103 Stories in 100 Days

6 Learning Gems

Today is the 100th day in a daily writing project started on 1 November 2021. Time flew by quickly as I enjoyed myself in this self-initiated challenge. The goal was writing, pure and simple, and not some numerical target. The 103 stories, articles, poetry, and Hataciku covered my diverse topical fascination spanning management, reality-learning™, blue leadership, people management, strategy, Hataciku poetry, other poetry, joy, happiness, sadness, spirituality entrepreneurship, politics, and solitude. And then, some.

I became a writer for Medium in April 2020 and was appointed a Senior Editor for ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications soon thereafter.

Within 23 months, I have published 344 articles and stories that attracted nearly 53,000 views (with 6,000 views alone in December 2021) from about 17,000 reads by 2,772 fans who embolden, encouraged, and inspired me with nearly 90,000 claps.

The learning impact was orgasmic, exhilarating, yet so pleasant, fun, and empowering. The encouraging feedback and comments from readers and editors are perhaps the single most important motivating energy for the relentless effort driving the literary journey.

6 LEARNING GEMS FROM WRITING 103 STORIES IN 100 DAYS

1] Set a Goal

Everything that is worth doing is worth doing well. That means setting a clear goal about the end result. What do you hope to achieve at the end of 100 days of writing? For me, it started with writing (at least) 100 stories and articles. The important sub-goal was to write daily, in addition to my ILLUMINATION editing responsibilities. On some days, I actually wrote 2 stories. However, I wanted to space out my writings on a daily basis, but I also started writing on more than one story in advance when inspirational moments struck unexpectedly. The goal(s) set the direction and focus for the writing initiative. Previously, I wrote as and when I was in a writing mood, blaming frequently on “writer’s block” for not writing. And I was to discover over the past 100 days this to be just an excuse for my goalless laziness.

2] Self-Reflections on Purpose

On a few occasions, self-doubts entered my head as to the true motivation for writing daily. It was surely not for the money that Medium Partner Program (MPP) so generously credited to writers from Medium members’ subscription for reads. It is sufficient that my MPP earnings cover more than Medium’s subscription.

My self-reflections led to the important self-discovery of an innate desire to rise to a challenge whose attainment is entirely within my control, energy, and resources. The 100-day challenge is voluntary and attracted no tangible incentives; kind of like the quest “why climb Mount Everest?” — Well, because it is there! Writing daily for a hundred days is of course not climbing Mt Everest. The purpose-driven focus needed to overcome the inertia of status quo is the same nonetheless.

3] Create your Own Genre

Noting that the literary world is a bloody competition of ideas and expressive structures with unlimited topics, I invented and innovated in December 2021 a new artform genre of creative literary expressions. I called it the Hataciku poem. Here’s a complete anthology of Hataciku poems.

A Hataciku poem consists of 65 syllables written without punctuation in 3 stanzas as 11 lines of phrase arranged in the pattern sequence of 5–7–5–5–7–5–7–7–5–7–5 = 65 syllables.

The invention and innovation of Hataciku created fresh literary expressions as it evolves into so many forms within the simple constraints of lines and syllables. There is a growing readership of Hataciku poetry on Medium, ILLUMINATION, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social media. Hataciku poetry also accounts for about 36% of the 100-day challenge.

4] Create a List of Topics

I find a continuously updated listing of possible writing topics useful in the search for inspiration. Don’t worry about what literary form to write the topic, or with how many words. Whether the final literary form is a poem, a book review, a fictional story, a personal story, a commentary, an academic article, a management brief, a version of history, an information guide, a political critique, or anything, would become clearer during your research into its content, combined with your writing reference. Your topical listing is a sure cure for that imaginary elusive mental obstacle called “writer’s block”.

5] Create a Daily Writing Time-Space

One needs to set aside time for every important activity of life deserving attention. Writing is regarded as an important life activity since it expands the limitless creative metaverse of our connectivity with one another and the spiritual metaphysical world around us. What is the best time(s) for you to write — it could be one or a few time-slots throughout the day or even during the night. I find it easier to fix a time-space in the morning hours for publishing, and the late afternoons for research and writing. Stick to whatever works for you; until it no longer does. Remember that you should publish your work when you consider it to be “good enough”. Resist the temptation to continue editing, updating, or revising endlessly. Just publish it, and move on to the next topic.

6] Cultivate and Feed the Writing Habit

It is said that anything that is done repeatedly and consecutively for 22 days will become a habit. A frequent method used by some experienced writers is to have several partially written articles at any time, to be completed when they are absolutely happy to do so. I do not recommend this for new writers. Baby steps, mean finishing what you begin, article be article … as step by step. Do not get caught in the fake binary trap of “quantity vs quality”. As your writing improves with quantity, you will find that quality would have also caught up eventually.

The 100-day writing challenge is just the beginning for any aspiring writer. The daily writing habit provides the discipline for inspirational and passionate leadership eager to share alternative realities with one and all. In return, I received the unquenchable satisfaction from the knowledge that my works must have impacted many lives for the better.

Closing Remarks

Writing is a natural human activity. Writing creates that which is first conceived in the mind and externalised through literary expressions for the benefit of humankind for their education, entertainment and information so as to persuade and convince consensus. The more you write, the more influence you can have on people and society for better or worse. If you only read other people’s creations, you are likely to end up with no original thought of your own. For me, writing daily after the initial 100-day challenge would likely become an integral part of my personal growth. Be better always. Tomorrow is promised to no one. Be inspired to create your own futures through writing today.

THE 103 STORIES

For your convenience, the followings are the 103 stories in their respective monthly collection over the past 100 days –

8 Stories — February 2022

33 Stories — January 2022

32 Stories — December 2021

30 Stories — November 2021

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