This is now the longest continuous writing practice I’ve ever kept
Considerations on writing length and practice's purpose
This is now the longest continuous writing practice I’ve ever kept!
First post published July 11th;
July: 19 posts;
August: 13 posts—so far;
100% consistent posts on week-days;
42% of week-ends posted.
I figured at the 33 day-mark it was a great time for a reflection. But first:
Thank you for subscribing!
There are 8 of you—and I truly appreciate the subscription. Specifically, thanks to:
, the first subscriber and engagement. Your comment on the Syllabically rhythmic summary of my time in Amsterdam post energized me for days.
and Pete Christianson: thank y’all for subscribing! I met you both, the same day, not even one week into starting this practice. Appreciate meeting & connection; and to
Santa and Mrs Claus—thank you for subscribing, reading, and supporting :D
How it’s gone so far
This whole writing practice is supposed to be about finding and exploring my own voice. Having opinions. Yet. My perfectionist tendencies tend to overtake my moments of writing, shifting too much time to thinking—structure, style, substance; how do they all align with practicing in public? Am I saying the right thing?
Overall, it’s been fun.
I’ve enjoyed it—
that’s important.
Linking past thinkerings
I’ve found how nice it is to link to the things I’ve already written. That’s kind of the whole point of it right? To create inertia of writing, and over time, that builds in the breadth of things written on, styles tried.
It also works with the whole bit of “throwing many things at the wall and seeing what sticks.” You can remix your content, revisit it as you publish on other platform. For me, I’m excited about citing and referencing myself. Building a web of connections from my own content, creating a body of work in public that can be seen.
I’ve written many things in the past—150+ performance reviews for others, for instance—but I have neither recollection nor access.
It’s nice to write and grow this in public.
Posting to Linkedin
I regularly cross-posted most of what was written here to LinkedIn. For a while at least, then it became a step too much for me where I was overwhelmed by the time it would take from start writing to post.
It feels like posting there feels like whatever I do post should have some sort of purpose that aligns with all the things. I think the context of LinkedIn, and the sort of space it is right now, adds to the performative pressure of persistence.
In the long run, I’m making a lot of content that I can repurpose and schedule for future postings there.
In the meantime, I’ll keep writing here.
Using my own photos
One surprise aspect was the part that started from the first post, though without much planning involved: all but two posts have been populated with my own photos!
I’ve enjoyed writing, then searching for a possible photographic pairing out of another of my unpublished archives: a decade of travel photography.
It brings together multiple aspects of myself that I’ve not quite found the way to connect them before.
Rhythms of routine
My best writing times are in the mornings, when I don’t feel as rushed as I spit out a post at the end of the day. Mornings are my best focus times as it is.
Since starting this newsletter, I’ve picked up a freelance contract to build a design system for a productivity & project management app for neurodivergents by neurodivergents. That’s messed up the routine.
I get so engrossed in the work of the designing—especially in the morning—that I’ve had surprising days where I realized, “oh wow! It’s been 8 hours!”
Then, I realize I still need to write.
Moving to a true 500 characters?
I think one of the things I’d like to move this towards is to be fully focused on count of 500 characters.
Aligns to this newsletter’s current chapter title;
Aligns with expectations inherently set by fact of being a Title;
Focuses the time to practice writing something smaller, quicker, and more succinct.
Allows myself to build a lot of posts I can link to—definitions, thoughts, explorations—later on;
In the long run, I aim to monetize this. But, I need to get to a point where I have something that’s “sellable.”
If 500 Characters is the free bit, my longer pieces can go into a Paid category and area.
But, first—just keeping it up is the goal.