Well, I made it one full week of writing every day.
Though a small milestone, I do think it is one worth celebrating. There are a few notable things that have jumped out at me even in this first week, which I would like to recap:
- There have been several days & moments throughout the week when I did not feel like writing. I knew that this would happen eventually, but I did not expect it to happen within the first week. Normally, when you start a new goal or habit, you have enough momentum to get you through the first week or two, and then things begin to slow down. But almost immediately, my internal dialogue tried to seduce me into skipping a day. Luckily, I haven’t succumbed to that temptation yet.
- Even when I don’t know what to write about, I still have something to write about. There have been several days in this first week where I would look at the blank page staring back at me, feeling as if I had nothing to write, and then I would write just one sentence, and suddenly my mind knew exactly what to write. This was surprising to me because I realized that the subconscious mind is always thinking, always toying with ideas and constructs and emotions. Most of the time, these things are lost and never make their way to the forefront. But by writing daily, I’ve been able to extract my unknown thoughts and put them on paper. This feels like something that will have a tremendous amount of value for me in the long run.
- Life has a funny way of granting you with stories to write about. By writing daily, I have to pay far closer attention to what is happening to me because lurking around the corner may be a great story worth telling. It’s easy to wake up each day and go through the motions, to let the sun rise and fall, go to work, and pass another day without considering the meaning of that day. When I write daily, it forces me to think about what is happening around me. I like to know that by paying attention to the details, I will be rewarded.
- I am still embarrassed to share my writing. Despite keeping up with this for a week, I have not shared anything that I have written. Nobody has read a single word (to my knowledge). Maybe that’s ok. Or maybe I need to get out of my comfort zone and be more vocal about it. Regardless, as long as I feel like I am getting something out of it, then it doesn’t really matter who reads it or doesn’t.
- I’d like to spend more time learning about the craft of writing. I don’t know if my writing is any good. I don’t know if I should use simple or complex vocabulary. I don’t know what makes a story compelling or boring. I don’t know what makes something worth reading. But I have my guesses, and each day I have a chance to take another guess and another guess and another guess. Eventually, I am hoping that a few of my guesses will be correct.
There you have it, one full week of writing. I am really proud of this accomplishment and hope that a few weeks from now I’ll be able to say that I completed one full month of this. To be determined.
In the meantime, I am going to enjoy the moment.
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