I’m Doing the 30 Submissions to 30 Pubs in 30 Days Challenge
This should be interesting
This is my pledge to join David Majister’s 30-Day challenge.
David has so kindly invited anybody to join this challenge, and as a newbie Medium writer, I decided this is a perfect way to dive headfirst into this creative space.
I’ll be using the same challenge rules that Alana Rister put together in her pledge post.
Why the heck am I deciding to do this? The main reason is to see if I can. I’m a very competitive person, and I’m curious to see if I can make it the entire 30 days.
The goals for my challenge are:
- Get an article curated — I’m hoping with the quality and quantity of stories I put out that this will give me a better chance at curation.
- Network with other writers — Part of what drew me to Medium is the potential to connect with other great writers, so I am looking forward to this!
- Earn $5 (cost of one-month Medium membership) — This is a lowball goal, but as someone who has only posted two stories to Medium so far with a monetary total of $0.30, I think it’s realistic. If I blow this goal away, then that is great.
I created a list of publications that I plan to submit to. I’ve already been approved as a writer for the below five. These will likely be the ones I submit to first:
Although it massively intimidates me to submit to larger publications for fear of rejection, I might make a caveat to my monthly rules and require myself to submit to at least three big Medium publications.
Another challenge pledger, Liv Pasquarelli, made a list of her fears beforehand in order to let them go, and I thought that was brilliant. I will be doing the same.
The Fear
I really only have one big fear for this: That I will flop hard and give up the challenge super early on.
I’ve read a few people’s challenge results where they didn’t finish, missing a week or a few days. If I make it that far I’d be happy, although my completionist self is hoping to complete the full 30 days.
I’d like to be as realistic with myself as possible, though. Going from one story per month to 30 in a month will be a major feat.
Even David admitted that this challenge was very difficult to finish in his end results.
However, in the end, I would rather try and fail than not try at all.
The Worry
An additional worry that I have is that I am not giving myself enough time to prepare for this challenge. I’m usually an over-planner who likes to prepare for things as much as possible.
Other people have said they banked up to ten pieces before starting, so they had some wiggle room to fall back on. I’m naively not doing this.
Why am I not banking stories beforehand? Mostly because if I don’t start now, I will chicken out and not do it at all.
I saw the challenge for the first time a few days ago, and it hasn’t left my mind. If I wait a week to bank articles, I may decide not to do it by then because of lost motivation, fear, or some other excuse.
I’m fully expecting this decision to bite me in the butt a week from now when I’m struggling to get writing finished.
The Plan
The plan is to update this as I go with the stories that get published and where, but not sure how “live” it will be.
There is also going to be a results post where I wrap up what went down, what I learned, and share the juicy stats.
Hopefully, future me is not having to write an apology post to my current 11 followers, letting them know I failed the challenge and gave up after three days.
So here it goes. I am taking a deep breath and jumping in.
Join The Challenge
If you want to take the plunge with me and do the challenge as well, it’s never too late! David Majister created a new publication for this challenge called 30-Day Writing Challenges. You can now post your pledge here!
Fellow writers taking part
Submissions:
I’m going to add links as articles get published, give or take a few days.
Day 1:
Day 2: Rejected
Day 3:
Day 4:
Day 5:
Day 6:
Day 7:
Day 8:
Day 9: Skipped 😐
Day 10: Repeated a Publication 🤫
Day 11: Skipped 🙃
Day 12:
Day 13:
