Challenge Accepted: I’m Submitting 30 Articles to 30 Publications in 30 Days
I’ve let myself slack off and it’s time to get back on track.

This challenge has been on my mind for a couple of months now, but I kept pushing the starting date forward.
It’s mid-June now. This month, I have written some drafts but published nothing on Medium at all. As a result, my views and reads have slightly gone down. A library of past articles keeps readers finding my work at least somewhat consistently, but that doesn’t mean I can lay on the sofa and stare at the ceiling.
I can throw any excuse at it, but the fact remains that I did not write as much and consistently as I wanted to, which is all on me. Now, I’ve grown tired of my excuses.
It is time to commit and climb out of this self-pity and procrastination-filled cave.
It is time for a 30-Day Challenge. This is my pledge. Once again I’m counting on public accountability to help me make it to the end.
The rules for my Medium 30-Day Writing Challenge
It’s your challenge, so you decide which rules to abide by. Here are mine:
- The challenge starts on the date this piece is published
- This pledge post counts as the first article out of 30
- I can submit to any publication
- Each submission must be to a different publication
- It doesn’t matter if I previously published with the publication
- If a piece gets rejected, I won’t be resubmitting it to a different publication, but self-publish instead (although I might try if I find a better home for my piece in the meantime)
How I prepared for the 30-Day Challenge
Several writers recommended planning, Ellie Jacobson included, from whom I drew inspiration for the list below. Preparing for the challenge can mean:
#1 Listing the publications of your interest
How to find 30 publications to publish with? Well, you’ll need to look for them. I’ve been using the search bar to find publications about topics I want to write about.
Furthermore, writers who I follow expose me to new publications. Each time I open my homepage, I hunt for new names I have not yet seen before, so I can add them to my alphabetically ordered spreadsheet of Medium pubs.

So far, I’ve found 90+ publications I both read and would like to write for. I have 13 applications pending, and to 26 I’ve been added as a writer already. Yep, that means I have more work to do.
No, I will not share the list with you. Hold on, suppress that inner rage. Why so mean, you ask? Isn’t sharing caring?
Firstly, this list holds publications on topics I care about. This list is useless to you if you write about chemical engineering, venture capital, sex or math. And yep, there are pubs for all of these topics.
Secondly, I think you should take the time to read publication pieces to get a feel of what they’re looking for and what would be a good fit, and especially, take the time to go through their submission guidelines. If we’re too keen on using a shortcut, we might miss critical info because we’re being too lazy to read.
#2 Going through the writer admission process for each of these publications
Each publication that is open to new writers has a “submission guidelines” section stating how you can collaborate with them. Some ask you to leave a comment with your Medium handle, while others ask you to fill out a form, or send an email, sometimes along with your unpublished draft. This will take time, so you’d best do it beforehand. I’ve been investing an hour here and there to do this.
#3 Outline, draft, finish pieces beforehand
When an idea for an article or a headline pops up in my head, I write it down immediately.
If the headline idea reveals itself along with a storyline or full outline, even better, I dump that into a digital sticky note, to-do list item, a calendar block description, my paper notebook; just anywhere other than in my brain while thinking “I’ll write that down later”. Trust me, that ain’t happening.
Since I haven’t written in weeks, the content ideas have been piling up. This is great, as I’ll always have a source to pull from. When I sit down to start working on a new piece, I won’t start from zero.
#4 Create a publishing schedule
To be fair, I did not make a publishing schedule for this challenge. I know myself and would indefinitely stretch the starting date because “the planning isn’t finalized yet” or “I’m not ready yet”. Excuses. So I’d rather just start now.
In a perfect world, I would plan this, for the sake of structure and overview.
I’d take the headline and topic ideas, spread them out over the editorial calendar, one per day, and match them with one of the publications from the other spreadsheet. Come to think of it, I might make a template for this and share it with you in the Google Sheets Geeks publication.
EDIT: I did :) Find it below and feel free to steal it! If you have suggestions to improve it, I’m happy to hear about those too. I’ve been making adjustments to the template daily.
What I hope to achieve
- To finish the challenge and for the first time in history, write and publish 30 articles in 30 days. My record thus far is 24. Finishing is the main goal.
- Increase my follower count by 200.
- Increase my income. I want to find out to what extent consistent writing influences my earnings. And when this challenge is over, I can add on another 30 days where I self-publish, and compare the results, although that’s getting ahead of myself just a bit. I don’t have a target to hit, as I’ve noticed the earnings fluctuate.
- Make sure to love the process. Even now I am quietly thinking of reaching the finish line, but I want to make sure I enjoy how I get there. Like I said to my Focusmate virtual coworking session partner earlier today: “I don’t want to close my eyes, work like mad for my pension, and start living life in 40 years from now”. We are here now, let’s enjoy the ride.
What I’m afraid could happen
Overwhelm. Writing 30 pieces and submitting them all to different publications, for which I’m in the process of getting accepted as a writer for many, is a lot.
Delaying everything further down due to poor time management. One piece can take me anything from 30 mins to 8 hours to write and edit. It depends on the topic, how much research is needed, how much I can write from what I already know, or whether I’m writing a tutorial where every step needs an explanation and screenshot with annotation. I’m afraid one or several of such pieces delay my streak so much that I get too frustrated to continue and give up mid-challenge.
Lower quality writing. By writing this much, I’m afraid my content quality might go down. At the same time, I know I won’t feel comfortable with myself if I write words for the sake of writing words. I don’t aim to waste the reader’s time and I want to write stories worth sharing. The aim is to go for “good enough”, and then get it published before I change my mind and start adjusting bits and pieces, as this process could go on forever.
Creative burnout. I’m also afraid I’m stretching myself very thin. To be prolific is to produce. I’m not even going to compare myself to the superstar writers of the platform. I’d love to get there too, but my focus is first to make these next 30 days happen.
Positive side effects I expect to experience
- Deepen my ties in the Medium community with editors, writers and readers.
- Increase my writing speed to 800–1000 words an hour. I’m currently at around 500 per hour.
- Get more comfortable with rejection. Unless a miracle happens or I get a lucky streak, not every submission will be granted a “GO”. As long as I don’t tie my ego to my writing, even those rare pieces I’m proud of, I’ll be fine.
- Gaining a deeper understanding of what readers like to read from me by writing for different publications and opening up my writing to different types of readers from all corners of Medium
A bit more about me
- I’ve written and published 136 articles here on Medium
- There are free templates up for grabs in my publication dedicated to Google Sheets
- I’ve been published in PGSG, The Ascent, The Expat Chronicles, Start It Up (formerly The Startup), Curious, Invisible Illness, P.S. I Love You, About Me Stories, and Perceive More!
- Here is my full bio in case you care about the tidbits
And when the party’s over?
When the 30 days are over, I will write a recap post sharing how it all went.
If you get a rush out of seeing people fail online, stay tuned. Failure is on the horizon, eyeing me up like eagles waiting for their supper to surrender to its fate.
Will I succumb to the pressure and face public loss of face? Only the future will tell.
On a brighter note…
“I want to do this challenge too!”
That’s great and you’re very welcome to! David Majister wrote here how he went about his challenge. Read about the participation guidelines, or check out fellow writers’ pledge posts in the 30-Day Challenge publication.
Be careful now, you might get inspired to start a challenge yourself.
No matter how this will go down, it will for sure be a great learning experience.
Challenge results
Edit (30–7–21): By now I completed the challenge. My results post below explains how I did and reveals the stats you all want to know. Scroll to the bottom to see each of my published pieces.