I am proud to say that I finished the 10 Day Writing Challenge without missing a post during the period (please see links below for all the posts), and I’m actually thinking of doing something longer next time.
Yes, I wrote spontaneously — sometimes very briefly — but I wrote what came to mind or what was happening to me at that moment. I usually found myself scampering to write before midnight, sometimes finishing the post just a few minutes after. Surprisingly, the pressure wasn’t all that bad. The topics weren’t difficult to find. So I wrote on and you can see that the topics were varied, although most of them were about what I was thinking of at the moment.
There were posts where I wish I had more energy or time to write — they were like the many draft posts that never found themselves published because I just wasn’t happy with the content because I wanted to write about it more. There were times when I got into the groove of writing, but then I lost myself somewhere and in the process, decided to hit the pause button. Not this time.
Lessons learned:
I can actually write everyday. I just need to find the focus and deliberately set aside time to complete a post, no matter how short or how long a piece it is.
I can still write more than one post in the course of a day, but I am more productive if I focus on one until I hit “Publish”.
I should start writing early during the day instead of looking at the clock only to realize my deadline is looming overhead. I know these aren’t my best 10 pieces, but the point was to write 10 — period. I wanted to see if I can actually go 10 straight days writing a post here, and I did. Some of my better pieces I did in one sitting, but without the pressure of midnight tolling. So I still need the leeway to write and go and edit my work. One thing I’ve learned is that that is best earlier during the day.
10 day challenge done! So what’s next? Maybe I’ll go thirty..
Pinay New Yorker 