6 July 2021, Somewhere in the Metaverse - UplandDood (@Just1Dood)
Time flies when you're having fun(ds)
I once saw a cartoon character Grimm from the comic strip Mother Goose & Grimm on top of a dumpster filled with trash and a circling fly. In the blink of an eye, "chomped", the fly is gone and a caption on top of Grimm's head says "Time's fun when you're having flies!" I can't explain how my mind functions but this is another one of those images that had stuck in my mind all these years. I forget important things but this, I remember.
What am I trying to say here? No, we're not gonna go into my mind. What I want to say is that "Time flies when we're having fun". I'm having a bit of fun with the paragraph heading. Seriously though, I really am having both fun and funds (BCH) when writing at ReadCash.
Thus far, that's been my experience this second time around with ReadCash.
My return trip at ReadCash started on 22 June 2021 when I posted the "Happy to Write or Write to be Happy" article. Since then, I've been posting one article per day with the exception of resting on Sundays. In total, I had put out 12 articles in total not counting this one.
Before I know it, more than a week had passed. Over this short week, I'd made some new friends, I'd started getting more active in NoiseCash, I'd joined groups and had fun chatting. I'd written articles that I never thought I would have ever written in my life, including the last piece which was fiction.
Lessons Learnt
Looking back over the week, I reflected on my experience and what I'd learned over this short period. This is my attempt to record it for my own reference and also hopefully help someone who's either new or re-starting at ReadCash.
Set Goals
This is the simplest yet it is the most difficult to carry out. Setting goals meant making a decision to be committed to something. For me, the simplest was to set one goal. Goals sound so daunting. If you really think about it, goals are decisions. Having determined that, I know I wanted to make my second ReadCash experience a successful one.
Based on the premise that ReadCash is a writing platform, I came to the following decisions:
Decision #1 - I need to write. It doesn't end there. Writing once a month, or once a year is still writing. But that's not why I think the platform was created. It wasn't created so that writers can write once in a blue moon. It's created to have a thriving, writing community. You can't build a community that communicates or shares only once a month or once a year.
Decision #2 - I need to write no less than once a month. I know writing once a week will not be an issue for me. There are 2 'buts' with writing once a week though:
But #1 - I will not be pushing myself if I only write once a week.
But #2 - If I remember correctly, I'd mentioned in one of my earlier articles that writing is not much different from any form of exercise. You need to warm up. Once you're warmed up, it becomes a breeze. Writing once a week would not warm me up. I won't have the needed momentum to go on a roll.
Decision #3 - I've decided to write once a day in order to stretch myself. I want to push myself out of my comfort zone. Muscles grow when they experience micro-tears when pushed to limits. No pain, no gain is the mantra.
Publish one article from Mondays to Saturdays and rest on Sundays. Why rest? You see, we learn from nature. If the micro-tear in muscles are not allowed time to rest and get enough nutrients, they won't grow. Come on, even God rested one day after creating the earth and the universe. I need to let my mind rest and get refreshed.
If you enjoy setting goals, you can read many of these. Compared to my one week here, these writers are veterans and have experience in setting goals. I'll share the links of three of such that I'd read over the last few days by @Carisdaneym2, @Immaryandmerry, and @Emily2u respectively:
Save for rainy days
One important lesson I learned is to pace myself. When I'm on a roll, I tend to write more than one article. It doesn't have to be a fully completed article. It could be just bones with some meat on them. Keep a few of these in your closet if you can. You'll be surprised. My closet is filling up with bones and skeletons.
An added bonus would be if you can put the meat and muscles and complete them too. Then you'll have an extra article for a rainy day. Yes, you can bring him/her out when it rains.
When you're ahead, you will not rush to publish immediately after writing, which brings me to my next lesson.
Pace yourself
By this I meant, give yourself some room after completing an article before publishing. At the moment, I am ahead by one article, which meant that this article I'm writing now will only be published one day from the time of writing. It's in a queue. Actually, I had built up to two articles ahead but yesterday due to a hectic day and schedule, I didn't have time to write.
Why is this important for me? I have found that in many instances, I will always have additional points or corrections to make after I have completed an article. This 24 hours or 48 hours in-the-closet time allows me to go back and do these changes before that article's post. To prove the point, I've just spent another hour or so polishing this article now prior to posting even though I'd completed it two days ago.
It could be as simple as adding, enhancing, deleting another point, changing an image, or changing the title altogether. I had done many of these and changing the title was one of the best things I'd done to one of my articles thus far. My mind was refreshed after I'd stepped away from my completed article.
I was able to do all this because the completed article has not been published yet.
Be yourself
This is the most liberating lesson that I've learned. I let my goofy personality express itself through my writing. Have you ever been to a party or a function or a meeting where you were expected to behave in certain ways? How did you feel? I do understand that certain environment dictates certain accepted behaviors or protocols. That is fine. I accept that. There are exceptions to the rule.
My point is that we feel more comfortable when we can be ourselves and it shows. I find that this applies to writing. Just be me. My readers can pick up nuances from my articles. They can tell if I'm being someone I'm not and that carries over in the ease and enjoyment of reading my article.
For new writers, the best place to start is to write about personal experiences. That should be where your natural self shines through. You own that and nobody can take away your experience.
I'll share one more point before calling it a day.
Be friendly
One of the most important resources in the business world is your network. It's confined to who you know but also who knows you. None of this will happen if you're not friendly and be interested in others.
I have a ball of a time communicating with newfound friends here at ReadCash and also NoiseCash. I will continue to regularly find new friends. You see, no man is an island. We need each other to be successful. As Proverbs 27.17 says (I'm paraphrasing) - Iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.
On two occasions, my fellow writing friends have caught some of my typos. For whatever reason, I didn't catch these typos, and because the typos were acceptable words, they had slipped through the Grammar checks.
Furthermore, on numerous occasions, I asked about things I wasn't sure about the platform and have easily have gotten help with answers or being pointed in the right direction for the answers by friends here.
I'm grateful for such caring fellow writers.
My advice to all new writers is to go out there and make friends. You'll learn and improve faster.
I hope my above lessons have been helpful to you too.
Thank you for reading. Do share your own lessons learned in the comment section below your new ReadCash experience.
Stay safe and see you in the next article.
Sources:
Header: Unsplash.com - Ben White
Image 1: Unsplash.com - Kevin Ku
Image 2: Unsplash.com - Estée Janssens
Image 3 Unsplash.com - Vitolda Klein
Thank you again for dropping by. Have fun with English. Remember to share your experience in the comment section.
Do drop by to say hi at my following addresses. I promise I'll be at home :)
NoiseCash: UplandDood
Twitter: UplandDood
Publish0x: UplandDood (link takes you to site. You'll have to search for UplandDood to find me)
Let's grind for more!😜❤️💪💪💪