Thirty Day Illumination Challenges

An Impossibly Overachieving Lunatic

Not One But Two Thirty Day Challenges At The Same Time

I just don’t know what it is with me lately. Well, maybe, I do. Perhaps it has something to do with that one day a few months ago. The day I met Dr Mehmet Yildiz virtually. The first time I was invited to post something in Illumination.

Yeah, that’s it. That’s gotta be it.

Since then, I’ve become an impossibly overachieving lunatic. First, the good doctor issued a simple challenge. An introduction challenge and we all jumped on board. Me?

I could have submitted a discreet and unpretentious photo of myself and a brief description. But no, I had to go all Hollywood on everybody’s butt with a closeup glamour shot of my fat butt in my western regalia (which I wear all the time) standing in front of a bronze statue of mustangs.

Hey, I’m from Texas. We do things big, remember?

In my defense, the name of the square is Mustang. Yeap, Mustang Square.

Oh, but I couldn’t just let it go there. When Dr. Yildiz offered another challenge to write something every day for thirty days, I was already all-in. I didn’t just write a piece each day for thirty days.

I wrote at minimum, two pieces each day. From April 1st to April 30th (my birthday by the way), I wrote and published precisely sixty-nine stories. Or 2.3 stories a day.

Yeap, sixty-nine stories. And no, before you ask, I didn’t plan to end up with 69, although it’s a significant number when you stop to think about it. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, you know what I mean?

But here’s the deal. As I said earlier, I was already all-in on the good Dr.’s challenge. Back in February of this year, I celebrated an anniversary on this platform. An anniversary of a personal challenge to write something every single day for a full year.

At the time of my self-congratulatory back-patting, I had written 456 stories in 365 days. Seriously. In the article, I included a snapshot of my enhanced stats (Which is groovy by the way. If you don’t have them give me a shout and I’ll tell you how.), which proves the number.

In that same article, I threw down the gauntlet of another self-imposed challenge. I challenged myself to double the production, and instead of 365 stories, write and publish 730 stories for a grand total at the end of the year of 1186 stories. Remember those enhanced stats? Here’s where I am today.

What I learned from writing two stories a day? Sometimes it’s exhausting as h*ll. But remember, I’m an impossibly overachieving lunatic. In my case, stretching the boundaries of common sense and good mental health is what I do.

Okay, the first challenge squared. What about the second one?

The second challenge from Dr. Yildiz that I decided to run in parallel with the daily writing challenge was statistical peeks of how I was doing since signing on board the good ship Illumination.

I chose to wait until I had a full thirty days under my belt before examining the numbers. And as a full thirty days happened to just fall on my birthday…

Oh dear God, will somebody just tell him happy birthday so we can all just get on with it?

This is where my lunacy has nothing to do with it. Well, okay. Maybe just a little bit. Let’s start with a simple show of green bars. The very first story I submitted to Illumination was written on March 26th of this year entitled Are You Truly Writing Your Future?

As ugly as they are here’s a picture of what my stats looked like at the time:

Before the twenty-sixth, I considered myself lucky to top sixty reads for the day. At the time, I had 2,514 views, 1,737 reads, and 1,029 fans in thirty days. Pitiful huh?

But look at what started happening after the twenty-sixth. On several days I received over sixty reads, and on three subsequent days over eighty reads for the day.

But there is something else I learned from not only the bar graph but the enhanced stats. It’s my view to read ratio. It’s hovering slightly above 50%. That means my titles may bring the readers in, but my content, perhaps my lead or even the story itself, may not be strong enough to keep the reader engaged.

This is something I need to concentrate on and improve. There’s always room for improvement. The day I stop thinking I need to get better then I’m probably dead.

No, literally dead, pushing up daisies, six feet under, kicked the can dead.

Now let’s see what my read count looks like for the end of April:

I’m calling a big wowzer on this one folks. Posting steadily on Illumination and taking on the challenges the good Dr. laid down for continued improvement has been simply put, amazing. 4,524 views, 3,219 reads, and 1,275 fans in thirty days.

Also, I’ve started (thanks to all you readers out there, really, really, thank you) hitting the 100 read a day mark more consistently, and today, well today, thanks to all of you, I have 300 reads, and it’s not even two in the afternoon (here in Texas).

All because I took a chance, believed in the message, and bought into the program of doing the things necessary to help me grow as a writer.

Am I making any money?

Who cares? I’m having a h*ll of a great time at this. Why spoil it by concentrating on money?

Thanks So Much For Reading

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