1000 days of writing every day

In 2012 I took on some new challenges with writing. One of them was to write every day. Not that before then I written lots, though I probably missed many days, just that on January 1st 2012 I started recording my writing. Last Saturday (if my math is correct) marked 1000 consecutive days of writing every day.

There have been some challenges. I crossed the International Date Line four times in that space (so gained a day going one way, and lost a day going the other – I wrote on the plane and in the terminals, so counted writing days). Some days I’ve had computer fritzes. Thank goodness I learned how to hand-write. Some days I wrote very few words (132 is the lowest I see on my chart), some days I wrote very many (1 day of 7928). Overall I’ve averaged around 1400 words a day – over 500,000 words in both of 2012 and 2013, and so far this year 394118.

I’ve published far fewer words, but have changed up a few things in the process from now so should be getting far more of those words out into the world. Fortunately some of those published words have realized some of my dreams – a story in Asimov’s, a competition win (and a couple of 3rd placings), a story in New Zealand’s premier literary magazine Landfall, among other things.

Inevitably life may throw something at me so the run of consecutive days will need resetting, but you know, that’s all right. At the moment I feel like my momentum is up and I’ll keep learning, practising and striving.