This is my second monthly checkpoint for the 365 days writing challenge I started this year.
I showed up every day in February too, so, up until now, I can safely say the challenge is going ok. Today included, I published a post every day for the first 59 days of 2021, which leaves 306 posts more to publish. I don’t feel it like a burden yet, although there have been a few incidents in February, both personal and job related, which kinda threw me off course for a while. Luckily, I was able to keep up the posting schedule even in this environment.
As the habit settles in, new developments kick in also. They are either things that make the challenge easier – like formalizing a bit more the posts – or things that are caused by the habit of writing, like new books ideas, or projects. For instance, I started a series called Monday Moving Forward, which means every Monday I will find a small tip, idea, or personal story that will help my readers to get unstuck (Mondays been notoriously difficult to kick off, for me, at least). That falls into the “formalizing posts” category. I find this structure, this scaffold that uncovers the unknown territory helpful for my routine. I can obviously just sit at the laptop and write a post, but it’s much easier (and, probably, a lot more helpful for my readers) if I have a specific topic at least weekly, so they know what to expect and narrow their focus.
In the category “new projects”, I am slowly starting to look back at one book that I wanted to finish last year, and couldn’t, and I am putting together a scaffold for a new one – which, obviously, I have no idea if and when I will publish. The book that is almost finished (I would say it’s 65% done) is also part of a project involving blockchain and NFTs (Non Fungible Tokens), which is quite trendy this days. If you’re a creator (an artist, like a painter, a photographer or a musician, you should definitely start to educate yourself about NFTs).
It’s difficult to make a commitment to those two books, though, because, obviously, a consistent part of my time is occupied with the daily writing challenge. But even in this case, the mere fact that I’m starting to at least look back and ponder the idea of finishing an old project and event start a new one, is a positive development.
Regarding the content, I also wrote probably half and half, half timely content, half timeless content, with the timely content being related to the current pandemic (one exception being an article related to Elon Musk). During February, the place where I’m currently living in, Valencia, was in a de facto lockdown. Which means I spent a lot of time inside and tried to maintain morning rituals, fresh perspectives by preparing different tostadas every morning, and so on and so forth. Starting March (tomorrow) restrictions will be somehow relaxed, and that should translate in a more relaxed topic list, and also a broader one.
All in all, a good month. Ten more left.
