A few months ago, I wrote a post—”On blogging (almost) every day so far this year.”
In it, I said:
What’s the point of this?
Is it:
- to write every day?
- to learn how to think?
- to figure out what topics interest me enough to put pen to paper?
- to give myself yet another challenging habit to keep up?
If I’m honest, I think I expected more from this exercise than I’ve so far gotten.
So, how do I feel now?
Do I think the point of it is:
- to write every day?
Yes.
I must admit—though I am sorely wanting for any way of proving it—that I feel I am a better writer than I was on January 1 of this year.
I say feel because that’s what it is—it’s a feeling. It reminds me of when I close in on a growth plateau in my guitar education.
I am, slowly and clumsily, becoming a better writer.
I think.
On that note, is that another point?
- to learn how to think?
More than I would have thought.
I think?
Like writing, the learning curve is hard to spot.
to figure out what topics interest me enough to put pen to paper?
Of course. It’s an inevitable thing. What interests me? What is exciting me?
The best part of this is that the interest is something forced on me.
to give myself yet another challenging habit to keep up?
We’ll, obviously.
But there’s another lurking point to daily blogging that I didn’t foresee at the time even though I was doing it.
Having a conversation with yourself over the span of months.
We change, of course. There are the big tectonic shifts in our lives—both sudden (earthquakes) and gradual (continental drift). But we change like the weather, too. Sun one day, rain the next.
A thought had and written on a sunny day looks a little silly under the shade of clouds. But it’s this contrast within my own mind that I’ve come to value.
Taylor Coe 