What I Learned Blogging 34 Straight Days
I wrote a blog post every day during the month of November. Combine that with a handful of posts I wrote consecutively in October and I amassed a 34-day streak.
Not bad! I’ve never blogged that much before in the history of this site. Here’s what I learned from doing it.
The Process
Most of my longer drafts started in Simplenote. When I fleshed them out, I moved them into WordPress and polished from there. I had one list going, full of ideas and worked off that. At one point, I was seven days ahead. I published a few posts at 11:56 p.m. It didn’t matter so much about the how or when, but the it.
Good for Processing
Writing every day forces you to think, process and find an end to things. It turns out I had several posts floating around in my head and writing during November helped me get them out. Without putting the words down, I’m not sure some of those posts would have been written.
Easier Than You Think But Still Hard
Once I found a rhythm, generating post ideas and writing them, whether short, long, detailed or simple became easier. Finding that rhythm meant being more free with my ideas and my notion of perfection. Sometimes publishing meant I may have not liked every last word. That also meant I hit my points of burnout. Some nights, I wished I didn’t have to write, especially if I had no idea what to write about. Other nights, I wondered if what I wrote would add value to someone’s day. But I wrote.
I Missed Writing
I wrote for a living once, and blogging for 30 days straight made me remember that and miss it. What I love most about writing is the process of it. Putting the words down, moving them, deleting them, replacing them. Shaping them. I enjoyed having a chance to do that again, and even have ideas for a few writing projects I’d like to work on in the future. I feel like I found my voice again.
The End, No
In the end, I wrote a lot about accessibility, one of my passions. I also mixed in many links about the open web, plus a few personal posts and some photos. I had a blast throughout the month. Because of the experience, I know I have more writing to do. 🙂