whole month. I’ll go through stints where I publish a lot and then it’s radio silence for several weeks or even months. I was the type of person that wrote when inspiration hit or when a project came to fruition. No more, no less.
I wanted to change this. I knew the benefits of writing but I hadn’t given myself a chance to experience them on any significant scale.
“Whether you’re keeping a journal or writing as a meditation, it’s the same thing. What’s important is you’re having a relationship with your mind.“ — Natalie Goldberg
“Whether you’re keeping a journal or writing as a meditation, it’s the same thing. What’s important is you’re having a relationship with your mind.“ — Natalie Goldberg
I knew where I wanted to be. I also knew that, like most things worthwhile, the only way to get there was to lean in and practice each and every day.
With this in mind, I began.
The Process
I knew that if I was going to write every day, it had to be first thing in the morning. I’m a huge believer in doing the most important things right away. For me, this involved blocking off an hour every weekday morning starting at 7am before I left for work. When it came to weekends, it was a free-for-all sometimes, but I made sure it happened. I couldn’t let myself break the streak.
With enough deliberate practice, you’re going to get better. It’s that simple.
With enough deliberate practice, you’re going to get better. It’s that simple.
As the days went on, and I began to develop a rhythm. I saw some changes begin to take place. My writing improved. I got better at connecting with my audience, sharing thoughts, and communicating complex ideas in simple terms.
In turn, my work began to reach more people. I saw my follower base on grow by 1,000+ users and my weekly newsletter subscriptions more than double in size. On the very last day of the month, I hit the 100,000 views milestone for the previous 30 days.
As this experience came to a close, I decided to sit down and reflect on things. I grabbed a notepad and pen and wrote down everything that I learned throughout the process. Here’s the 5 most impactful insights and observations that I walked away with.
Writing Is a Black Box
Something is referred to as a black box when the device, process, or system has known inputs and outputs, but unknown internal workings. The more that I wrote and shipped my work, the more I came to see writing as a black box. Let me elaborate.
You have an idea that you want to develop or share so you sit down and fire up Medium or your text editor of choice. Once you’ve finally written and revised your work, it’s time to ship.
You send your thoughts and ideas out into the world without any concrete idea of how they will be perceived. Even after some time, feedback is given in the form of super high-level metrics such as views, claps, or fans.
What happens in between the publish button and those feedback statistics?
The truth is that we don’t know. The closest we get to true feedback is from responses that are few and far between. The current feedback loop between readers and writers is far from perfect.
We are forced to rely on vanity metrics to interpret the reception of our work. I refuse to believe that sheer number of claps is the strongest possible indicator of a story and it’s impact. For now though, it’s the best we have.
Overcoming Hesitation
Shipping isn’t always quite as glamorous as some other articles and quotes make it seem. Sometimes it can be difficult to click publish. This was especially true for me early on in my writing journey, and it still affects me to this day.
This is the harsh reality of publishing your work. We fear that it won’t resonate or that others will judge the work and the writer by association, so we hesitate. Whether this hesitation lasts for a second or a month, we put off the act of shipping out of fear and insecurity.
“It takes courage to publish when no-one is listening, but you must”
“It takes courage to publish when no-one is listening, but you must”
This is further compounded by the black box nature of the process outlined earlier. If your driving motivation is number of views and other vanity metrics, you will burn out when they let you down — and they will.
Instead, focus on how sharing your thoughts and ideas with others can positively influence your growth. This simple shift in mindset can make shipping that much easier, particularly when practiced daily.
With time, you’ll get more and more comfortable clicking Publish. It’s not always going to be easy, sometimes it’s still going to be difficult. But we must.