1 Month In
Oct. 16 was my one-month mark on Medium. That’s a small milestone in my content strategy.
My strategy is broken down into monthly segments. My primary goals for my first 60 days here are:
1. Practice
2. Practice
3. Practice
It’s about practicing.
I have written in different forms for a long time. Some have been published, and those publications made money.
I have written for the screen (it was an independent film) (it was never produced) (this is typical) (having this many parenthetical phrases is *not* typical). I have written poetry, horror, erotica, and nonfiction.
It all evolved into humor and marketing.
Oh, and cussing. Did I mention cussing?
I have written in these different forms, but I have never written online.
Until now.
Perspective
I wrote and finished my first novel when I was 13.
I can’t tell you how many words, or what exactly the plot was. I remember the main character (a well-paid writer, naturally). I remember his name, I remember his family … I don’t remember why I ended up in a scene with a chainsaw and gangsters … but I recall having a blast.
I fought through the plot, because I didn’t have one. I only knew I needed to keep it going.
So I did.
And I finished it.
I wrote a novel when I was 20 and published it when I was 22.
I finished the novel when I was 20, put it down, and wrote another book when I was 21.
I wrote a lot more than these two books during that period. In fact, everything I did during that time — from 19 to 23 — was for writing. Sex, jokes, pranks, jobs, adventures — it was all for writing.
But the two books I’m talking about, the novel and “the other book,” were both bad.
I knew that, putting various drafts together.
But I kept going, because that’s what you do. Everything a person does — everything — comes down to a binary choice:
· Keep doing it
· Or don’t.
And whichever way you choose, no one cares.
Writing Online
I made the choice to go for it. To write online.
Everything a person does — whether it’s selling your own asshole or selling someone else’s sneakers — is going to be judged.
Once upon a time, I was emotionally comfortable with that. Secure. Didn’t bother me so much.
As I got older and realized there actually *is* more to life than writing, I made decisions and went on paths that made me less comfortable with being judged.
Until, finally, I let that cripple me for a time.
But a wise old man once said “Fuck all that,” and this marks one month into me writing online.
I’m Happy to be a Beginner
I’m happy to be a beginner.
I have more than a decade experience in writing, but I have ~31 days writing online.
Like with any change, sustained new behavior must come with an identity shift.
I have a large ego, and that is justified in many circumstances. But it isn’t justified in *most* circumstances.
I find joy and freedom in admitting I’m a beginner, admitting I’m practicing, admitting I have dark and unfavorable experiences that can haunt and pop up at unwanted times — like so many of us.
All This to Say
Thanks.
Thanks to the folks who have interacted with my content, who have taken anything from my writings.
And to those of you who do it, thanks for cussing with style.
Swivels in, Swivels out.
