5 Things I Learnt When I Started Writing Online

I have been on Medium since last year and it's been an interesting journey.

I'll admit, my writing hasn't been very consistent. I have struggled to develop a writing routine despite my other commitments. I lacked the motivation to write because I didn't have a reason to.

I compared my starting line to someone else's middle line and asked myself why I wasn't achieving what they had fast enough.

It was difficult coming up with new article ideas and then it was discouraging seeing those articles not perform well.

I would say that I am still a beginner writer who just started their journey in this writing space. I had an overly optimistic outlook when I started and unrealistic expectations about writing in general. Frankly, I am pretending that I know what I'm doing when in reality, I have no idea.

However, I have learned a couple of things from writing online that I want to share.

5 Things I Learned When Starting To Write Online

There Is No Substitute For Work

It's easy for people to look for a shortcut to avoid working to get a successful result. However, you will most likely spend more time looking for that shortcut because, in reality, there is no shortcut to work. Hard work is about putting in the effort necessary to do what you need to do. It's about taking action instead of planning out what you need to do. For me, taking action is writing this article instead of thinking about writing this article.

The author of "Atomic Habits", James Clear, highlighted this concept of being in action vs being in motion.

"The two ideas sound similar, but they're not the same. When you're in motion you're planning and strategizing and learning. Those are all good things, but they don't produce a result.

Action, on the other hand, is the type of behavior that will deliver an outcome. If I outline 20 ideas for articles I want to write, that's motion. If I sit down and write an article, that's action. If I search for a better diet plan and read a few books on the topic, that's motion. If I eat a healthy meal, that's action.

Sometimes motion is useful, but it will never produce an outcome by itself. It doesn't matter how many times you talk to the personal trainer, that motion will never get you in shape. Only the action of working out will get the result you're looking to achieve."

So being in action means to be actively moving towards your destination. It means to be progressing forward and taking small steps to achieve that outcome.

While being in motion means to be planning and brainstorming how to achieve the desired outcome. It's about formulating a structured plan to achieve something, like a roadmap.

Doing the former consistently will get you results compared to the latter.

While there is no substitute for work, there are ways for you to work smart and not hard.

You can optimize the way you work to maximize your time and effort. I have found that having at least 2 hours of deep work every day is more efficient than having 8 hours of interrupted work. Having the ability to focus and cut out distractions is a depleting skill these days, especially in today's fast-paced world.

According to the author, Cal Newport in his book, "Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World", he defines deep work as a 'professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capacities to their limits.'

Essentially, it is being in the flow state.

The flow state is a condition where you are fully immersed in your activity and you are deeply focused on something, often to the point where time seems to slow down. This is the state where we feel at peak optimization and naturally will perform at our best.

Research has shown that being in the flow state many benefits that enhances our performance. Engaging in a flow state leads to increase levels of happiness, satisfaction, and self-actualization.

It also has been shown to improve performance levels in various skills from teaching, physical activity, learning, and artistic creativity. This enables you to achieve a certain mastery over your skills, where there is a balance between you being stimulated and challenged but not beyond your limits.

The Importance Of Having A Why

Having a reason for doing something is what propels you forward when things become challenging because writing is harder than I thought.

Sometimes it's difficult to get the motivation to write, to brainstorm interesting article ideas, to carve time in your day to write, and to make writing a habit consistently. However, having a reason why you do what you do gives you clarity and purpose.

In his novel, "Start With Why", Simon Sinek refers to the Golden Circle which outlines why, how, and what.

• Why: Your why is all about your purpose. Why are you doing this? You need to have a clear reason for your work and writing. This will differ for everyone, some people want to make writing their full-time job, others do writing as a creative outlet and some other people want to become a part-time freelance writer. Nevertheless, your why should be a personal choice to you.
• How: Your how is your process and strategy. How will you go about writing? Are you going to have a writing routine? It's the actions that you will take that move you toward your why.
• What: Your what is what you do. What are you going to write about? What are people going to read in your articles? Your 'what' is the quality of the writing content you create. As a beginner, your writing will most likely not be of the best quality, however, with more practice, your writing skills will improve over time.

The Importance Of Having A Writing Process

Having a writing process is what keeps you accountable and enables you to be consistent, especially when life gets busy. When you have a writing system it streamlines your writing process which enables you to publish more articles.

Having a set time to write holds you accountable. I have found this to be the most difficult since my schedule changes day to day. However, the reality is that everyone has 24 hours in a day and it's how you spend that time that matters.

Being able to prioritize and manage your time helps you to create a writing habit that is sustainable in the long run.

My writing process consists of 5 key points of action:

1) Brainstorm Article Ideas

This is an obvious point. However, I have found with content creation, in general, is that you need to find a balance between writing content that you want to write about and others also want to read.

In other words, you should be enjoying what you're writing about, and others should find some value in your articles.

2) Research And Write Article

Writing your article is what creates the content. At first, it's easy to not know what to write about. However, your first draft should be a brain dump of your ideas and concepts. It is not the finished product yet.

You spent most of your time writing your article and including research. Also, including statistics adds more credibility to your writing. Moreover, adding in quotes from prominent figures, interesting analogies and concepts make your work more interesting and unique to read.

3) Edit article

After you have finished writing your article, you need to edit it for grammar and punctuation mistakes. Re-reading your work also allows you to check for the flow of your article and change things in your writing.

Editing your article also involves adding images, graphs, or other supplementary pictures that add to your article topic.

4) Check with Grammarly

Grammarly has been a lifesaver for ensuring that I don't make any silly grammar mistakes. It's a free service that you can download onto your computer and will save you time in the editing process.

5) Submit

Submitting your article to a Medium publication allows you to grow your audience as a writer. There are many different types of publications that focus on various topics, however, the most popular ones revolve around personal development, entrepreneurship, finance, and writing advice.

You can ask to publish your article via Smedian.

Consistency Is Key

"Consistency is better than perfection. We can all be consistent - perfection is impossible" - Michael Hyatt

The only way to improve your writing as a beginner is to practice consistently. Putting in repeated efforts daily over a long time will most likely garner results. Seeing your writing quality improve is a by-product of consistent practice and discipline.

That is why having a writing process and system turns the act of writing into a habit. The goal here is to make writing automatic, so when it's the time you write, you don't procrastinate.

It's Okay To Not Know What You're Doing At First

It's normal when you first begin to not know what you're doing. I mean everyone has to start somewhere right?

When you begin learning a new skill, there is always a learning curve. This is known as the learning curve theory. It proposes that a beginner's efficiency of a task improves over time, the more the beginner performs the task.

The learning curve graph is a visual representation of the length it takes to acquire a new skill. The main concept is that repetition of a task or activity will make the brain perform that task quicker.

So how does this apply to writing?

Well, writing consistently will improve the quality of your writing over time. You will learn how to form and structure sentences in a way that makes grammatical sense. You will learn how to organize research and other sources to support your article topic.

Ultimately, writing will become a lifestyle habit that will enable your brain to think more about how to write well and create good article ideas. These are the type of skills that you can not only use in your personal life but also your professional life. Being able to write well is a form of self-expression and also makes you more skilled which may increase your employment prospects in the future.

Conclusion

These are the five things I did not expect when I started writing on Medium. In hindsight, I had overly optimistic and unrealistic expectations of the reality of writing online. Yes, it's hard work but you have to decide for yourself whether that effort is worth it.

Do you enjoy writing as a form of self-expression? Do you like the writing process?

These are the questions you need to ask yourself before you get started writing on Medium and online in general.