5 lessons from a 30-day writing challenge

The Friday after I got let go from my last job, I met with my friend and mentor, Keith Robinson. Many of you know Keith, and if you don't, think of him this way: some of you have Tom Ferry, Brian Buffini, or Ninja Sells. I have Keith.

Even better, we are friends, so he reached out when I was let go from my fancy C-level gig. We met for coffee to catch up and discuss the future, and we ended up with a challenge.

Keith brought up a writing challenge because he knew I wanted to get JoeManning.com off the ground. He said, "Let's start at the beginning of the month," I said, "Let's start tomorrow." I needed some regimen, and I needed it fast.

So 30 days and the goal was one publishable content piece per day, we both wrote 30 articles, but it wasn't daily. Weekends were more challenging, and we did two on Sundays a couple of times.

Lesson 1:

Daily is hard, and weekends are more challenging. Life happens. You may need to spend time with family or be busy showing houses. Working on the weekend will test your mettle.

As for publishable content, that was a much more significant challenge for me. My brain can't produce decent material for the same audience per day. Not yet, at least. Sometimes we need a break from our "brand" and need to write about life, other hobbies, or complain.

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If this was a workout challenge, doing the same exercise every day is what I would compare this to.

Lesson 2:

Publishable on-brand content takes time. Don't rush it. That means it needs a beginning, middle, and end. Like writing a song, it usually starts with a beat, melody, or chorus. Then it goes into a draft and many revisions, mixing, and mastering for the audience and mediums. Making a radio-ready song in one day is close to impossible.

Okay, the song writing analogy is over...

Sometimes all I could do was write a sentence or an idea for the next couple of days, but I only finished one publishable piece in 3 days.

Lesson 3:

Writing for the same audience daily is more complex than it sounds; sometimes, you need to change the audience for your sanity.

At first, I thought this was going to be easy. I had 3 pieces ready for the site and was excited to get 30 weeks of material in 30 days. But things changed quickly. I found that I was still only making 1 decent article per week and a lot of ideas that I needed to spend more time on than the rushed daily challenge.

Lesson 4:

Understand your pace. I can blab out a lot of stuff quickly, but if I want to tell the whole story and motivate, I need more time than one writing session.

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It's three touches for me, minimum: idea, draft, and refine.

Halfway through, I would jokingly tell Keith I hate him and this stupid challenge, and he would say, "no, you don't." In the end, I have a strengthened bond with him and myself. I know I can do something I don't want to, and hard things make hard people.

Lesson 5:

The obstacle is the journey. I stole that from a stoic reading Keith shared with me.

Without the challenge, I could have done one article per week, but I wouldn't have the writing muscle or this experience to learn from.

So now I challenge you to a 30-day writing challenge. Who is your audience? Is it for work, fan fiction, a journal, or your memoirs? Why not all of the above? That way, you will have lots of material to work with. Find a partner to do it with.

As for Keith and me, a long-term weekly challenge is in the making. And you are a part of it, reading this right now.