The Story Behind a Habit I Refuse to Give Up: Writing

The Story Behind a Habit I Refuse to Give Up: Writing

Some habits enter our lives quietly and stay longer than anything else. The Story Behind a Habit I Refuse to Give Up: Writing did not arrive with ambition or clarity. It arrived as a lifeline. Writing became the one constant when life began to fall apart, and over the years, it slowly grew into purpose.

I Refuse to Give Up After Loss

I was forty when writing first seriously entered my life. After my husband passed away, the world I knew collapsed overnight. Grief was overwhelming, but silence was worse. Writing gave me something to hold on to. I began writing for The Hindu MetroPlus, a newspaper. It was not a career decision. It was survival. Words helped me breathe when everything else felt heavy.

Until then, writing had lived quietly on the sidelines. Essays written for my children. Notes scribbled for school. Thoughts that never travelled far beyond paper. I had always been an avid reader. Books were companions, teachers, and comfort. I carried a dictionary with me and kept updating it, fascinated by language and nuance. Reading shaped my vocabulary long before I realised it was preparing me for this phase of my life.

I Refuse to Give Up and Learning to Earn

Writing soon became practical. I freelanced wherever work came my way. Newspapers. Small assignments. Anything that paid, even if the amount was modest. I wrote brochures, flyers, and content of every kind. Much of this work was pro bono in the beginning. Payment came later, slowly and unpredictably. But each piece taught me something important.

I learned discipline and responsibility. I learned that writing is not just about expression. It is about showing up, even when inspiration is absent.

At forty-eight, I took another step forward. I started my first blog on WordPress, anecdoteofmylife.com. It was June 2012. I had no understanding of blogging, algorithms, or strategy. Everything was trial and error. I wrote, rewrote, deleted, and learned along the way. What mattered was that writing had become a habit I could not abandon.

The Story Behind a Habit I Refuse to Give Up and Community

Around this time, I joined an A to Z writing community on Facebook. Writing alongside others brought momentum and accountability. A few years later, in 2015, I discovered Blogchatter. That decision changed my journey in lasting ways.

Blogchatter introduced structure to my writing life. Challenges became milestones. Deadlines became motivation. I participated regularly and won several challenges. Often the oldest participant, competing with younger, tech-savvy writers. I had to work harder, learn faster, and adapt constantly. There were no shortcuts. Only consistency.

The Story Behind a Habit I Refuse to Give Up and Reinvention

During these years, I explored food blogging. I shared recipes, posted photographs, and created videos. I participated in online cooking competitions and won many of them. Food writing brought visibility and engagement. It also taught me the importance of storytelling through visuals.

But growth brought awareness. My WordPress blog was not gaining the reach it needed. Domain authority remained low. Paid collaborations were difficult to secure. Writing alone was no longer enough.

In 2018, I made a deliberate shift. I started my own website, wordsmithkaur.com. The domain name resonated immediately. It felt like an arrival. Slowly, my digital presence strengthened. My social media handles are aligned with the same identity. Writing, branding, and persistence finally began working together.

The Story Behind a Habit I Refuse to Give Up and Finding Deeper Meaning

In 2021, life changed me once again. After my son passed away, food no longer felt like the language my heart needed. Grief reshaped my voice. My writing turned inward and outward at the same time. I moved toward mental health, children’s mental health, lifestyle, and emotional well-being. Writing became a way to process loss, offer understanding, and hold space for conversations that are often avoided.

My domain authority grew steadily. Today, it stands at thirty-eight. Paid guest posts and collaborations arrive regularly. These milestones matter, but they are not the heart of the story.

The Story Behind a Habit I Refuse to Give Up Today

Writing has carried me through widowhood, reinvention, learning, and loss. I did not begin early with certainty. I began because I needed to survive.

Over time, survival turned into a skill. Skill turned into confidence. Confidence turned into identity.

The story behind the habit I refuse to give up is not about success metrics. It is about staying with the page when life demanded answers I did not have. Writing stayed when everything else shifted. And because it stayed, I learned how to stay too.

Writing has been my quiet prayer—a place where grief, gratitude, and growth meet. Writing is cathartic for me. I believe we do not choose some habits; they are given to help us heal and continue. This is one of mine.

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This blog post is part of ‘Blogaberry Dazzle’ hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla in collaboration with Sameeksha Reads.