It Was a Lonely Time

Lesson 2 of 10 from the 200 Words-a-Day Challenge

In July 2023, I embarked on a challenge of writing—and sharing—at least 200 words a day. I was attempting to break through some resistance to sharing my writing, so the word-count wasn’t the point. The true crux of the challenge was the sharing/posting of what I wrote.

Thanks to KimBoo York for spurring me on because this little daily task taught me a lot about myself, my creativity, and my writing practice. Over the next few weeks, every other day, I’ll share one of my top ten lessons learned from the challenge in the hopes they will support you and your practice as well.

Following the pattern and the practice of the month-long challenge, I’m delivering these 10 lessons learned as micro-essays of at least 200 words.

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It Was a Lonely Time

When I began the challenge, I had no expectations about whether others would respond to the prompts I posted or not. But I must admit, I did hope.

I’m realistic though. During the challenge, in addition to Substack, I shared the micro-essays/prompts in Women Writing for Change, my Facebook group, where member interaction has been an unpredictable rollercoaster in the three years I’ve run it. Additionally, I’m still new to Substack (as of July/August 2023) and had no reason to assume people would care about my posts/prompts. I avoided daily checking of my Substack stats. I kept reminding myself that this was a personal challenge with a specific purpose: break through resistance.

Now that I can look back on those stats, the single prompt that got the most views tallied just 33. Most posts didn’t entice new subscribers; a few brought in one each. My email open rate ranged from 15 to 42%, with a 30-day average of 30.95%. I’m not sure, but I think that’s pretty decent (?). At the end of the challenge, I had 27 free subscribers.

What I must acknowledge: All of this is new to me. I’ve never tried to build an audience or a following in this way. While a few people have read my nonfiction, I have absolute zero following for my fiction. I’m okay with that; that’s just where I am in this process. For the first time, I’m stepping into venues where my writing can be publicly and immediately available. It’s a start, and it’s likely to be lonely for a while. But as I get more of my writing—particularly my fiction—out where readers can find it and as I connect and have conversations with those readers, it won’t always be like this.

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Lesson #2 of 10

Managing expectations from the get-go (about our writing and anything else in our lives), and periodically revisiting them during the process/task, can help us get over the hurdles that come with being a beginner and/or starting something new.