Why I joined a writing challenge

Today is day one of my participation in the Ship 30 for 30 writing challenge, where I’ll be writing and publishing a short, 250-word essay every day for the next 30 days.

My clients pay me to write for them. And now I’ve paid the team at Ship 30 for 30 to help me get my butt in the chair to write for myself. Why?

I have ideas I’d like to explore, projects I’d like to tackle, topics I’d like to learn more about. It’s natural for me to want to write about those things as I learn about them—it’s one reason why I started In the Good, after all.

But too often I let fear, insecurity, perfectionism and a healthy dash of procrastination stop me. I struggle with wondering what I want to say and why anyone should bother reading it.

Ship 30 for 30 appealed to me for a few reasons:

• Short and sweet. Writing short essays forces me to focus and stop overcomplicating and overthinking things.

• Writing in public. Creating a daily writing habit is useful, but having to publish every day will push me out of my comfort zone. And that’s a good thing!

• Continuous improvement and experimentation. I’m looking forward to trying out new writing styles and frameworks to improve my writing.

• The Ship 30 for 30 community. This challenge is scary, so I appreciate having a supportive community cheering me on!

These essays will be far from perfect. (I’m going to have to stop myself from putting a disclaimer on each—I promise I do better for my clients!) But if I show up every day, get words on the page and put them out into the world, then that’ll be a win in my book.