Day 202: Milestones

One hundred eighty-three was the day that I officially hit the halfway mark for this little creative experiment of mine. I had been excitedly anxious about hitting that mark and being able to reflect to my fans how this project has evolved and how I have changed because of it. To be honest, you are probably a better judge of those perspectives than I am. So, I will just explain how it has helped me personally.

All the ways, I will not know.

There is something about a daily obligation that pisses me off but makes me happy when I am done with it. And not necessarily because I am done but because of the product that is produced. Product is the wrong word to use, but I can’t think of a better one right now. I am happy with what I am producing. I am not ecstatic every day, but most days I impress myself. This writing experiment has built confidence and a little bit of skill.

There are things on the page that you will notice and there are things on the page that I notice. For example, I notice when my thoughts come together in a complete project. I notice when sentences and paragraphs feel complete. I notice the cadence and the tone. Whether or not I edit for hours, varies from day to day. On most days, I prefer to edit slim to none. I am embracing my ability to produce a piece of writing without too much editing. There is always a point in every piece of writing, whether it be a poem or novel that a writer must let go and let the audience decide. I will never know if my work is worth the time for other people to read. Only the audience can know that.

You may notice the length of one post to the next. Despite by selfconscious assumption of readers’ opinions, poems are often-times harder to write than lengthy essays about a subject. Poems are quickish but require a lot more thinking time. Essays require less thinking to get the ball rolling, and once it is rolling there is very little that stops me.

I stare at the blinking cursor a lot. Though, it has increased my coloring ability.

You may or may not care.

Here’s the real deal:

My initial hope for this experiment was for me to write more short fiction. That rarely happens. Fiction takes a lot more effort than I put into this project on a daily basis. Fiction takes the thinking of poetry and the editing of short story. These things can happen in a day but they would consume most of the day. I also have other things to do besides write. My passions extend elsewhere.

I spend a lot of my time learning how to play the piano and the guitar. I have ridden my bike twelve miles nearly every day this week. I ran/walked 8.4 miles this week. I still highly enjoy watching shows and movies.

The only thing that I can conclude from this experiment is that it has built my confidence in many other aspirations of my life. My first post was about fear. There is little on my creative/learning side that I fear anymore. I embrace the learning experience knowing that I am going to screw up and sound terrible.

I finally, fully, understand the nature of the skills in life. I can equate anything that I want to learning to carve an eagle from a solid log of wood. Each day I work on a skill is like taking one sliver of wood from the log. I won’t be good in a week or month, but I will be better than when I started. The carving will be more complete. It will be a long time before the carving is complete, but even then it may not be a good carving. I will have to start over and try again.

Tonight, I will start my first writing competition: I must write a story that is 100 words. The parameters are action/adventure genre, the action is teaching a class, and I much use the word "gold." Wish me luck.