This blog is part of my 38 32 before 38 series. I write a blog for every single day for the 38 days leading up to my 38th Birthday.
This experiment was a failure.
- I set out to publish daily for 38 days. I did not.
- I did it to create a habit out of writing. I did not.
Instead, I ended up wasting a lot of my good ideas. Most of them required multiple drafts and details. I ended up rushing through them and ended up with unsatisfactory output.
Publishing daily was not a good idea for me. At least the way I attempted it. With no planning and no pre-research.
But it was not a completely fruitless endeavor. I found that I am great at improvising. Most of the good posts in this series was me shooting from the hip. The ideas formed as I was writing them. They wrote themselves.
This also showed me what not to do. Which seems a counter intuitive way of looking at it. However, inversion is a useful principle. It is very difficult to ascertain what makes a success. Because they are rare. It is very easy to know the many ways to fail. You can just avoid doing those.
You learn more from your failures than from your successes. I certainly learned a lot here. I think a better strategy is blocking out a time daily to write, research, and edit. Of course that requires me to *shudder* outline my essays. This kind of haphazard approach plays into my worst habits. Instead of improving my writing, this method amplified its worst aspects.
Writing is not just typing words, and posting online. There are many parts to this discipline. Editing, outlining, and research are just as important. They need practice as well. That is going to my aim going forward.
Happy Birthday To Me! 🎂