1,000 Words a Day
I have always been interested in writing but never considered myself to be a good writer. I struggle to translate my thoughts into coherent sentences that someone else would understand, to the point that I wonder whether english is my first and native language (it is). Writing, to me, is challenging, but when I am able to land on something I am happy with, it is also greatly rewarding.
Recently, I stumbled upon a podcast with Nathan Barry, CEO of ConvertKit (now Kit), where he talked about his habit of writing 1,000 words a day and how it unlocked new opportunities. In On Writing Well by William Zinsser (which I reread recently), he says, “The only way to learn to write is to force yourself to produce a certain number of words on a regular basis.” Barry’s challenge seemed hefty and unattainable at the time, but here I am, during the Christmas Holidays, thinking about taking it on.
In reality, I write more than 1,000 words a day. I write daily morning pages, emails, regular social media posts, reports, other work communications, messages to friends and family, the list goes on. However, I’d like to focus on writing things that I can publish. Which means, writing things of value. I want to put things out in to the universe that starts a conversation and helps further my understanding of a topic.
Over the last year, I have written a whole bunch of short essays on business, finance, technology, AI, art, and other things, but I haven’t posted any of them. Sharing on social media in 2024 felt scary. If you say the wrong thing you could loose your job or be blacklisted from potential future companies. Alternatively, I have this website which feels pointless to post on. I have no idea who views this site and I purposely have not installed google analytics, so who will ever see this?
This lack of data and visibility into who is viewing and reading this website is just the cover I need to start posting more. To be honest, I don’t know what I will be posting. It could be book reviews, random musings, or explainer essays on topics to test my thinking. But it could also be short fictional stories, real life travel stories, or documenting my attempt at writing a novel.
One of the things clear to me is that all of my big life aspirations start with writing. I’ve been writing behind closed doors for many years but now I want to put it out there and see what comes back.
Stay tuned… I guess.