I wrote this on July 18th, meaning I just completed the 3rd month of writing every day. To my younger self, who struggled at creating and sustaining a daily writing practice, we finally did it. It feels so good to show up every day, get the writing done, and post the videos.
It was easy to add it to my routine
Now that I’m three months in, I can say that it was pretty easy adding writing to my daily routine. Not that it made writing any easier. There were indeed days when I struggled, not just in what I was writing, but also because of what time of day I was writing. There have been more than one night where I’ve been writing at a very late hour. I’ve never missed a single day of writing since I started, or a single day of posting a writing video. But I’ve come very close. On at least two of the days, I posted right before midnight, mere minutes before missing my deadline.
Perhaps I should have planned better, but I’m glad I started when I did
Perhaps I should have planned better when I first started, but that wasn’t really possible. The thought to write daily (and post about it) came the same day that I started, so there wasn’t much time to plan. And actually, I did that part on purpose. I knew I would chicken out, so I jumped into doing it, rather than waiting. I think it worked out in the end because of that, since I didn’t let my self-conscious side get in the way of my writing.
Coming up with topics is still a struggle
Some days are easier than others, that’s for sure. And that’s on me creating them as I write. I’ve slowly started writing down topics on a list for when I need something to write. I’ll be honest, part of the problem is that I don’t know what I want to write about. I know I’ve written about that in the past, so I’ve already admitted that the problem is me. That’s something I will be working on, with greater priority, over the next month.
I’ve been outlining for around a month or so
About a month ago (give or take a few days), I decided to start outlining my posts. I hadn’t done that for the first two months, so all of the drafts I wrote back then were freeform, but I would clean them up during editing. Towards the 2-month mark, I struggled to stay focused on the topic. I would write about the “topic,” then get distracted and write whatever was coming to my head regardless of the subject, and then I would remember about the “topic” and pick it up before the end. But still, not something that is good in the long run. So I gave myself a challenge for a week to create the topic and put together an outline before I started my writing session for the day.
I’ve been able to see my writing more clearly
Because I’m writing every day, I’ve been able to become more objective about my writing. ESPECIALLY when I sit down to edit a piece to post on my website. Oh man, oh man, my eyes do see clearly now. I have a draft sitting in my stash, I don’t even remember what it’s about, but I chose it one day with the intent to edit and schedule it. But then I started reading it, and realized that it would take far longer to fix the draft in editing. So I chose something else, and put the draft back to wait for some future day. I’ll get around to it eventually, but the fact that it was far from being done has not left my mind.
Here’s to another month, and another 3 months of writing every day
I’m so excited to reach this three-month mark since it means I’ve been able to continue writing. I’m also excited to see how I continue to grow over the next month. So here’s to the good days, the bad days, and the days when I really just don’t want to write at all. When all else fails, I’m going to keep showing up, because that’s what I need to do.
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