Results of my challenge to publish 10 stories in 10 days

Ten days ago I set myself a goal to write, edit and publish 10 articles in 10 days. One rule: don’t write about writing. You don’t need to check the original story where I set my goals, but if you are really curious:

In this post I share what I have learned.

Each day taught me a new lesson

The point of doing the challenge was to learn. How does it feel to publish a story that, in my mind, could do with some more refining? Will I be able to garner an audience that appreciates my content? What do I enjoy writing about? What other struggles hold me back?

I have created masterpieces no one has read

I created my first work of art on my second day of the challenge. As it happens, it’s about art and the emotions one particular painting evoked in me.

It took me about 3 hours to complete the story over the course of two days. Considering the research involved, this astounds me. Writing required me to do some online research, find and consult one of my journals and do some scanning. Also, I restructured the post on the second day to include some of my journal entries.

I am thrilled to have managed to capture my thoughts in this story. To be able to write this in such a short time makes it even better. Since it got published, it attracted 0 views, however. I don't mind at all. It’s not every day you write a masterpiece.

Yet, after I hit the Publish-button on my artful story, I set out to write about a thought-provoking video game. At the time I didn’t feel like writing, but eventually writing my third story left me fulfilled and satisfied as well.

I was hoping that I would flow into writing. I had no clear what my premise for the story was and it was some time ago I had played the game. If I can be so humble: it turned this story is another crown jewel of my work.

I read somewhere to write with the door closed and edit with the door open. Even if you take it literally, that’s solid advice. I kept being interrupted. I struggled to get back into a flow and to keep track of the goal of my next paragraph. I ended up spending more than half a day on it.

An honourable mention goes to

A very personal story about how I was shaped by a 1986-videogame. This may not be the best of my productions, but I was very happy that The Secret Aspirant highlighted a few phrases that made the article dear to me.

Great to get some response on an article. I felt happy that I got to connect with The Secret Aspirant, who is rediscovering his love for retro games. I reached my goal of finding a reader. More importantly, we also interact about other games as well.

Where is my stopwatch?

I found that it is easy to lose track of time while writing. I wanted to track how much time I spent on writing and editing. It turns out I suck at this. The world shuts off more and more as I get into the flow of writing.

• I spend about as much time writing as I spend editing.
• I consider finding images to coexist with my articles to be editing. It’s way more work than I thought. I use Pexels and Pixabay. I prefer the latter as its search works better for me.
• If possible, I should avoid YouTube for research. I am sure to be distracted.
• Writing for me works best if I write on one day and edit and publish on the other. Both take a different approach and mindset, so I should avoid doing them at the same time. As a bonus, with my two-day process, I get to start the day with a bang! Do some editing and then hitting the Publish-button feels great. I’m ready to take off for my next writing session with zeal!

The joy and frustration of publications

Medium doesn’t exactly find your audience for you. It’s the publications that do the work for you. When I joined medium I wasn’t expecting that. Here’s what I learned:

• It takes a lot of time to find publications that fit my stories
• I find it frustrating to wait for a publication. Whether it is being accepted into a publication, or getting a story published.
• Finding the right publication is a great source for inspiration on what to write about
• I didn’t expect a sense of community when I joined Medium, but actually found it in some publications. The first I experienced this was the weirdly named Woodworkers of the World Unite!!! (WoTWU)

A haiku in WoTWU inspired me to write the following

A day later I found more inspiration in a Tanka

Although I am no closer to finding my niche as a writer. I have learned I enjoy writing Haiku, Tanka, and things that resonated with me in my life. That’s not a bad result for the time invested in finding the right publication.

I don’t know what stories I will write in the future, but I want my future stories to be published in publications that have a wider audience. I am keeping track of publications that possibly fit my future ramblings. I dread to spend more time searching for them.

No one is harmed by hitting the publication switch. It’s just my ego that suffers

Some parting thoughts on my lessons learned to close off:

• I am wildly unsuccessful if you look at my stats. I am going with the advice offered by successful writers. While I will keep track of my reads and followers, I am sure my experience on Medium is a lot better if I stick with what I came to do. Write and get inspired.
• I have learned about writing, I have learned about what works for me and what doesn’t. I have rediscovered my love for haiku and learned about tanka in the process. I now know writing about my past experiences is a very satisfying process.
• I have learned how I am going to use medium. I have found publications helpful, but I won’t change with what I write only to be published there. It’s about my story, not about a tool that helps me reach an audience.
• Followers keep you going. I have been thinking about following people to get a follow back, but decided not to. I follow people because they are interesting. Learning something new is a way better experience than pushing myself to reach a larger audience.
• Some of my stories are still in draft as I wait for a publication to accept them. Oh, the agony of waiting! This must be what it feels like to have submitted a manuscript to a publisher. I am thankful to experience this on such a small scale.
• Although some of my stories aren’t actually published, I still consider myself to have completed the challenge successfully. I know I can always edit more, but I am ready to publish now. I realize the story will never be ready.
• Spending each day writing, I find myself discovering new subjects to write about throughout the day. I immediately put them in my writing backlog, which grows more rapidly than I can write. What more can a writer ask for?

The void of finishing

After completing this momentous task, I find myself relieved and satisfied to have reached the end successfully. On the other hand, there is an emptiness before me. Will I write tomorrow? Or will I lose the ambition to keep on publishing?

Challenge completed

How can I push myself more?

Ten times ten in ten!

I will go forth to reach 100 stories in 100 days. To maximize learning I will break those down into blocks of 10. I will re-enter my own challenge, but this time with the goal of completing it 9 more times. The ride has been bumpy at times, but very rewarding at most. I look forward to learning more!

This story is my tenth post in my 10-in-10-challenge, where I am challenged to write, edit and publish 10 stories in 10 days. Feel free to join the challenge! See the publication details on how to submit.