what I learn when I learn Writing On The Net

my honest take on the lowest week of the whole 30-day writing challenge

I signed up for WOTN long before the course started, for a Night Owl early bird discount. and till this day it is still one of my most-fav decisions I did to start my gap months.

Writing On The Net (WOTN) là 1 khóa học online về blogging, nơi Akwaaba Tùng và Tuấn Mon đã đồng hành cùng hơn 400 bloggers làm chủ những hệ thống, tư duy, và framework của người viết online.

when I first knew about WOTN, I thought blogging was never for me because I hate (or am scared of) going public. yet the need to share has been there for a long time.

before I made the decision, I heard from a friend of mine that the course would have 120-130 participants at the same time (Cohort #5 or something). it really did freak me out since I’m an introvert and joining a class of 50 was already a challenge for me back then, when I needed to learn some academic stuff that supported my work.

I signed up anyway. I was so excited (or curious how it would happen).

I even marked the whole schedule in my Google calendar even long before I discovered that I could just easily link Mở’s calendar to mine so that I don’t have to do such thing. (this is one of my favorite thing about the way Mở does operation)

I learn to open up (Mở Lòng)

Mở has something called Mở Lòng where us learners would get together on an online call via Butter to do self-intro and exchange thoughts towards multiple topics, from random ask like “what is something people misunderstand about you” or deeper question as “why did you join WOTN”.

it’s not even the session itself that makes me enjoy the opening up part in Mở.

I first learnt it while taking part in the onboarding checklist made by Mở, that I needed to introduce myself not just on a tracking sheet but to the whole WOTN6’s Discord community.

self-introduction to me has always been a tricky question, especially in an interview setting or at a community where you literally don’t know anybody.

how would you introduce yourself, but not revealing too much? or how would you do it subtly, and not making a big deal out of it? what should they know about me? should I put in this and that to impress people cuz I’m learning how to net work or should I just keep it simple? etc. yes, I admit that sometimes I can turn into an overthinking b.

but I did it anyway, I put in what I feel relatable most about myself recently, and I think it’s a good start.

I learn how to interact with others with attention. clicking on emojis reactions. replying to a Discord comment. sending a kudos to someone. commenting on someone’s Substack. raising a question. sharing notes.

noone forces you to do that in Mở. it’s just that I see the beauty of a community where everyone going through the same journey, the same challenge and sharing similar struggles at the same time.

I learn to unlearn (Mở Mang)

you don’t know what you don’t know. and sometimes even the things you know, might be wrong, or might be explain again even better by another person, from a fresher or more experienced pov.

there’re many blogging courses out there, but WOTN isn’t just one of them.

WOTN to me slowly becomes a mindset. a strategic thinking towards writing online. a supportive net. a practical system with bonus of emotional support.

when I write this, I can immediately think of what I learn the other day about how to wrap up ideas into a blog. I can know that this post is written in which system, and who is my target audience.

it has only been 4 live classes, yet I saved a bunched of frameworks, actionable ones so that I could just apply in my new writing.

Mở organizes some other bonus sessions called Mở Mang where there would be domain expert or Mở’s Alumni sharing raw and rare experiences in their writing learning. when I first joined WOTN, I was amazed about the diversity of learners. everyone comes from very interesting background, with interesting stories and knowledge coming along.

someone in the class today said that when we come to WOTN we don’t just learn how to write a blog. we pick up lil bit of this and that from time to time. we learn about philosophy. we learn how to use complicated technical stuff to ease our thought and ideating process. we learn organizing, systemizing and more importantly, note-taking skills.

trust me. you learn something that will be beneficial for your thinking even if you don’t enjoy blogging after this. or at least, you earn a whole community of 100+ other brains that you can learn from.

I learn to not give up (30-day writing challenge)

it’s only the day 11th that the thought of skipping one blog post already got into my mind a couple of times, even prior to this day.

and somehow our hosts can sense this. today they showed a graph where throughout 4 weeks of the challenge, the 2nd week is at the lowest point.

this is when everyone could feel demotivated, bored, tired or experience writer block even though you have a list of ideas that you have kept from your idea dump notes.

I thought of this and I was like. oh, so I am not alone. it’s normal to feel this way and it’s actually super normal for you to skip a day, or even a few days when you don’t really feel like it. you know, life happens.

but what I learn and have been practicing dedicatedly is cultivating self-discipline through this experiment. and I opened Substack right after the live class ended. hence this blog you’re reading.

the challenge is not as all easy, but it’s also not extremely hard as long as you put your heart and mind into it. and seeing other đồng-writes also motivates me a lot in keeping up with this challenge.

I love the idea of letting yourself seeing what you’re truly capable of, when you give it an absolute all. and that’s what I’ve been trying when I learn to Viết Dở & Đều.

I like the challenge and the way I can minimize the Maximizer in me, not trying to keep it perfect, but making effort to have an outcome.

if you’re still reading, you might check out Mở’s next WOTN cohort here. (this is not a sponsored post lol)

thank you for being my biggest support.

gratefully yours,

Han from work in progress

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a 30-day writing challenge of Writing On The Net.

#wotn6