365 Days of Writing
Wherein I talk about my plan to write every day for 365 days.
Last year, I took a picture every day for 365 days. Well, nearly so. I did miss a few, but even though I didn’t make 100%, I managed to keep the intention and the habit going for the entire year. While I didn’t want to do another Project365 immediately after ending that one (though I am positive that I will take up the challenge again in the future), I did want to create another daily habit. This time, instead of taking a picture every day, I decided to challenge myself to write every day. Not just any writing (which I’ll be doing plenty of in my PhD program), but specifically creative writing: fiction or drama. Knowing that I will be stressed and busy as I start grad school once again, I am completely aware that if I’m to rise to this challenge of being a writer, I needed to pick a goal that was achievable in even the most difficult or busy of times. 365 seemed a good minimum goal: easy enough to achieve in 20-30 minutes of time, enough so that I can feel a sense of progress through weekly word counts, but not enough to be daunting.
This was my first week in my 365 for 365 Challenge (1/52 of the way done!), and I’m pleased to report that I’ve written every day since last Monday and have a total of 3192 words written, mostly on a new horror short story. Nothing I can share with you here at this point, but I will be sharing my weekly stats as a way to, hopefully, inspire other writers who may need to see how a small amount of words, done daily, can add up to stories in less time than you might think.
I will also, occasionally, write about what this process is like for me as I get busy with academics and teaching and the ways in which I make myself meet my daily word goals.
But really, it’s also just a way for me to share my pride in myself for doing a thing that always seems impossible to do when you aren’t doing it, i.e., becoming a writer.