Writing Consistently

This post marks a full month of these micro blogs.

In total, I’ve written somewhere in the ballpark of 13000 words.

I posted a few of the posts a day late, and missed one day (the 27th).

I tend to prioritise other things for most of the day, so leave writing until very late, which has affected my sleep schedule somewhat. I’m finishing writing this at 4AM, oops.

Initial Difficulties

At first I found it difficult to think of something to write about every day. I often think about things during my off hours in the day, but by the time I sit down to write I forgot what I was thinking about.

I’ve resolved this by jotting down notes about things that I might like to write about. Seems to be working so far, but if I don’t get to something in time it might lose it’s relevance.

Reflections On Past Works

The biggest thing that this month of writing has taught me is that there isn’t a whole lot of difference in quality between these quick microposts and the much longer posts that I would typically write. The hours I’d spend agonising over the traditional articles didn’t particularly improve quality, and actually made them feel a bit artificial, as I cut out ‘my own voice’ and my own writing style.

It took me a really long time to write some of my travel posts. I’d spend days writing just one article. I’m not joking. Then I’d get really burned out because all I was doing for days in a row was writing, and I’d get agitated that I wasn’t doing something to progress my career. I probably wasted my first few weeks in Chiang Mai just writing or feeling burned out about writing.

I think the microblog could be a good format for travel articles; short excerpts about a new place or when something interesting happens. I can kick out a microblog in half an hour to an hour, so I don’t start feeling burned out and they don’t really use up my day.

That’s the nice thing about writing consistently; you’re not doing one big chunk. Just a little, every day.

Reflections On Other Daily Creators

I have a new-found respect for people that create every day.

Especially if they manage to make every article concise and thought provoking like Seth does, or if they can make their work gorgeous like beeple does.

It felt really good for me to put something out there every day, as it truly meant that no day would be a zero day. Didn’t have a very productive day working? No problem, you’re shipping a micro blog later.

But there was also days when it was very hard for me to write something worth reading. In fact, I downright failed a few days, and published just to publish. So I respect those content creators that create value every day.

Reflections On The Process

I’ve also realised that I have to think about my own thoughts a lot more too. Whilst writing something like Falling Into Place or Identity, I had to question myself about why I was thinking what I was thinking, so that I could better articulate it to a reader.

I’ve always heard that teaching is the best way of learning. Perhaps writing is the best way of thinking?