I’ve Written A Daily Essay for 100 Days Straight And These Are The 5 Lessons Every Beginner Digital Writer Needs To Learn.

Today marks my 100th straight day writing (and posting!) an atomic essay.

It’s easier said than done, that’s for sure. But looking back, I’ve learned a lot from this experience and am in fact planning to continue posting daily for the foreseeable future.

In this essay, I am sharing the 5 lessons I’ve learned so far about digital writing.

Credit where credit is due

But first, I must give credit to Nicolas Cole and Dickie Bush who lead Ship 30 for 30, a cohort-based group coaching program helping aspiring online creators become prolific digital writers.

If you’ve ever thought about creating any kind of content online, I cannot recommend it enough.

Use the link below to join an upcoming cohort 👇🏻

Start Writing Online in 30 Days - Ship 30 for 30

Ship 30 for 30 is a cohort-based curriculum & daily writing challenge that teaches you how to start writing online by writing 30 Atomic Essays in 30 days.

ship30for30.com

With that out of the way, let’s dive in. Here are the top 5 lessons I’ve learned so far about digital writing.

1. Writing makes you a writer

Perfect grammar, spelling or storytelling don’t make you a writer.

Writing does. If you want to be a writer, write. You’ll learn more about the craft by writing than by studying on the sidelines.

2. Write daily

The first thing you must develop is a writing habit.

This is why Ship 30 for 30 is so successful. The focus during the cohort is on posting daily, not on quality. Quality is a byproduct of consistency.

3. Develop systems

The secret to staying consistent (and developing the writing habit) is not about willpower; it’s about developing systems that make writing easy.

Ship 30 for 30 is full of these systems and frameworks. Here are a few of my favorites from the two cohorts I’ve been on:

• Prepping the page
• Creating a “sacred hour”
• The Endless Idea Generator

4. Quantity >> Quality

I used to spend weeks “perfecting” a single piece of content.

Quantity >>>>>> quality in the beginning.

Beginner writers don’t know what *quality* is because quality is in the eye of the reader, not the writer.

And until you have enough data points out there, you have no clue what readers are looking for (so you need to write more).

— Dickie Bush (@dickiebush) April 14, 2022

This does not mean you should just post, post, post and hope to go viral someday though.

Digital creators know to look at the data. Views, likes, shares, comments and overall engagement of each piece of content will give you a clear signal – if you’re paying attention!

5. Lean writing

The way you explore topics as a digital writer is the opposite of what legacy writers did.

Instead of locking yourself up in a cabin and emerging with a finished manuscript several weeks later, a digital writer leverages short feedback loops to learn what their audience wants and only expands into long form for proven ideas.

In short, a digital writer:

1. Tests new ideas in short formats with tight feedback loops (tweets, LinkedIn posts, atomic essays).
2. Observes the data and doubles down on what works.
3. Only expands into longer form those topics / angles that have been proven to work with their audience.