I suffer from the typical writer’s block. I see a blank screen and want to run. I think of editing some old work and cringe. I’ve been wanting to write on a regular basis for, oh, a decade. Not ten days, not ten months, but ten years. When oh when will that day come where I learn to write on a regular basis?
John Muldoon’s Monthly Experiments has me thinking that I discovered (or he did) something of a secret: if I can manage to do something for a month, maybe it can become a habit. The nice part about the “monthly” is that is makes it bite size, I can handle it, it doesn’t scare me, I can achieve it. If it’s a big disaster, oh well, it was only a month. Also, as John points out, hey, it was just an experiment, so I don’t have to talk about failure, I can just talk about what happened.
So here we go, it’s November 1, 2012. I’m hoping, I’m even smiling to myself (no, really) that I’ll look back on this day with pride and say that was the day that it all began. Whew, exhilarating.
There are several writing challenges going on this month (National Novel Writing Month, Copyblogger’s EBookWriMo Challenge, I’m sure there are more), but I’m not planning on writing an e-book or a novel this month (although I’d be happy to take up that challenge some other month!). This month, I just want to produce. My rules are that I have to publish something on any site I have publishing rights to every day this month. That’s it. Ready? I am.
Update April 2013: I’m finding more and more people who are doing similar challenges. It’s great to share the pain–and the gain. Here are a few, do you know any more? Would love to hear about them.
- Nathan Barry: I will write 1,000 words every day.
- M.P. MacDougall: 30 Days of Write
- Christopher Mathews: 100 Day Challenge: Write Every Day
- Melissa Joy Kong: 2013: The Year of 365 Blog Posts
- Fränk Klein: Writing: My Personal What, How and Why of It
- Vasco Portocarrero: 100 Days, 100 Posts
- Ben Keller and Nick FitzGerald at Bespoke Blog: 100 Posts in 100 Days Challenge
- Mark Schaefer at Grow: One thousand posts. No navel gazing.
I’m even going to keep a running tally of posts here, counting this one as the first.
- Write Every Day (Nov 1)
- Let Me Look Into That (Nov 1)
- If I don’t know where I’m going, how will I know when I arrive? (Nov 2)
- Thrift Store Runway (Nov 3, while at a party … !)
- Skytech Solar (Nov 4)
- Philanthropy Futures (Nov 5)
- WOO Button (Nov 6)
- Mint is the New Sugar (Nov 7)
- Proposition 37 lost, but now it’s on the map (Nov 8)
- Where does creativity come from? (Nov 9)
- Kale Kocktail Livens Otherwise Pretty Good Party (Nov 10)
- It’s not too late … to delegate! (Nov 10)
- Neetu Ahluwalia (Nov 11 … sick as a dog!)
- The Right Tool for the Job (Nov 12)
- Change of Scenery (Nov 12)
- Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (Nov 12)
- WOO Canvas is Now Responsive! But what if I don’t want responsive? (Nov 13)
- WordPress Gallery (Nov 13)
- Do you mind if I add you to my mailing list? Yes, I do. (Nov 13)
- Katovich & Kassan Law Group (Nov 14)
- Bunker Vein & Imaging Center (Nov 15)
- Do you know your inner clock? (Nov 15)
- A Writer Walks into a Bookstore … (Nov 16)
- It’s Real (Nov 17)
- Lone Morch’s Big Night (Nov 17)
- No One is Watching: What Do You Do? (Nov 18)
- Raw (Nov 19)
- Pretend You’re an Interviewer (Nov 20)
- Can We Strengthen Our Memories? (Nov 21)
- Really Annoyed … and Why That’s a Good Thing (Nov 22)
- Trinity Reverse Mortgage (Nov 23)
- Cutting Edge Capital (Nov 24)
- The Slow Train (Nov 25)
- Katrina Rozelle (Nov 26)
- Determination (Nov 27)
- If Not Now, Then When? (Nov 28)
- Community Ventures (Nov 29)
- Summary Tables (Nov 30)
- WordPress 3.5 Overview (Nov 30)
- I Am, I Love, I Cry, I Worry, I Try, I Wonder, I Hope (Dec 1)
- I Wonder If I’ll Get More Friends (Dec 2)
- Every Bite is Divine (Dec 3)
- Embed YouTube in WordPress (Dec 4)
- The Goal of Having No Goals (Dec 5)
- Do The Last Thing on Your To Do List (Dec 6)
- Google Apps No Longer Free (Dec 7)
