Trying something new

So once again, Merlin Mann’s voice got to me. On a recent Back to Work episode, he talked about the “verbing” of what you say you do, vs what you actually do. This isn’t a new talking point for him, but he came around to a new way of saying it. To roughly paraphrase, if you’re not writing every day, how many days do you have to go without writing before you’re not longer a writer?

It’s been too many days without writing for me.

I’ve been inspired by other writers and their daily writing habits. A post on Seth Gotin’s blogreminded me about re-making habits out of fears. I don’t have to have a plan for a novel every time I sit down to write, and I don’t need to bang out 3,000 perfect words to call it a “session.” So, yesterday I wrote 200 words. Today, I wrote 500. Tomorrow, I hope to write more than ten. I’m trying to be realistic, but I also know I’m only really happy when I’m writing, and I owe it to the people around me to try to be happy.

I’m going to put what I can on this blog. I’m going to be shooting for everyday, but not everything I write is going to be suitable for even undiscerning readers. For now, I’m going to have a week delay in what I write vs what I put up. It’s mostly going to be shit, but that’s part of the point.

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