Through Lent I took up a daily writing habit. I wrote for all 40 days plus Sundays.

When I started, I hoped it would continue. I wrote three goals for the year and set myself up for success. I set goals, a timeline, and a system of accountability. The only thing left was to start.

Ambitious goals have a way of changing when we actually try to achieve them. Click To Tweet

If you read the original post, you can see that I set the following three goals for myself through the project in hopes that it would build a sustainable approach for the whole year.

My Goals

1. To write daily.
2. To pepper my long-form think pieces with daily personal reflections.
3. To organize my thoughts into more regular and punchier posts.

So how did I do?

Goal #1: I did write daily for the season, but the week before and the week after have been slim. I went this whole last week without writing a single piece. I call this one a wash.

Goal #2: Since I was writing a series of reflections every day, I didn’t want any long-form think pieces to disrupt the flow. I did average one piece per week on Medium, which gave me a different vehicle and let me write different types of pieces. So this went really well. The one drawback was that my daily personal reflections weren’t so personal and tended to be far longer than I anticipated, exceeding my 250 words per post expectation every time, sometimes by more than 1,000 words! I think this made the approach unsustainable in the long run.

Goal #3: My daily writing approach was safe: using the lectionary as a basis for a reflection. And I was able to prepare an approach to each one that would make them successful individually and as part of a series. I saw a few shares of individual pieces. More pre-planning to incorporate the weekly themes I was using would have made them shorter and more predictable in tone.

Considering ambitious goals have a way of changing when we actually try to achieve them, these three goals all shifted when I actually took to the writing. And more importantly, when I added the Lenten meditation component. Depending on how much I stick to the totality of what I wrote in those three goals, I either failed or wildly succeeded. This means I need to determine what it is I need to take from it.

What I Learned From Writing Every Day

How I figure out what to take away is pretty easy: I just decide how I want to look at it. To make that decision actually useful, I’m choosing to deal with these two realities I set for myself as a sort of Venn diagram.

On the one side is my plan to build a daily writing habit and to incorporate that into a more sustained blogging style.

On the other is the Lenten Meditations which were a test vehicle to see how that might work.

And in the middle, in the overlap, is the place in which some fruitful lessons can be found. That’s where I found these three lessons bubble up.

1. One Thousand words every day was hard to write, and read. Several readers mentioned how hard it was to keep up with them all. Shorter pieces would have been far more effective. And probably would have fit the theme better.
2. Unless I want a diary, I need to plan. I was able to plan out my arc for the 6 weeks, knowing the weekly themes and the homework I would assign, but leaving the daily writing up to the lectionary made a more challenging experience. A new pattern of writing is necessary.
3. I struggle with short pieces.

Thankfully, as a Lenten discipline, the daily writing was top of the mind and I could reflect on it. I listened and read writers on the craft of writing regularly and building the writing habit. And I am developing a plan to make the process easier and more in line with reader needs.

I am also planning to adjust my goals and expectations a smidge. But as a whole, I found the experience extremely rewarding and the insight invaluable.

But there’s one more thing…

Another Opportunity to Learn

I’ve put together a very short survey. I mean, seriously short. Like 4 questions short. It would help me so much if you could fill it out for me.

Many of you won’t have to leave the page to fill it out. It’ll just show up below. For the rest, you can go to the form page here.

This blog is a labor of love. And I know there are people who read it and are thankful: you’ve told me so! But I want to learn from you now.

What did you get out of Lent? What do you want most from Easter? Where is help needed the most? 

Answering the survey would be awesome! And feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section or on Facebook!

Or if you have an awesome story to tell me directly, you can feel free to email me directly! I’ll read it and get back to you.

 

You’re awesome. Be awesome.