10 Early Learnings From 10 Days of Online Writing That Will Help New Writers Get Started

I recently set out on a mission to write more. I killed my writing back-end, moved to Medium, and began a daily writing habit with Ship 30 for 30. Here are my 10 early learnings after 10 fun days of writing.

There is no such thing as "the right time to get started." I really don't have the time right now to take on new projects, but I did it anyway. I began setting my alarm for 05:30 and writing before I start work for the day. After 10 days of this habit I am now excited to head to bed and rise in the morning to start my next article.

Medium, Substack, and other such platforms already have a built in audience. Use this.

I've had far more article reads in the last 10 days than when I was managing my own blog on a domain. I still have my own website, that's not really going anywhere, but writing on Medium has been far more satisfying.

I also recommend reading an article by Karen Banes titled I Quit My Blogs and Replaced Them with Three Simple, Free, Writing Platforms on why these platforms are great and why managing your own back-end can suck.

Without moving to Medium I would have found far less good things to read. Recommended aren't always perfect, and it's obvious that there are a lot of amateur writers like me trying stuff, but I do find some hidden gems on Medium.

To get started on my new writing journey I signed up for Ship 30 for 30. This has been super helpful in having a daily commitment and structure for writing. Irrespective of how you do it, having some skin in the game as you start writing is a terrific way to create the habit.

Writing about a topic you're not personally well read on is hard. I highly recommend reading more about what you intend to write about.

Every article I write on Medium immediately gets shared to LinkedIn and Twitter. There may be more channels in the future. While that's incredibly intimidating at times, I just can't stress enough about gathering more feedback by ensuring your efforts are read.

Whenever I tell people I am out of bed at 05:30 to write they just don't get it. And most of my friends who aren't in my industry don't get it either. Writing requires a brand new network and it can be disheartening to have friends not be as excited for your writing as you are.

I really can't stress this enough — if you're trying to get good at writing, practice the craft and don't use AI. I feel like it's still incredibly easy to indentify AI assisted writing, and as a reader it's a huge turn off.

All of my articles are 100% human written by me and I intend to keep it that way.

Alright, I'm not a crazy person, hear me out. AI is amazing for idea generation. So while I strongly advise against letting AI write your articles, I also think it's a terrific way to broaden scope and get loads of ideas.

I am 10 days in and I am seeing little-to-no success. During these 10 days I have been losing sleep, writing daily, and embracing the grind. I definitely know it's getting easier and easier, so I have my fingers crossed that I will see readership growth soon.