Shifting Gears

On upcoming changes to the newsletter.

They say it takes 21 days to build a habit. After wrapping up cohort 9 of Write of Passage, I decided to publish a newsletter every Sunday. Today marks the 22nd edition, and I feel safe declaring that I have successfully built a writing habit.

I’ve always wanted to write more. In the past, I’ve written a few blogs on travel and life, whenever there were random bursts of creative energy on a weekend. But when I tried to write at other times, it felt like a chore, always waiting for inspiration to strike. You know, like when you want to be healthy and cook at home, but then there’s no motivation and you're just like, "Screw it, I'm ordering takeout.”

I tried different things to help me write more, including consuming all the internet advice there was, taking the Ship30 for 30 course in January 2022, and listening to podcasts. But nothing changed things the way Write of Passage did.

During the course, I learned about POP writing, editing using CRIBS, note taking, and so much more. It felt like my blindfold was taken off on my writing journey. WoP gave me the tools to make writing not feel like a chore. Most of all I made new friends who cheer for you, give feedback, and share similar curiosities.

To help with my writing cadence, I needed structure. As an engineer, structure brings me sanity and I feel comfortable to exercise my creative muscle. When I set a structure for this newsletter it had 4 sections: a slice of my life, how to be a bomb engineer, content I’m digging, and quote of the week. Having this structure made it easier to not stare at a blank page as I knew what I had to write about each week.

However, despite having structure, some weeks were tougher than others.

It felt weird to share about my life on the internet. I was scared that my friends and family would roll their eyes as they read an edition about my snowboarding shenanigans. So I hesitated a few times before hitting publish. There were days when I was a stickler for the right story and would waste a whole day editing.

But publication over perfection. If I waited for the perfect newsletter I would have to wait forever.

Stop holding yourself back from creating because you’re afraid of being cringe.

We’re all cringe to somebody.

-Amanda Natividad

In writing these 22 newsletters, I realized that the few subscribers that I have are rooting for my success and no one really has time to roll their eyes on what story I shared that week. I figured out that I enjoy writing the slice of life section way more than the other sections. Even tough some weeks were tough, I wrote a few paragraphs everyday. I don’t feel awkward telling someone that I’m a writer.

Write of Passage Cohort 10 starts tomorrow and it seems like a good time to switch gears and make changes to the structure around here.

I’m retiring the bomb engineer section. To be honest, some days, I relied on ChatGPT to write advice for a topic of the week, and it doesn't feel authentic to write advice that an AI dished out. I’m also retiring the quotes section, as some days I scoured the internet to find a quote for that section.

For the next 5 weeks, I am going to experiment with writing essays that are more personal with lessons from WoP. For Cohort 10, I have 3 goals.

Publish 5 essays. Last cohort, I published only 3 of the 5 assignment essays, but I want to publish all 5 this time.

Make new friends. Meet people who write about topics that I know little about and make new friends.

Write better essays. This is a subjective metric I’m setting for myself.

I am super excited for the next 5 weeks. I have my Notion folders and templates ready to take notes during the live sessions, break out rooms, assignments, and mentor sessions. I will continue to publish an essay every Sunday and will focus on writing personal, reflective essays that I enjoy.

So hang tight, we are shifting gears.!

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash