Okay, my last post was about a month ago and my blog was pretty unloved the rest of November! Last month I had two trips - one to Disneyland Paris to celebrate our little girl's birthday and the next one, 10 days later, to the Umbraco HQ. The two trips kept my November pretty busy! But I had been thinking of what to write about. And just as I land on something another idea strikes me. Why not share the story of how I summed up the courage to start a blog of my own.
For those who are reading this and have gone through my last two blog posts, let me tell you that the first article I wrote was for 24 Days in Umbraco. My blog happened afterward! It all began with Jan Skovgaard, one of the team members of 24 Days in Umbraco, contacting me earlier this year asking whether I would be interested in writing an article for 24 Days in Umbraco this year. For those who don't know what 24 Days in Umbraco is, its a community initiative by some lovely Umbraco folks. "This is the 24 Days In Umbraco Christmas Calendar, that's what it is." - this is what the team says about it. It was started by Jan Skovgaard (@TheRealBatJan), Dave Woestenborghs (@dawoe21) and Chriztian Steinmeier (@greystate). You can read all about 24 Days in Umbraco here . Back to the original topic, I was really excited at the opportunity and thought of writing an article. 24 Days is something I really like and follow through December every year. The articles cover a broad range of topics. So I didn't have to think twice before agreeing to do one. We left it there but the minute I agreed my nervousness kicked in and started to shout at me"What on earth are you going to write about?" But I was far too busy, as always, as a full-time working mother, so I decided to park my nervousness, or even completely forget about the fact that I had agreed to pen an article. I would revisit things a month or so later when I really have to think or even start putting together something to meet the deadline.
A month later, I was invited to the team's Slack channel and I still had not decided what to write. I was really nervous. I thought of writing about something but wasn't sure about it, so ditched the plan. IMPOSTER SYNDROME! I started looking for ideas and then it struck me that last year I happened to do web applications(multi-brand, B2B applications) and that has not been really done as an article with 24 Days during any of the previous years. I shared my idea with the team and it was appreciated. Bingo! I had the subject for my article decided. The first hurdle was behind me! The next big task was to write it all down. It wasn't easy, trust me! I was writing something for the first time and I was super mega nervous. The more I wrote the more I started questioning myself whether I was doing it all well. IMPOSTER SYNDROME, YET AGAIN! But I decided to just complete what I started with. I initially did a part of the article which I shared with the team and threw some ideas as well which gave me the confidence that it was all taking shape. From there I went on to complete the article, Chriztian, Jan and Dave reviewed it, we made some corrections and I made sure my code was available for anyone who would like to have a spin on the work themselves. And on December 5th I had my article published and it was appreciated by the Umbraco community. You can read it here. A website I had been following for the past few years now has an article written by me! How exciting!
Now about my blog, as I gained confidence with my writing I decided that I must think of setting up my own blog. I always wanted one but never had one which I kept updating even on a semi-regular basis. I decided I have to action it NOW. So I quickly set up one on Blogger. I already had ideas for my first article and that saw daylight. It was quite a motivation and I do think about what to write about these days. Although I am not very regular at it, I try to sit down when I can find some time between my work and home. Now that I have a blog I have better plans for it next year, trying to make it look better and continuing to do atleast 1 article a month.
I can quite proudly say the opportunity to write for 24 Days really helped me with this decision. Thank you Dave, Jan and Chriztian for giving me the inspiration to go ahead and set up my blog. You guy have been doing a great job reaching out to new authors every year. I am quite sure that many of the authors who have written for 24 Days in the past have a similar story to share. So keep the good work going :-)
The biggest takeaways I have had from my experience of writing was
Merry X'mas and a Happy New Year well in advance!
For those who are reading this and have gone through my last two blog posts, let me tell you that the first article I wrote was for 24 Days in Umbraco. My blog happened afterward! It all began with Jan Skovgaard, one of the team members of 24 Days in Umbraco, contacting me earlier this year asking whether I would be interested in writing an article for 24 Days in Umbraco this year. For those who don't know what 24 Days in Umbraco is, its a community initiative by some lovely Umbraco folks. "This is the 24 Days In Umbraco Christmas Calendar, that's what it is." - this is what the team says about it. It was started by Jan Skovgaard (@TheRealBatJan), Dave Woestenborghs (@dawoe21) and Chriztian Steinmeier (@greystate). You can read all about 24 Days in Umbraco here . Back to the original topic, I was really excited at the opportunity and thought of writing an article. 24 Days is something I really like and follow through December every year. The articles cover a broad range of topics. So I didn't have to think twice before agreeing to do one. We left it there but the minute I agreed my nervousness kicked in and started to shout at me"What on earth are you going to write about?" But I was far too busy, as always, as a full-time working mother, so I decided to park my nervousness, or even completely forget about the fact that I had agreed to pen an article. I would revisit things a month or so later when I really have to think or even start putting together something to meet the deadline.
A month later, I was invited to the team's Slack channel and I still had not decided what to write. I was really nervous. I thought of writing about something but wasn't sure about it, so ditched the plan. IMPOSTER SYNDROME! I started looking for ideas and then it struck me that last year I happened to do web applications(multi-brand, B2B applications) and that has not been really done as an article with 24 Days during any of the previous years. I shared my idea with the team and it was appreciated. Bingo! I had the subject for my article decided. The first hurdle was behind me! The next big task was to write it all down. It wasn't easy, trust me! I was writing something for the first time and I was super mega nervous. The more I wrote the more I started questioning myself whether I was doing it all well. IMPOSTER SYNDROME, YET AGAIN! But I decided to just complete what I started with. I initially did a part of the article which I shared with the team and threw some ideas as well which gave me the confidence that it was all taking shape. From there I went on to complete the article, Chriztian, Jan and Dave reviewed it, we made some corrections and I made sure my code was available for anyone who would like to have a spin on the work themselves. And on December 5th I had my article published and it was appreciated by the Umbraco community. You can read it here. A website I had been following for the past few years now has an article written by me! How exciting!
Now about my blog, as I gained confidence with my writing I decided that I must think of setting up my own blog. I always wanted one but never had one which I kept updating even on a semi-regular basis. I decided I have to action it NOW. So I quickly set up one on Blogger. I already had ideas for my first article and that saw daylight. It was quite a motivation and I do think about what to write about these days. Although I am not very regular at it, I try to sit down when I can find some time between my work and home. Now that I have a blog I have better plans for it next year, trying to make it look better and continuing to do atleast 1 article a month.
I can quite proudly say the opportunity to write for 24 Days really helped me with this decision. Thank you Dave, Jan and Chriztian for giving me the inspiration to go ahead and set up my blog. You guy have been doing a great job reaching out to new authors every year. I am quite sure that many of the authors who have written for 24 Days in the past have a similar story to share. So keep the good work going :-)
The biggest takeaways I have had from my experience of writing was
- Look at any article as a way of sharing what you have learnt. There could be mistakes but you are allowed to do that.
- For all those who want to start a blog I would say just do it. Ideas will flow in and you will be able to do it.
- Imposter syndrome is like the good and bad fairy. It helps bring out the best in you but try to defeat it and move on when you feel stuck.
Merry X'mas and a Happy New Year well in advance!
Thank you so much for your kind words Poornima - And once again a big thank you for wanting to participate in this years edition of the 24days.in/umbraco-cms advent calendar. We really appreciate it and I think I speak for all of us when I say we're humbled and honored to have had this positive impact on you so you took the plunge and started sharing your thoughts and knowledge. #h5yr! :-)
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