Posting One Article a Day for 30 Days: Diaries

This is my 30th post in a publish-30-posts-in-30-days challenge I set myself.

It was an exciting journey. I was careful to phrase the challenge carefully – I would publish 30 posts in 30 days, not write 30 posts in 30 days. I have been writing on Medium.com as well, and had a few posts I could copy and paste here. This would give me a leeway on days when I didn’t have the time. I’m glad I gave myself this leeway – I had more than my fair share of days where I couldn’t write a new post. Yet, thanks to publishing a post, I still had a sense of accomplishment to carry to the next day. 

I Do Well in Bursts

Conventional wisdom suggests writing each day. 

I have found this tough. I write extremely well on some days, and my brain refuses to cooperate on others. I wonder if the strategy for me is to leverage my productive days to the maximum, and take a break on my not-so-productive days. Then again, I could reason that if writing becomes a habit, my brain will cooperate more often than not. 

I plan to do more bursts, but maybe it is time to think about building a daily writing habit.

This Challenge Was a Good Opportunity

The challenge was a good opportunity to do many things:

• I had promised I’d write a post to a few people. I fulfilled those promises. I wrote an article Lina asked me, and I wrote another one DivyaVanshika Om asked me to write.
• I had several posts I had in mind – I completed some of them. Challenges generate momentum which helped me get the better of resistance (some of the times). 
• This was simply a good opportunity to keep in touch with words. It has made me inspired to write more going forward.

I Learned a Lot From the Comments

I learn a lot from the comments on posts. 

In a light-hearted article about a mouse in my apartment, comments by MeeraOm and Sushree Diya Om gave me a startling observation: anytime I see a mouse running, it may well be Lord Ganesha’s Mooshika Vaahana(!). My Mom had a mouse in her living room, it ran away before I could see it, but I remembered that it may be Mooshika Vahana. Dr. Varsha added a different spin – I was destined to write this article 17 years later, which is why that mouse entered my apartment in 2005!

I then post an article with my take on Karna – how I considered him a hero. Rashmi Ramanathan told me how a good metric to follow is whether a person is on the path of Dharma. Akshay Om told me he stopped looking at right and wrong. Ravi Trivedi Om echoed both these comments. 

The comments truly contain nuggets of wisdom.  

The Os.me Community Spoke Up About the Articles They Liked

The three articles that had the highest engagement (i.e. comments) confirmed to the ethos of the os.me community.

I first wrote a tribute about my unusual friendship with Madhukar. I received warm comments in response. I was happy to write this article – it gave me a chance to remember and reminisce about a dear friend. 

I then wrote my account about how I quit college. Os.me members like authentic and raw personal accounts – this fit the bill. I always doubt my ability to pull off writing about my tough times. If I’m not careful, I’ll end up whining, complaining and ranting on paper – which will not serve anyone. I felt I had made peace with my rough college experience – and was happy writing about it. 

I finally wrote an article about the Daniel Day Lewises of os.me – folks who write but a few articles but make their words count. The community is a warm place and likes to celebrate one another – this article had high engagement as well. 

What Next?

My challenge has come to a close. 

I have a 30-day streak of publishing articles on os.me. I’m inclined to carry the streak forward. No specific challenges or deadlines this time, but looking to continue a streak. I’d love to extend the streak to 141 days – the number of days Alok Singha posted on os.me. That’s going to be quite a challenge – I’m not sure I can pull it off. Which makes me look up to Alok with redoubled respect for his remarkable streak.

For the time being, I’m going to keep writing and publishing and strengthening my writing muscle. Along the way, I look to improve my writing with deliberate practice. 

Derek Sivers did a 30-articles-in-30-days. After publishing 30 articles, he mentioned how he wasn’t happy with the quality of his posts (I thought they were great for what it is worth). He came up with a formula – write everyday but publish when the article is ready. I like that. Indeed, Medha Shri gave participants of the first writing workshop a homework assignment – write an article – keep revisiting it – post it after 5 days. I haven’t done that – I should. 

Eventually, I will break the streak. For now, I’ll go with the flow, publish an article a day, and see what happens. Os.me is awesome, and writing here is a privilege beyond my wildest imaginations. 

Image Credit: jeshoots.com from Unsplash