THE 30-DAY WRITING EXPERIMENT: UPDATE #1
I Wrote Every Day for a Week — Here’s What Happened
The good, the eh, and the top 7 lessons I’ve learned so far
I set out a week ago to write one article each day for a month. I’m going to be honest — I haven’t written in a very long time except for at my day job. It’s not something that really lets my creativity flow, and I don’t count it as writing since I’m mostly forcing my students to read it to get a good grade.
I am an indie-published author, and I did once have an Amazon bestseller.
However, I left the writing world behind for a “real job”, and I’m sure many people reading this can probably relate. There’s enormous pressure to be “stable”— and writing often doesn’t give you that comfort even if it’s your calling.
However, I’ve been feeling the urge to write — something that has hasn’t happened in a long time, and I’m wondering if I have quarantine to thank for it. It’s not that my mind is any less busy, it’s just busy in a different way, which has allowed my thoughts to process differently.
I’ve tried NaNoWriMo for the past few years after succeeding twice — but it seemed like I just couldn’t do it anymore, and I felt like maybe I wasn’t a writer at all. Maybe that piece of my life was just… gone.
So… here I am. This is the most I’ve written in quite a long time, and I’m proud of myself. I wrote one article each day, and here’s what happened:
Just a disclaimer, I have no idea if this is typical or not — but I love reading articles about transparency, so here’s what I’ve experienced. I’m breaking it down so you can see how each day went in the three major categories: views, reads, and fans.
You actually need people to read your work to be successful monetarily as a writer.
You can be a writer and not have anyone read it, for sure, but if you want a connection, or you want to make at least a little money — you are going to need readers.
And then we have the “fans”. The fans are the real MVP’s here, so if you’ve clapped for any article I’ve written in the past week — I’m raising a glass to you.
These people took a chance on me so that I have the opportunity to write this article in the first place — and we can all do that for each other.
Let’s break this down:
My first article, about apartment hunting at 27 with enough student debt to buy a house in some states went really well. It’s actually the article with the most views — by far. Yes, it’s the oldest, so that makes sense, but it is light years ahead of the other articles. It’s actually pretty funny, because I didn’t write this with any strategy in mind, I was just feeling a lot about my situation and I wanted to get it out.
It made me a whopping $0.08 my first day!
I felt proud, unsure, and I wanted to see where this could go.
I’d made a few friends, and I realized that I wanted to genuinely connect with other people through writing in a way that I hadn’t in years. I loved the articles I found — not just the mainstream front-page articles that everyone sees, but the people in between. For the first time in a long time, I was genuinely excited to be in the company of other writers.
Lesson #1: Make Real Connections
I met other writers right away — and they followed me! On many social media platforms, people are reluctant to follow you at first, so I expected the same here.
Actually, other people followed right away, and I followed them, eager to see more of what they had to say. It feels so much more genuine than what I was expecting — and most people actually read and clap, just as I do for them.
I’ve had so many conversations on Facebook, in responses, and even over email about different stories and concepts in the past week — it’s exactly what I needed.
Lesson #2: Be Genuine
Read other people’s writing. Clap for other people’s writing. Don’t just clap without reading — although I’m sure that’s still great, it’s the read time and connection that matters.
Write a response!
At first I was afraid to write them — thinking I wasn’t a big shot, so I should just keep my thoughts to myself, but they’ve become one of my favorite parts of this experience so far.
Write what you want to write — not what you think people want to read about, because if you’re an unhappy writer pounding away at your keys just trying to be “popular”, it’s not going to last long — or be much fun.
Lesson #3: Analytics Aren’t Everything
I checked my stats like a crazy person — and it drove me crazy. It drove my friends crazy.
I know they tell you not to do it, but I couldn’t help myself.
Who read this? Who liked this? How long did they spend on it? What are the trends?
Honestly, it’s easier to get caught up in this when you have fewer articles written, so it has actually gotten better the more I’ve published, because it’s harder to tell what’s actually going on if you’re just looking at the big picture since it all mixes together.
