I Don't Like Leaving Things Unfinished

Five weeks ago, when I found out my mom was in the hospital, I was exactly 25 days into the hundred days straight of writing I had committed to. Obviously I, uh, did not keep up with it after that.

I do not feel particularly bad about taking a break while I was dealing with this. I did a lot of journaling during this time and while it was valuable for me I don't know how much good it would do for my broader writing goals to post the equivalent of a primal scream on my public blog every day.

But she's gone, and now I have time on my hands, and I'd like to pick up the keyboard again. Writing every day, no matter how bad or uninteresting, is good for me and good practice. Spend long enough writing and you'll get okay at it tends to be a common refrain. And I want to do that for myself. It would also be cool if I ended up a millionaire with hundreds of thousands of readers like Jeff Atwood but I'll settle for occasionally having a stranger tell me they liked something I wrote.

The hundred days practice has become really important to me over the past few years. There's something about the commitment to doing something every day that works for me like nothing else ever has. And I think I need that consistency - and an outlet for my thoughts - more than anything else right now. Besides, I've never much liked leaving things unfinished. I've dropped one hundred days out of six so far, and I don't plan on doing it again. Consistency matters. Doing what you said you would matters.

I wrote four posts over the past five weeks, which I'm gonna go ahead and count. Normally I wouldn't really let myself have that type of leeway - the practice is what matters - but you know, I think for now it's alright. So this is day 30. See you tomorrow.