Online Writing: One Article a Day Writing Challenge

As if my schedule isn't busy enough, I've challenged myself to write at least one article a day, in hopes of building my library of published articles. Lately, I've read articles about writers producing ten, or twenty (or more) articles a day, but for me, writing one article a day seems like a more realistic goal. This month, and in the months to come, I intend to set up a plan and blast through road blocks that keep me from writing more. I aspire to write one article a day as a writing challenge, but I'll be content if this target motivates me to publish a few more articles per month.

Get Organized

Some feel that creative clutter is the hallmark of the artistic genius, but I take the opposite view: too much clutter piled around me is confusing and distracting and detracts from my creative work. Earlier this year, I broke ground on this massive cleanout that removed great heaps of clutter that have surrounded my writer workspace for the last four years. I can't tell you how freeing it is to see the bottom of my desk drawers, not to have so much distracting clutter heaped around me while I am trying to work on article writing.

As part of my one article a day writing challenge, I'm eradicating a lot of my old clutter in hopes of fresh inspiration and a clearer mind. It's already working, as I feel more peaceful and organized and that has translated into the urge to write more articles. Clearing space in my office and throwing out clutter encourages abundance and frees up energy needed to write one article per day.

Create a Plan

While formulating my one article a day writing challenge, it helped to create some guidelines and a writing plan. This year, I want to develop some writing niches, so I'll be writing articles about my specialties as much as possible. I keep a folder on my computer labeled "articles in progress" for drafts and new article ideas, and each day I'll browse through this folder and choose one article to write that day. In my spare time, I'll brainstorm to come up with new ideas for articles and add them to the "articles in progress" folder for future writing.

Go With the Flow

I find that the more I write, the more I want to write, and some days the writer juices are flowing more than on other days. Other commitments and daily life also keep me away from my keyboard and cut into the precious amount of time I can devote to online writing. During my one article a day writing challenge, I vow to make the most of my valuable writing time, and go with the flow to produce more articles.

I plan on challenging myself to show up at my keyboard and attempt to write one article a day. I don't have to publish the article that day, just finish writing it and add it to my list of articles completed for the month. Creative people talk about "being in flow" or a constant state of inspiration, so if I feel like writing more than one article, I'll just take advantage of this flow state to write as much as I can.

Avoid Burnout

While working on my one article a day writing challenge, if I write a timely article I will certainly try to publish it immediately, but if my new articles are more "evergreen" (not time sensitive but have more of a year round appeal) I'll keep writing until I have a batch of articles to submit to writing sites at one time. In my experience, it's easier to write several articles at a time, and then submit them in a day (or over the course of a few days) than it is to publish each article right after I finish writing it.

As I'm working on articles, I'll try to stay very organized; in my opinion, clutter is the enemy. I'll keep a paper list of my finished articles as I use up the article ideas in my "articles in progress" folder. As I publish the finished articles, they'll get crossed off my list. Writing thirty articles in thirty days is a goal that will increase my article library, which should lead to increased revenues from my online writing.

Fatigue could become an issue as I work on my writing challenge, so I plan to give myself little breaks and rewards as the month progresses. A walk around the block, listening to music or something that provides a break from writing isn't counterproductive; it's essential to keeping up my energy and spirits for my one article a day writing challenge.

I've challenged myself to write at least one article a day in hopes of building my library of published articles, but I'll be happy if I see an increase in my monthly article writing. If my writing plan has inspired you, increase your portfolio of published work by taking the one article a day writing challenge!

Sources:

Personal experience writing for Yahoo! Contributor Network