Reflections after 20 days of publishing

I didn't love it, but I did it

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This is Day 20, the final day of my challenge to publish every day for 20 days.

To be honest, I didn’t really like the experience, though I don’t regret attempting it. Going in, I knew daily publishing would be a challenge, but I was hoping for a change of heart somewhere along the way. It never really came. Each day, the thought of publishing felt no less like a tedious homework assignment than the day before.

I’m a big fan of the idea of wu wei from ancient Chinese philosophy, which means effortless action. I was hoping that this exercise would bring me toward more effortless writing. But even after 20 days, it feels like quite a bit of strain. If I had to analyze why, I think it’s because I feel pressure from the responsibility of:

1. having good ideas,
2. condensing those ideas into written text,
3. weaving that text into a coherent narrative structure,
4. presenting it to my standards for grammar and reader engagement,
5. and finally, sharing it with others.

As I move forward, I’m sure I’ll figure out ways to manage each of those steps. Even just listing them out as these 5 steps I can address individually feels like a step in the right direction.

Another idea to reduce my workload going forward is to lower the stakes. Maybe I can try writing more journal-style, off-the-cuff thoughts instead of aiming for evergreen pieces of tiki canon?

Will I keep writing?

Yeah, but not at this pace. I’ll also take a well-deserved break to reflect on what’s working and what’s not.

Instead of completely falling off after this challenge, I’ll try to taper off and maybe publish once a week for the next month. I think this will also give me the space to develop a few post ideas I still have in mind that a daily cadence was too fast for.