And so it begins.

‍

I’m starting off the new year with a simple goal: write consecutively for 180 days.

‍

I can write anything I want. It can be a stream of consciousness rambling, a poem, a fictional story, a diary entry, an essay, a research paper, or anything my heart desires. It doesn’t matter.

‍

The only thing that matters is that I keep with it and pay attention to the craft of writing. I will publish each day’s piece on my website (mattmannino.com) and share the article link on my social media.

‍

I am doing this mostly as an experiment. As with any good experiment, it’s helpful to write a few hypotheses before getting started. In 180 days, assuming that I’m able to keep up with this goal, I suspect the following will happen:

‍

1. I will unintentionally become better at writing, just through sheer exposure and practice. The human mind is incapable of sucking at something if you show up and practice it every day. Eventually, I will write something decent and maybe even pretty good.
2. I will have a small cohort of people who take genuine interest in my writing, maybe about 100 people or so. I don’t expect many people will care what I have to say, but in a way, that’s what’s kind of nice about it.
3. I will be forced to sit and think about things as I write, so I will be better able to develop opinions about current events, things related to my work, etc. Writing = thinking.
4. Writing may start to feel less and less important because of advances in artificial intelligence. As AI becomes more advanced, it may start to feel like individual writing in this fashion is unnecessary. I’m not too sure about this one, but generally this is what I’m feeling in my gut.
5. I will meet a few cool people along the way, and hopefully develop some rewarding connections. I often feel that it’s weird to think about people this way. The idea that we need to “connect” with people for some benefit in return is off putting. But at the same time, I feel like I haven’t leveraged the Internet for its social aspects. Instead, I just scroll and scroll and never make an effort to connect with anyone. By putting my own writing into the world, I hope that will change a bit. 

‍

These are the things that I expect to happen, but I’m sure there will be several other things that happen which I could not possibly predict.  

‍

About 30 minutes ago, sitting on my childhood bed at my parents’ house, I finished reading The Hobbit for the first time. It begins with a call to adventure, which has been a classic staple of storytelling for thousands of years. When I think about the new year, I also want to approach it with a sense of adventure.

‍

In a way, this writing challenge is my call to adventure. There will be twists and turns, ups and downs, victories and defeats, but as long as I stay with it like Bilbo Baggins, I hope that there’s much to gain along the way. And in fact, the journey itself is what ends up being rewarding for Bilbo Baggins, not the actual gold at the end of the journey (I know, it’s cliché, but there’s a reason The Hobbit is a classic). 

‍

It's about 10:30 p.m. now, and my eyes are getting a bit heavy, so I’ll leave it here. I look forward to the journey ahead and hope you’ll join me.

‍

Happy New Year!