WOW. WOWOWOWOW.

Guys, I just realized today, that yesterday marked ONE MONTH SINCE I BEGAN #JUSTSTARTWRITING. The time has flown by. Which, I shouldn’t be surprised about since this summer flew by as well.

I just texted a good friend of mine and told him how it’s been a month since I started this, and he asked me, Fam how does it feel?

It feels…

Amazing.

To know that I was able to do this challenge, with the exception of missing one day, has been truly amazing. I didn’t think writing a blog post a day would be truly possible for me. I’ve always struggled with committing daily to my blog, but it’s been an amazing feeling to see that it can be done.

Encouraging.

Since I began #JSW, I’ve seen so much growth in my readers, followers, feedback, and inspiration. To see people on the outside actually want to read my stuff, and actually like it, really boosts my confidence. Also, seeing that I’m able to find inspiration for my writing in the every day has been really cool. It’s really shattered my previous belief that good writing has to have inspiration from a major event, or something hip or cool.

Like I’m Just Getting Started.

I said at the beginning of this journey that I would blog every day for a month and that, if I enjoyed it or if I saw some improvement, that I would maybe continue.

Seeing the results that I’ve seen, I’m totally not stopping.

But I want this to grow even more, and I don’t mean with my followers, readers, or shares of my blog posts. I want more people involved in this. I know that not everyone has the passion to write, but through #JSW, I want to inspire others to just start doing WHATEVER they are passionate about. Because taking small steps like this can only increase your love and drive for your talents and abilities.

And it may be scary or intimidating, challenging or impossible at first. But once you start, and you get people behind you to really push you, and challenge you to stick with it, it gets easier every day.

That being said, I’m writing this with thirty minutes to spare until tomorrow hits. And this just shows you that, even with things your passionate about, sometimes you save it until the very last minute. Or you forget one day or two. But that doesn’t mean you suck at what you do, or that you aren’t capable of accomplishing your dreams. It just means you gotta try harder next time; evaluate where you went wrong, and find a way to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

And so, with the beginning of month two of #JSW, I do want to make some new goals…

1. Write earlier. Meaning, stop what I’m doing right now, which is wait until 11:30pm to write a post that probably should’ve been written earlier in the day so people could realize it was a post from Friday, not Saturday haha.
2. Show more. I did a lot of telling in my first month. Another thing I’m growing in is photography. I’ve shown several pictures through my blog posts, pictures I took with the Nikon camera Pa gave me as a graduation present. I wrote my senior thesis on the importance of the word + image combo in a particular women’s graphic memoir, and so I want to implement more pictures to show what I’m telling.
3. Get more involvement. I did a horrible job trying to get a couple of my friends who are also writers in on this. It doesn’t have to be exactly this, but I do want to be more involved somehow in helping others just start something they’ve been wanting to do for a long time. I don’t know what that’s going to look like, but hey, maybe my thought process will be good blogging material for later!
4. Ask more questions. I started asking questions at the end of my posts as the month went on, and I did get some comments and feedback from readers (okay, it was ONE reader, but that’s a start!). I’m going to try to ask more questions at the end of my posts that pertain to the theme of my posts. ***WHICH MEANS THAT I WOULD LOOOOOVE SOME READER INVOLVEMENT. PLEASE ANSWER THE QUESTIONS. I ACTUALLY READ YOUR ANSWERS, AND MAYBE I’LL EVEN RESPOND. But even if I don’t get any answers, I’ll still be asking the questions. They won’t be going away. So there.

I think four goals for the second month of #JSW is good. The end will be October 8, so at the two-month mark, we’ll celebrate and see how I did with my new goals.

I’m so excited about continuing this, and I hope you’ve enjoyed it as well. You, reader, are one of the main reasons I’m motivated to do this. I may not be a giant, important author; I just know I have a voice, and a craft, and I long to share it with others, no matter what the outcome.

So, let’s go! Who’s up for ROUND 2?! 😀

#JustStartWriting

❤ Mishy