A New 30 Day Reading Challenge: a Daily Deep Dive on Writers

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Abstract

cc7">My next 30-day challenge is making the time to do those reading deep dives.</p><h1 id="d66f">The plan</h1><p id="9747">Each day I will go to a different writer's profile and read several of their stories. I’ll then post a short introduction with links to a couple of my favorites and why I liked them.</p><p id="deea">I’m going to aim for a mix between new to me writers and choosing people from my current following list.</p><h1 id="d3f2">The goals</h1><p id="0a70">My first goal is to be entertained. I had a blast with my publication <a href="https://readmedium.com/results-from-30-days-of-doing-a-deep-dive-into-reading-publications-7f7cd31f2afd">reading challenge</a> last month and I want to keep the momentum going.</p><p id="1367">If Medium is going to stick around and be able to reward us financially as writers it needs to be a healthy ecosystem for paying readers. By setting aside time to focus on reading, I’m getting a glimpse of what the Medium experience is like for a reader. Thinking like a reader will help improve my writing as well.</p><p id="87c6">Reading several stories in a row will also let me immerse myself in someone else’s writing style. I can see patterns, get ideas and inspiration.</p><p id="51c2">I’m also excited about writing a daily post about another writer. I know how much it has meant to me when someone else has given a

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shout-out to me and my work and it is going to be fun to systematically and regularly do that for others.</p><p id="192e">Also, my most productive writing month ever was April. I wrote some stories that are still near the top of my MPP list every month. You know what else happened in April? I started a 30-day <a href="https://marydj03.medium.com/list/creating-healthy-habits-1bb70542609f">habit journey</a> and posted about it every single day. I’m convinced those quickly dashed off habit stories, most of which did not get a lot of reads, helped prime the pump for my other writing.</p><p id="d644">Good reading and writing go together. There is nothing magical about reading to automatically turn you into a good writer. My hours of watching the Olympics haven’t turned me into an athlete. However, paying attention to the way words work and how other writers string them together both effectively and poorly is very useful.</p><p id="2533">I prefer to focus on writing that makes my heart sing one way or another. I’m looking for great stuff to inspire, motivate, and educate me. I’m looking forward to finding a lot of it this month.</p><p id="ec4a">Care to join me? Let’s make a splash.</p><p id="a12b">You can read all the writers I profile <a href="https://marydj03.medium.com/list/who-and-where-to-read-on-medium-c8b7cab98829">here</a>.</p></article></body>

I’m ready to dig into writers back catalogs

Have you ever stumbled across someone’s writing here you really like? You click on the follow button and tell yourself, I’m going to come back and check out their older stuff when I have time. But who ever has time?

One of the cool things I’ve noticed about everyone’s best frenemy here, the algorithm, is when it sees me reading everything new someone publishes it tends to slowly feed me their back catalog over time. I’ll find myself thinking, “Wow, Sarah really hit it out of the park today,” and head over to make a comment only to notice all the other comments are several months old.

It makes me wonder what other great work I’m missing in the back catalogs of people I follow.

My next 30-day challenge is making the time to do those reading deep dives.

The goals

My first goal is to be entertained. I had a blast with my publication reading challenge last month and I want to keep the momentum going.

If Medium is going to stick around and be able to reward us financially as writers it needs to be a healthy ecosystem for paying readers. By setting aside time to focus on reading, I’m getting a glimpse of what the Medium experience is like for a reader. Thinking like a reader will help improve my writing as well.

Reading several stories in a row will also let me immerse myself in someone else’s writing style. I can see patterns, get ideas and inspiration.

I’m also excited about writing a daily post about another writer. I know how much it has meant to me when someone else has given a shout-out to me and my work and it is going to be fun to systematically and regularly do that for others.

Also, my most productive writing month ever was April. I wrote some stories that are still near the top of my MPP list every month. You know what else happened in April? I started a 30-day habit journey and posted about it every single day. I’m convinced those quickly dashed off habit stories, most of which did not get a lot of reads, helped prime the pump for my other writing.

Good reading and writing go together. There is nothing magical about reading to automatically turn you into a good writer. My hours of watching the Olympics haven’t turned me into an athlete. However, paying attention to the way words work and how other writers string them together both effectively and poorly is very useful.

I prefer to focus on writing that makes my heart sing one way or another. I’m looking for great stuff to inspire, motivate, and educate me. I’m looking forward to finding a lot of it this month.

Care to join me? Let’s make a splash.

You can read all the writers I profile here.