The number of words to write in a day was chosen because it seemed low enough to write about a single point. It was also high enough that it could be easily expanded by:
Adding more points or
Expanding on points already written about.
It seemed like a simple enough challenge. Yet in reality, keeping up with the writing became difficult as I wanted to keep the writing challenge separate to all other pieces of writing I was doing.
Not Meeting The Challenge Goal
For a few days during the challenge, the 500 words daily writing goal was not met. As much as I wanted to keep the writing challenge separate to all other writing I was doing, I decided to redefine how I measured the daily number of words written.
After looking at a couple of ways to redefine the challenge, I opted to incorporate all writing into the challenge. In other words, rather than keeping the writing challenge separate to all other writing I was doing on a daily basis, they would all become part of the challenge.
Redefined Writing Goal
There were a couple of other projects I was working on in parallel that also involved writing.
The first was creating a Skillshare class. Skillshare is an online learning platform with thousands of classes on a variety of topics available to watch on demand.
My process for creating a class involves having to write a script. This way I am able to ensure all key points are mentioned, calculations fully explained and sections of the script can be converted to blog posts or marketing copy for promotion.
Adding the script writing to the daily writing goal meant I was able to easily meet the 500 words a day goal.
The second project I was working on was writing more blog posts for my home decor site. For this site, I was following a method I had been taught that required looking for what people were searching for and writing about that topic.
Writing blog posts this way took a long time for me to complete. By which point, I was too tired to write an additional 500 words. So, it made sense to also add any writing done for blog posts to the 500 words a day writing goal.
Result Of Redefining Writing Goal
By redefining the way the writing goal was measured, the Skillshare script was completed; a few blog posts were written that had 2,000 words; and I had a bank of posts to be published at a later date.
Summary
One key learning from the writing challenge is to keep reviewing what is being done to see if it’s still working.
For me, keeping the writing challenge as a separate thing to do when I was already doing a lot of writing did not make sense. Especially, as the purpose of the writing challenge was first and foremost to improve my writing skills.
Translating this into my business life, I am now able to stop, rethink and adapt what isn’t working to make it work for me.
Another key learning is you never know what starting something would lead to. Who knew a simple writing challenge would provide me with content I am able to use to populate my blogs after a little editing.
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