- Beauty is Anywhere (Dec 8)
- I’m Not an Authority on the Subject, But I Can Write (Dec 9)
- Work Work Balance (Dec 10)
- As You Should (Dec 11)
- Gravity Forms to WordPress Post (Dec 12)
- Repossible (Dec 12)
- Should I Upgrade to the Latest Version of WordPress? (Dec 13)
- Creation is Hard (Dec 14)
- Bookkeeping on Saturday Morning (Dec 15)
- If You Only Want One SEO Tip for 2013, This Is It (Dec 16)
- WOO Themes Responsive to my Responsive Design Challenge (Dec 17)
- If You Create It, Will They Come? (Dec 18)
- Add a Blog to Your Website (Dec 19)
- Add Subscribe Form to your WOO Theme with MailChimp (Dec 20)
- Goal Weight … Revisited (Dec 21)
- Higher EDge Scholar (Dec 22)
- Do I need to buy all variations of a domain name? (Dec 23)
- Bite-Size Change (Dec 24)
- Big Change (Dec 25)
- Added Thin and Thin/Italic to typography options (Dec 26)
- Moonlit Bubbles, Spooky Mangroves and Sleeping Iguanas (Dec 27)
- Start Without a Destination (Dec 28)
- Screen Detox (Dec 29)
- WP Engine (Dec 30)
- Puerto Rican Tacos (Dec 31)
- Live, live, live! (Jan 1, 2013)
- The Gift of Giving (Jan 2)
- Yucca Fries (Jan 3)
- MX Records: change at domain registrar or host? (Jan 4)
- I Don’t Want to go Home. Ever. (Jan 5)
- Permalink Settings “Post Name” (Jan 6)
- Jetpack Publicize (Jan 7)
- Why I Don’t Use Custom Post Types (Jan 8)
- Meetups: When is the last time you “friended” someone … offline? (Jan 9)
- Michelle Hamilton (Jan 10)
- How We Stayed in an $8,400 Villa in the South of France for Free (Jan 11)
- If you’re only going to do one thing to protect your WordPress site, try this one. (Jan 12)
- The Mexican Fisherman (Jan 13)
- I know how to get there, I’m just not sure where I’m going (Jan 13)
- Change Post Author (Jan 14)
- Is Your Message Clear? (Jan 15)
- I Lost. Now What? (Jan 15)
- I Won. Now What? (Jan 16)
- Pretend You’re Oprah (Jan 17)
- CoreAlign (Jan 18)
- Dorado Choco Leche Bacardi (Jan 19)
- MediaWorks (Jan 20)
- We Can Do This the Easy Way or the Hard Way (Jan 21)
- How to make souvenirs “work” (Jan 22)
- WordPress as Learning Management System: Sensei (Jan 23)
- Do What You Don’t Want To Do (Jan 24)
- Portrait Images into a Horizontal Slider with Photoshop (Jan 25)
- I Have Everything I Want. I Want Everything I Have. (Jan 26)
- 100 Posts in 100 Days (Jan 27)
- If You’re Going to Cheat, At Least Make It Worthwhile (Jan 28)
- Can You Repossible Your Kids? (Jan 29)
- Follow the Advice You Give Others (Jan 30)
- I Will Become What I Know I Am (Jan 31)
- The Stats Behind 100 Posts in 100 Days (Feb 1)
- Tangy Tangerine Twist (Feb 2)
- Flagstone Pantry (Feb 3)
- Delete Your Old Accounts (Feb 4)
- Show Up (Feb 5)
- When you feel good, all impossible becoming possible. Only believe. (Feb 6)
- I’m going to get fired. Why that’s a good thing. (Feb 7)
- Waiting for Change (Feb 8)
- Vein Specialists (Feb 9)
- Raja Yoga Meditation (Feb 10)
- On the House (Feb 11)
- Do You Have a Petri Dish for Ideas? (Feb 12)
- How to search a site that doesn’t have a search function (Feb 13)
- Virtual Assistant: Job Description (Feb 14)
- Missing Out (Feb 15)
- Education Doesn’t Necessarily Lead to Change (Feb 16)
- WordPress Pages versus Posts (Feb 17)
- Is President’s Day a Holiday for Entrepreneurs? (Feb 18)
- Schedule Small Sessions (Feb 19)
- Nice Goes a Long Way (Feb 20)
- Hey, I found a great theme! (Feb 21)
- CSS Gradient Generator (Feb 22)
- WordPress Menus (Feb 23)
- WordPress Widgets (Feb 24)
- Weight Loss or Nutrition? (Feb 25)
- Are you a virtuoso playing in the metro? (Feb 26)
- Virtual Assistant: Interview Questions (Feb 27)
- Custom Menu Shortcode (Feb 28)
- Favicon (Mar 1)
- Criminal Trial Lawyers Association of Northern California (Mar 2)
- Are We There Yet? (Mar 3)
- Wage Slave (Mar 4)
- What’s the Pain Point? (Mar 5)
- Live Long and Die Quickly (Mar 6)
- Virtual Assistant: The Interview (Mar 7)
- Write about your loved ones as if they were dead. (Mar 8)
- The World Didn’t End (Mar 9)
- Changelog (Mar 10)
- I Don’t Want to Go Anywhere (Mar 11)
