What I've Learned From a Month of Writing Everyday

To say writing everyday has changed my mindset is a drastic understatement.

Back on November 11th, 2023, I decided that I was going to write and publish a post on my blog (eamonwrites.blog) and Medium every single day. Without fail.

This post marks my last one of the challenge.

Forcing myself to put out this much content has taught me a lot about myself and my writing.

Writing Everyday is an Outlet

Writing much like journalling is a way that you can get your thoughts out of your head and onto a medium. Like any art form doing this successfully is incredibly rewarding.

Pushing out a post every day has forced me in a way to constantly think about what I am to write next and how I’m going to do it.

This has resulted in countless hours of deep reflection about what I’m trying to do with my writing and my life as well.

Reflection on such a deep level has created an appreciation for the art of writing and an admiration for people who do it consistently.

I’ve found that after a writing session, my brain is that little bit more focused which casts ripple effects into how I go about my day.

Advice Given is Advice Taken

The thing about people asking for advice on anything is that they already know what they should be doing. For example;

How do I get my novel done? You write

How do I lose weight? You exercise and diet

How do I look better? You take pride in yourself and your care routine.

All these answers aren’t particularly glamorous so we tend to ignore them in favour of highly specific rules people have made for themselves.

Consistently writing, specifically writing about productivity tips for writers has given me the knowledge that I know more answers than I give myself credit for.

This results in moments where I need that bit of advice, say, to push through writer’s block, I just reflect on the post I wrote about that topic and use my tips.

Your writing is as much for you as it is for your audience.

Discipline Trained is Control Gained

Discipline is being able to do things you don’t necessarily want to do for a long-term benefit.

Writing is not a particularly glamorous art form and is often quite difficult.

That’s why being able to do it, being able to get words onto the page despite your unwillingness to do so feels so great.

Every time you do your writing despite your feelings at that moment it tells yourself that you are the type of person that does the things you set out to do.

Which strengthens your discipline.

Discipline is like a muscle.

The more you train it the stronger it gets.

The reverse is also true.

If you routinely do what you want to do more often than what you need to do your discipline muscle withers away and your discipline for EVERYTHING is impacted not just your productivity.

That’s why I’ve found that the more days I’ve consistently written the more discipline I have to do other hard things in my life.

Writing Everyday Adds Up

Exponential gains are something that has baffled me for the longest time.

Just the act of adding something to a pile every day will eventually lead to the pile getting so big it will run the risk of collapsing.

You do the same thing when you write.

You’re going back to that hole in the ground and drop in a grain of rice. Every day.

This only seems like a little act but after a year the amount of grains of rice in that hole is phenomenal.

Slowly adding to your record of writing pushes the needle forwards in ways that are often unseen in the present but deeply appreciated in the future.

A month is not a long time, it didn’t feel long at least.

And now I have over 30 posts to my name after just one month of writing. This is something that would take some writers 7 months to do need only take you 1.

This instills in me a sense of pride for what I have done and what I no doubt will do in another months time.

Keep adding to the pile, who knows where it will end up.

Setting a Goal is Important

If I hadn’t set myself a goal of writing 30 posts in 30 days it would have likely taken me 7-8 months to do that amount of work organically.

This speaks to the truth that if you don’t have a goal it is the same thing as shooting an arrow in a dark room hoping you get a bullseye.

It’s not gonna happen.

Setting myself a goal and creating daily stes for that goal has proven to me that if you truly stick to goals you set who knows what you can accomplish.

I honestly thought I would get to about 4 posts and give up, but having the end in mind, thinking that everyday adds up and one day, on December 11th 2023 I will be able to look at my page and have 30 articles written and published was enough to keep me going.

Set goals, who knows what you can achieve, you certaintly don’t.

Idea Generation is a Process

One of the things I struggled with the most when starting my challenge was the question of what would I write about everyday.

I knew I would be writing about writing and productivity tips for writers but I had not the faintest idea of what topics in specific I would discuss.

This lead to me creating systems in my day that maximise the chances of me coming up with an idea.

For me this was walking. Going for a walk everyday was an organic offshoot of my writing challenge that I have kept the same as my writing.

Every day for the last month I have gone for at least a 30 minute walk in nature, wether I wanted to or not.

Often writers and creators are asked “Where do you get your ideas from?” and for me ideas come from the everyday, from ideas and theories about the world around you.

The systems and attention to my thought process that were created due to writing not only gave me ideas for my blog but also ideas for creative writing, ideas for businesses and ideas for fun activities with friends.

Some people call it the law of attraction I call it paying attention but being open to ideas WILL give you ideas if you pay attention.

In Conclusion. . .

This has been a deeply meaningful and fulfilling month for me and has given me the motivation to take my writing seriously because it’s something I have become passionate about.

Thanks to all these benefits and many more writing everyday will become a regular and accepted part of my day.

In ending this post I wanted to thank every single one of you who have read any of my writing, knowing that I am able to make connections with other people through my writing is so exciting so I wanted to thank you from deep within my soul for reading my writing.

This challenge has kickstarted my passion for writing and I hope you’ll join me for wherever the future will take my writing and hopefully (and more importantly) yours.

I apprectiate you reading my work here’s another post I’ve done about upgrading your writing with short stories;

The Power of Short Stories: Crafting Compelling Narratives in Limited Space

What I’ve Learned From a Month of Writing Everyday