It’s been around 8 months since I first started writing now. A few things have changed. Earlier this month I finally published the website under the new domain name, and after hitting 30 posts, I finally shared my blog with some people I knew.
I’ve also been writing more than before in the last two months, which made me worry about what I would do if I ran out of writing ideas. So I wrote a post to work that problem out and arrive at a solution. Then I decided to just enjoy this creative period while it lasts.
With these new developments, I had a few other concerns that popped up, and I’ll note down how I’ve been trying to deal with them.
1. Not letting ego get to your head. When I first shared my blog, I saw a spike in views and visitors, which was exciting. However, I had to try and quickly ground myself so that none of those things would get in the way of my future work. At this point, re-visiting the article written by Ryan Holiday about different ways we can combat our ego really helped me out.
The other thing that helped me ground myself was to just start writing again. It made me feel like things were back to business as usual. Reviewing my old motivations for why I started this website also helped, and so did re-reading the post I wrote after reading the book ‘Ego is the Enemy‘.
2. Deliberately practicing gratitude. Once, I received a positive comment on one of my blog posts. I was about to scroll past it as if it was just a usual thing when I stopped myself.
I realized I was starting to take positive feedback from people for granted. So I sat there for a few moments to acknowledge the kindness of the person who took their time to leave that comment and feel thankful for it.
Going forward, I’m trying to keep this in mind no matter how small the amount of positive feedback, or milestone is.
3. Too many drafts! Right now, I have more drafts than published posts. At one point I did feel a bit stuck over which draft to flesh out and post away, as well as a hesitancy to record new ideas in the drafts. I think it will be helpful to set a limit to the number of drafts so it doesn’t get in the way of actually finishing and publishing posts. Trying not to ‘perfect’ any posts and releasing them anyway also helps with this.
4. A variety of ideas. I’m realizing that I’m writing, and would like to keep writing, about a wide variety of topics that may not have anything in common with each other. I’d heard that it can be a good idea to focus on a niche topic so things are easier for your audience to follow.
However, I decided that before I hit a certain number of posts, I won’t decide to limit myself to a few topics in exchange for exploration and experimentation. Maybe after this exploration phase, some patterns will emerge that I could choose to follow later, or not at all. I don’t know yet, and that’s just fine for now.
5. Writing for self-exploration. Writing here has encouraged me to journal more about concepts, thoughts, and emotions that are more personal. As a result, I feel better about having an outlet to express and manage my thoughts and emotions on my own. Sometimes, writing seems to be speeding up my process of gaining clarity and perspective on things.
Overall, the writing process seems to be getting smoother and less intimidating than it did when I first started writing 8 months ago. A good sign I suppose 🙂
Previous reflections on the writing process:
Faiza 