100 Days of Writing Report - 20 Days In

3-minute read
100 days of writing • challenge • report

Introduction

This essay was written by me, Brandon Nolet, in the context that I may have underestimated the power of my writing and the effort it takes to produce it.

Stuff I Knew

I try to pull as much as I can from the areas of knowledge I’m familiar with. A lot of what I write is from my perspective and largely I think my perspective matches up with a majority of people. Some disagree with some of the statements I put out there but that’s gonna happen no matter what I write. You can’t please everyone.

I knew some of the posts I write would be more impactful than others. For example when I wrote about being just like my grandfather I got a few people telling me stories. Some were about how they’re similar to other people in their family and others were about a family member being similar to another family member. But others like what I think self-discipline should be about got a very quiet reception.

I know people are reading these and it’s perfectly fine that they have nothing to say. I far from want the fame and fortune of having 100s of replies to my posts. In fact, I worry what’ll happen if that does start to happen. I think the desire for a few replies here and there is more a desire for the confirmation that what I’ve written is valid. Is that deep?

Stuff I Didn’t Know

I didn’t think that some of the posts would create reply threads of more then 20 replies. When I talked about making cold brew coffee I hardly expected a conversation about marriage to arise. When I made a post about critical thinking (and I should have thought more critically writing this) I didn’t expect a mild backlash on comparing two of the same side of the political spectrum.

I learned that I shouldn’t be writing about very hot topics when I’m having trouble keeping my eyes open. I learned that I shouldn’t be waiting until after I participate in one of Wiz Khalifa’s favourite pasttimes to write a post.

Most of all I’m starting to really think about participating in escalation of communication when it comes to my opinions. That linked post talks about “workshopping” your opinions in increasingly public ways starting from the most private (sharing with the person you trust/cherish most) to the most public (social media?). I think I might be able to better avoid hot water if I stick that.

Challenge Revision

It’s been more than 30 days since I started this challenge and it’s also been a few “runs.” Frankly, it would have been a few more runs if I didn’t give myself a little leeway. I’ve been having trouble writing absolutely every day. Not for lack of trying, but because either I have plans that take precedence or because I don’t have access to my server.

I’m trying to make that less of a problem but this revision will be the saviour of this run.

Changes:

  • I miss a single day provided that the next day I release two posts. These will be properly dated to reflect the true nature.
  • Code revisions must be more than 50 additions. This is not including doing the “math” of additions vs. deletions. However, file renames, copy/pastes, etc. will not count towards the additions (within reason)
  • Posts must be more than 300 words. I haven’t had a problem reaching 300 and most posts are over 400 words.

Conclusion

I hope you’re all enjoying the posts that I write and I hope that my writing continues to not cause any legitimate harm.