Summary

The author discusses their journey and resolutions for writing on Medium, including a commitment to write and publish more frequently and to learn from the experience.

Abstract

The author of the article reflects on their initial hesitations and insecurities when starting to write on Medium, which led to many drafts remaining unpublished. To overcome this, they created the "10-in-10 publication" challenge to write, edit, and publish ten stories in ten days, which proved to be a valuable learning experience. Drawing inspiration from Dr. Mehmet Yildiz's "100 Day Challenge for New Writers," the author embraces the concept of iterative improvement and plans to continue this approach by writing 100 posts in 100 days, publishing three stories a day, and sharing their learnings to reinforce their own understanding. The author also decides to focus on quality content rather than advice on making money on Medium and to seek guidance from expert writers.

Opinions

The author values the process of writing and publishing regularly as a means to improve their craft.
They believe in setting personal goals and self-evaluation rather than external validation.
The author acknowledges their novice status in writing, especially in English, and sees it as an opportunity for significant growth.
They appreciate the role of challenges and iterations in personal development and learning.
The author intends to shift their reading habits on Medium to focus on insightful content and expert opinions rather than just tips on writing and monetization.
They express a desire to contribute to the Medium community by producing quality content and possibly influencing what appears in their feed.
The author recognizes the importance of taking breaks, as it can provide new perspectives and ideas for writing.

My May Resolutions

There are times you sit down with one specific goal in mind. After a while you find yourself doing something quite the opposite. That’s what happened to me just now. I set out to post a haiku with some thoughts I had while writing it. It evolved into a “manifesto” on how I will spend my upcoming 100 days at Medium to keep my learning curve as steep as possible.

This is the haiku this story evolved from:

One haiku a day

To keep the doctor away

Nah, that’s not my way

Baby steps

When I started writing on Medium, I was eager and enthusiastic to pick up writing again. While I started on a few stories, I noticed that I felt insecure. Is this good enough? Does this meet my standards? Will people enjoy reading this? The result: I kept my stories in perpetual Draft and hardly published anything.

That’s why I set up the 10-in-10 publication. The goal: make sure I write, edit and publish ten stories in ten days. And, I figured, maybe there are others out there that will benefit from a challenge. Even if the bar is set pretty low. My philosophy is simple: you are the one setting the goals, so you are in charge of what you believe. And therefore you get to judge if you made it.

Everything becomes better with iterations

At the time I set up the publication I had read Dr Mehmet Yildiz’s 100 Day Challenge for New Writers. Being an agilist, I have the strong conviction that everything becomes better with iterations. And I must say, I am so glad I did.

Oh, in case you missed it: the haiku obviously refers to Dr. Yildiz.

My experience in the field of writing is little. First of all, I have rarely published anything in English. And secondly, before writing for Medium I actually knew my audience. Suffice it to say: I have a lot to learn. And since I am a novice, you could say I am at the start of the learning curve.

Learning curve for novices. Screenshot taken from the Learning Curve article on Wikipedia.

Being at the start of the curve is great. You get to learn a lot. I have learned something about writing, about Medium, and also about myself. Not a bad yield for just ten stories. I forgot to celebrate winning the challenge, but I did sit down and think about what I had learned. That’s where the real power of iterations is.

I posted my learnings in my last post of the challenge. The lessons contained therein may not be as valuable to others as they were to me. They were my lessons after all. Writing about them hopefully reinforced my learning.

I took a break from writing

My family and I went on a short holiday right after I finished my ten days of the challenge. Although I did bring a laptop, the circumstances at our camping site were far from ideal to sit down and write. I was forced to take a break.

This break yielded some mixed emotions: I was happy to notice that my writer’s hat was still on. I kept adding to my list where I keep story ideas. I guess you could say I look at life through the writer’s lens now.

At the same time, the forced pause also unearthed a negative effect: I had allowed myself to hold off writing! There was no need to crank out another article. The pressure is only on when you are already in a challenge, right? Right?!

Who needs a mentor anyway?

I sat down to write this as a short post, but it evolved a bit. It got me thinking. So far my journey on Medium has been my own. I went by gut feeling and just started writing. I also dived into the treasure trove that is Medium. My mindless reddit-scrolling soon became replaced by reading insightful Medium stories. There are great little gems to be found. If you can find them, that is.

Most of my feed is populated by either how to write or how to make money. While some of them are mildly insightful, they don’t meet the quality I long for. I can’t change that, but I can be the change. It’s time for some resolutions:

I accept the challenge to write 100 posts in 100 days.
As my list of ideas is growing larger than I can write, I will publish three stories a day.
I will publish my learnings to reinforce my own learning.
I will stop reading about money-making on medium, except from writers I already respect and follow.
I will follow expert opinion. Mastering a craft is hard enough. There are a lot of mentors out there. My start will be the 15 points in the 100 Day Challenge for New Writers I mentioned earlier.

One short post a day

No regret for yesterday

Yeah, that’s how I play

There’s no turning back now. It’s out there for the world to read. I am more or less okay with disappointing my few followers, but I don’t want to let myself down. My resolutions will be challenging every now and then. But I am sure they will be fun and rewarding most of the time. Now I need just to pick a date for my first iteration. I am on a break after all.