If you look at individual stories — you can see some interesting trends, but I try not to click on them more than once a day so I don’t spend my entire day wondering why no one wants to read about how to make cold brew at home/sarcasm.
Lesson #4: Write About “Unexpected” Topics
Readers seemed to really enjoy my apartment hunt — which is interesting since it’s unique to me. Yes, someone else could write about how it’s hard to find somewhere to live at 27 when you’re up to your eyeballs in debt, but this was my story to tell.
That goes to show that readers want to hear about unique situations, not just generic ideas about coffee — as I learned early on in the week.
Even if the cold brew article seems like a flop, I’m glad I wrote it! I was excited to write it at the time, so I’m not entirely worried about its “success” factor.
Lesson #5: Apply To Publications
I wrote an article about why it’s OK to work from your bed — and readers really connected.
I received a few emails that day, and decided to submit it to a publication after I’d already published.
I’ve found so many publications that I love reading, even if I’m not a writer for them.
I know that most would prefer drafts, but I was grateful that Invisible Illness took a chance on this one anyway.
I was accepted as a writer to a few publications — and I’m excited to submit drafts, when I have the patience to write them and then wait while I chew my nails off to see if it’s a good fit.
If it’s something you’re excited to write about, or you really feel it — write it. Even if it seems like absolutely nothing is happening, write it and do not delete! That brings me to…
Lesson #6: The “what if’s” will really get you, and you’ve got to let go of them:
I almost deleted my stimulus check article because literally NO ONE was reading it at first — and I got the “what if’s”. What if people don’t like my humor? What if they don’t like my voice? What if the fact that I wrote it at 3 A.M. means it’s bad? What if people don’t like the topic?
It turns out that readers did like the IRS article, it just took them a bit to find it, get there, and read it. It was a very quick read — Medium says three minutes, but most people read it in about 1 minute, 30 seconds. I think it’s good to vary your read times and topics.
My Instacart shopper article has had very few reads, but people seem to read the whole thing and take their time.
Sometimes readers are in the mood to really sit down and go on a journey with you, and sometimes they just want to get the idea and go about their lives. None of it is personal, which brings me to what seems to help people feel accepted…
Writers are all about curation these days. I have yet to be curated. We’re all familiar with this:
For my why it’s OK to work from your bed article, I did receive this yesterday, which was a little bit disheartening since curation seems to be the ambrosia that all writers are striving for, but it got published in Invisible Illness! Such a win!
Lesson #7: Choose Your Images
Much like choosing a character on a video game, choosing your image is important for whatever you’re writing. I’m personally a very visual writer, and while I’ve seen some advice that tells you to pick one image — and one image only, lest you distract your readers — I’m of the opinion that I like to use a couple to get my point across, even if it’s just for my own sake. I like pictures!
I personally love Reshot, but I’ve used some from PixaBay and Unsplash as well! Take the time to explore some of the awesome photography on there — it might even inspire you to write about something different — I love it when art inspires art. Make sure you credit your photographer for their hard work as well.
Finally… while I didn’t set out to become a millionaire this week, I was wondering how much money I’d make.
Like I said, the first day after my article posted (so, day 2, since I didn’t make any money the first day due to processing time), made 8 cents. Day 3: $0.27 total Day 4: $0.62 total Day 5: $1.32 total Day 6: $1.99 total
I’m currently sitting at:
I am surprised by this amount — in a good way. It’s probably the most difficult $2.76 I’ve ever made, but it does mean people are reading and connecting with my content.
Even if it takes me hours to write an article and I’m not really getting paid for it at all, I’m still going to try and continue until I’ve hit 30 days.
I sound pretty positive in my articles, but the truth is that I’ve been extremely frustrated at times, wondering if I should be doing this at all.
I think that’s the growth coming through, though. At least, that’s what I’m trying to tell myself. I know that not everyone is going to enjoy every topic that I write, so even if it feels stupid, I’m still going to put it out there.
