Why I Stopped (Publishing My) Writing for Two Weeks

Or: How I succeeded in failure.

Back in May I began a writing challenge with the aim of publishing something online every day for thirty days. I did that for 14 of the first 15 days. I was okay with that.

Well. I was sort of okay with that.

Because behind the scenes I knew I was headed in the wrong direction. So I stopped, took stock, and came up with a new plan.

That space was exactly what I needed.

Here are the three reasons I took a pause, and why it was important I acted on each.

1. My writing was headed in the wrong direction. I was too broad and not publishing what I intended to publish here. By which I mean: I was publishing what I wanted to write about, not what I needed to write about.
2. I was too busy at work. I had taken on the writing challenge at a time when my work itself was overwhelming. Beginning a daily writing habit (a great idea) without first clearing the space for it (a bad idea) is doomed to fail. So I put that right over the past two weeks.
3. I knew I could still write, just without hitting publish. Over the past two weeks I’ve kept writing where I could, privately. Without the concern about being seen or not seen, that was important to allow me to identify what needed to be written. Which loops nicely back to point 1, above.

(A note on point 3, by the way: be careful how long you stick to writing in private. It can serve a purpose, yes. But it can also rapidly become an excuse that will have you stuck in perfectionist purgatory. Two weeks felt just right for me.)

As such, I uess that I failed in the challenge.

But that time away — developing my thinking, clearing space to write, getting my ducks in a row — that was a success.

Could I have done that while continuing to write every day?

Perhaps. Although point 2 was the forcing factor here, and I have no regrets about that.

Now I’m back, and I’ll be writing about the things that move the needle for the people I write to. That is: the things that I do to help my clients every single day:

• Self publishing for non-fiction writers
• Writing a book for busy leaders and executives
• Confident writing for aspiring authors.

There’s a whole lot of content lined up, including a series I’m planning on how we take a book from original idea to holding it proudly in your hands.

I’ll demonstrate all of that with a live project.

What will that book be?

I’ll talk about that tomorrow. I’m excited to share it with you.

In the meantime, please do follow me here on Medium.