My Personal Writing Challenge
You are welcome to join
Now let’s try this. Is this thing on? Hello, test, test… Ok, I am ready.
Let me kick it off by saying that I am not a writer. I am sure most of you will notice quite soon that my writing style could be better. But hey, at least I am above the eighth-grade level … I think.
As a developer I am reading quite much, however, I seldom write anything, that should be read by someone else. And my code does not count. The stuff I write can normally only be understood by God and me, and after 2 months only by God.
In the last years I used this platform extensively and this year I decided, I am going to try and publish a few articles myself. May it be to give something back to the community, or to earn an additional buck or two. To be honest, I think it’s a little bit of both. So, let’s start my journey back into the world of publishing.
My History
You may wonder why I used the word “back”. Well, back when I was working as a teacher's assistant in college I already doubled in the world of online publishing. I mostly used Hubpages and Squidoo. One is an online publishing platform and the other one, as the name suggests, is a seafood bar.
No, but seriously, both were good publishing platforms which I used quite a bit since they gave me an easy option to share my thoughts and knowledge with the world. Back in 2010 I did not have much experience, but it was enough so I was able to help one or two people.
Well, now I’m back and ready to share all my useless and opinionated knowledge with the developer and cooking world. Since my two big passions, besides taking care of my daughter, are my job and cooking, I will mostly write about those two topics.
My Goals
Well, my first goal was to determine what my goals should be. I am quite motivated at times to put all the words in my head into paper, or, in this case, into my computer. But I knew that without clearly set goals I would not get far.
So, what are my goals? As of the time of writing my goals are:
- to become a better writer
- to learn a new skill that goes beyond my usual daily work
- to learn to express myself more clearly and convey my thoughts more understandably
- to challenge myself
- to have fun
This is not a long list. But it is still somehow challenging. To be able to achieve all my set goals I will have to become more disciplined and get rid of that stupid writer's block, that followed me through all of my life.
I was never able to let myself really go and just write. I am sure this can be achieved, but it will take practice. It’s just like with painting. To become a good painter, you have to practice every day and paint many bad paintings until you paint a decent one. Come to think of it, I should start painting…
My Method
As I already said, achieving my goals will take discipline and persistence. I was never known to be a persistent type, so this would be especially tough for me.
The last time I browsed Medium, I found an article by Kristin Wilson:
As I saw the title I knew what I had to do. I would make my own challenges and try to beat them. In my younger days, I was an avid video game player and back then challenges were the thing that would motivate me most. Why should now be any different?
After a short brainstorming session with myself, I came up with a plan. I was going to think of at least 10 challenges. I would then try to beat those challenges. There is no time pressure, I can do them whenever I want. The only condition is that I will do them. Sounds fun, right?
my challenges
So, let’s cut right to the chase. Here are my challenges:
Write 10 Medium Articles
Write 100 Medium Articles
Write 1 Medium Article per week for 10 weeks
Write 1 Medium Article per day for 20 days
Write at least 50 Medium articles about cooking
Write at least 60 technical Medium articles
Write at least 3 multi-part Medium articles
Write a Medium article that gets at least 40 claps
Write a Medium article that gets at least 100 claps
Write at least one trending medium article
Quite a list huh? As I was writing this list of challenges, I started to doubt I will be able to achieve my goal. But now there is no turning back, I am the stubborn kind and I will not shy away. And after all, I have all the time I want.
conclusion
I took on quite a big challenge. I do not know if I will be able to do it all, but I will certainly try. Of course, I will write updates regarding my journey and share with you all the experience I get on the way.
Wish me luck. No, scratch that. Wish me persistence and determination to pull this off.
