15 Days of Writing: My Review
Wow! How time flies!
It has been 15 days already since I first made the decision to become serious with my writing. I didn’t know it would be this exciting and become something I looked forward to do daily. It’s hard to believe how scared I was to pick and commit to a schedule just two weeks ago.
Today I am doing a recap of the past 15 days. I’m really surprised at myself.
I decided to start writing after I was featured on my friend’s podcast where I talked about getting clients to an audience of fellow software developers and freelancers.
I was on two consecutive podcasts between the 2nd and 9th of September. I started writing on the 10th and it was a deliberate choice to mark the birthday of my late younger brother, Daniel.
I knew to keep up this writing game, I needed to pick a schedule and stick with it no matter what. I thought about doing one article per month but that would be 12 articles per year. I didn’t like the sound of that and I knew it would be very easy for me not to write more than 3 articles per year.
I thought about doing one every week. That will be writing 52 articles per year. That felt a bit better but I wondered if it was challenging enough to keep me consistent. I know myself and how my interests can fly from a subject to another fairly quickly.
I needed something to hold my attention in one place so I can really test if this writing thing is something I would go along with. I wanted to pick an article a day schedule but I was scared ( not of what to write though ) if I would keep up the schedule.
Ironically, at the same time I was excited about the schedule too. So I committed to it and prepared to write everyday. I got my first set of topics around the podcast I featured on. I researched further into the issues people were having with freelancing and wrote down about 14 topics. I started studying each of the topics further and came up with the content regularly for each one and posted everyday.
With any activity even with the ones you’re really passionate about, you get to a point where you feel like not following through. You just want to stop doing it for a while to have a break.It’s a mind trick to get you off track if you’re not careful.
I have a counter trick I use to deal with such situations. I imagine myself with just one person in my audience sitting at a warm fireside having a chat. This person is eagerly waiting to hear some helpful words from me and since I want to help him or her, I need to write or share or communicate.
That’s my visualization process for writing and it has really helped me stay on.
What changes have I noticed so far
Mental clarity : I find that my thinking is much more clearer as I write much more now than I did earlier
Better Expression: I can express myself better and in more ways than when I started
Skill development: good writing, in its many forms, remains a highly sought after skill and is very valuable to many people and organizations.
More confidence: since I started writing I’ve become less skeptical of my ability to be creative and helpful with words.
Enjoyment: I totally enjoy the writing process from picking ideas to writing the outline and finally hitting the publish button. I feel really passionate about it.
My plans for the near future
I will continue writing as much as I can. While I don’t promise to keep writing every single day for the rest of my life, I plan to make it a regular and active part of my life.
At the moment I look to find more places to share my daily writings and see how people respond to them.
My goal is to grow to become a great, exceptional writer.