- Are You Willing To Do the Work No One Wants To Do? (Mar 12)
- How do you create a shift towards abundance and pleasure in your daily life? (Mar 13)
- Urology Center (Mar 13)
- Klokhuis (Mar 14)
- Famous First Words (Mar 15)
- Anything Goes … in my Vitamix (Mar 16)
- WordPress Insert Photos (Mar 17)
- WordPress Tiled Galleries (Mar 18)
- WordPress Jetpack Carousel Gallery (Mar 19)
- The 7 Minute Rule of Social Media (Mar 20)
- Retirement is Overrated (Mar 21)
- 3-Day Juice Cleanse (Mar 22)
- Gelberg Variations (Mar 23)
- Bite-Size Exercise (Mar 24)
- Patience (Mar 25)
- WOO Themes Shortcodes: Dividers (Mar 26)
- The Next 20 Years (Mar 27)
- Duplicate Titles with Yoast WordPress SEO (Mar 28)
- 301 Redirect with htaccess (Mar 29)
- The Lounge Chair of Timeless Oblivion (Mar 30)
- Site Deployment Best Practices (Mar 31)
- Ik kan het niet helpen. (Apr 1)
- A is for Acknowledgment (Apr 1)
- HTML in Comments (Apr 2)
- B is for Beneficient (Apr 2)
- C is for Choice (Apr 3)
- D is for Duh! (Apr 4)
- E is for Efficient (Apr 5)
- F is for Fail (Apr 6)
- Champagne Mango Lassi (Apr 7)
- G is for Generosity (Apr 8)
- H is for Health (Apr 9)
- Conversion Rate Optimization 101 (Apr 10)
- I is for Indecision (Apr 10)
- J is for Jealousy (Apr 11)
- K is for Kin (Apr 12)
- L is for Likoma (Apr 13)
- The Hidden Cost of Cheap Hosting (Apr 14)
- M is for Momentum (Apr 15)
- N is for Naive (Apr 16)
- O is for Overwhelmed (Apr 17)
- P is for Proverb (Apr 18)
- Q is for Quick (Apr 19)
- R is for Respect (Apr 20)
- Keep Oakland Beautiful (Apr 21)
- Liebster (Apr 21)
- S is for Smile (Apr 22)
- T is for Trust (Apr 23)
- U is for Useful (Apr 24)
- V is for Virus (Apr 25)
- W is for Whisper (Apr 26)
- X is for Xanadu (Apr 27)
- Vein Clinic site in Canvas (Apr 28)
- I Never Get Upset for the Reason I Think (Apr 29)
- WordPress Redirection Plugin (Apr 29)
- Y is for Yellow (Apr 29)
-
200 Posts in 200 Days (Apr 30)
- Z is for Zebra (Apr 30)
- How I (Secretly) Get My Kids to Eat Greens (May 1)
- Muza Kids (May 2)
- A to Z Wrap Up (May 3)
- What’s Your Idea of Fun? (May 4)
- Sports Medicine Center (May 5)
- Attention: Important Notice. Domain Service Notice (May 6)
- Remove Drop Down Arrows in Navigation in WOO Canvas (May 7)
- WordPress Checklist (May 8)
- Full-Width Slider in WOO Canvas (May 9)
- Full-Width Header and Footer in WOO Canvas (May 10)
- Image into Sidebar (May 10)
- Add New Post as Author (May 11)
- De Groeten van Mike (May 12)
- Marketing Company Chooses WordPress to Replace Huge Legacy HTML Site (May 13)
- JSTS Transcription Services (May 14)
- Tired But Wired (May 14)
- WordPress for Mobile (May 15)
- Vein Center and a Beautiful Slider (May 16)
- I Just Read Every Word of a Website (May 17)
- Taste Buds are Most Active Mid to Late Morning (May 18)
- Don’t worry so much about what might happen as what might not happen. (May 19)
- Upload a PDF into WordPress (May 20)
- Remove the word “Archive” from Canvas archive header (May 20)
Cameron Highlands, Malaysia were a respite from the wet heat of the lowlands in Malaysia. It was cool, surrounded by tea plantations and an ideal place to write.
Bradley, you know I love this post, but I’m gonna say it anyway. I freaking love this post!
You’re one of the best writers I know, and I’m so excited to see where this experiment takes you. Thanks for the shout-out, too!
Hey there Bradley & John! I’ve been developing the writing habit this month too!
I’m glad to have discovered the two of you today.
Awesome, Tim! It’s only the 16th and it’s already been such a game changer for me. Completely changing the way I start my days. Where/what are you writing?
Just click my name!
Whoa, you own a Daily Deal Aggregator? Can’t wait to learn more about that! I love that we’re in the same “big space” (online, marketing, trying to make some dosh) but the services and products can be just that much different. Thanks for stopping by!
John just reminded me that this Write Every Day goal of mine has been around a while.