Introducing the 1K a Day challenge!

I have decided to write one thousand words every day for the next year. Writing is a skill that, like all skills, needs to be used in order to improve. To be a better runner, one runs. To be a better guitarist, one plays. I want to be a better writer. I’ve decided that, in order to accomplish the goal of improving my writing skill, I must write a lot and write often. I believe that getting in the habit of writing a specific amount of text every single day will force me to become a better, more creative writer.

                I’m not a professional author. In fact, my profession has nothing to do with writing. Professionally, I sand things at a prototyping firm. I’m not writing because it is my career or because I hope somehow to make money in the dying medium of long-form writing. I am doing this simply for the pleasure I get from writing for writing’s sake. I’ll write meandering essays about super heroes. I’ll write short stories. I’ll write sharp political rants. There may be days- in fact, I’m certain there will be days- when I don’t feel like writing anything at all. On those days expect to see one thousand words about how I don’t feel like writing.

                I’ve always had problems with following through on ideas. I could list dozens of projects I have started and that remain incomplete. I am nearly always thinking up some new plan, some fancy new project. I even start some of them. My problem is that before I can scrounge up the motivation to finish a project, a new, more exciting idea has come to my mind. It’s something of a vicious cycle.

                This will not be one of those failed attempts. I am committed to this. I’m going to write. Every single day, I am going to write. I may write nonsense on some days. I may write badly on most days, but I am going to write. I may sit and stare at the little word counter in the corner of my computer screen forever as my fingers aren’t typing, like I am right now, but I will power through. I have to. I have to prove to myself I am capable of a long-term commitment to a creative process. I have to prove to myself I can find the motivation. I need to know I can do this.

                That might sound stupid.  I mean, it’s just writing. I know. But there’s a deeper meaning to this to me than just getting words onto a page. I struggle with motivation. I have Major Depressive Disorder, commonly just called “ depression”. Some days, I’m fine. I can be creative and positive and happy and successful. But on other days, I can scarcely do anything. On those days, I don’t have the motivation to even get out of bed. I’m not just proving to myself that I can write. I know I can write, and write well. I need to prove to myself I am in control. I need to know that I can overcome the times of no motivation. I need to know I can make myself do something I love.

                Woah, that all got pretty deep there. Anyway, I’m writing. I’m actually pretty excited about it. I’ve already got a handful of ideas to write about. It’s going to be quite a mixed bag. I’m going to experiment with different formats and media. I’m going to try writing in all sorts of different tones and voices. I’m going to write essays about subjects nobody cares at all about.

                I was telling a friend just yesterday that I want to write more and told him my idea for a paper analyzing the motivations and backgrounds of various super heroes and draw conclusions about if they are actually heroes. (I’m going to write that one soon.) He said “you know nobody’s going to read that, right?” and you know, he’s right. I bet there aren’t that many people who are interested in the stuff I want to write about, but I don’t care. I want to write for the sake of writing. I want to create for myself, not for an audience. If an audience finds my work enjoyable, that’s great, but I’m not writing for the sake of an audience. I genuinely enjoy the act of putting words to pages. I enjoy structuring statements in just the right way. I love the feeling of crafting the perfect sentence. I want to be better at that. That’s why I’m writing.

                Two hundred thirty seven words left. Didn’t exactly realize how many one thousand is. Oh well. I’ll get better at that, too. It’s all part of the growing and learning experience I’m aiming to have. By the time a year is complete, and I have typed 365,000 words, I’m sure I’ll be a lot better at a lot of things.

                I’m super excited about this project. I think it will be super beneficial to me to have some creative output every day. I don’t get to be terribly creative in my work, so I’m looking forward to having the opportunity to make myself be creative on a daily basis. I’m already excited by the prospect of the potential. I can write whatever I want! It’s going to be fun.

                I’m not sure if anyone’s reading this, but if you want to play along and do some daily writing of your own, let me know! I’d love to read what you are writing daily. It’d be kinda fun to have a daily writing club or something. I’m thinking of calling this the “1K a day challenge”. Might be kinda corny, but I don’t care. I think it would be fun to have a group of people all doing it.

But even without a group, I’m still doing it. One thousand words a day for a year. Three hundred sixty five thousand words. What have I gotten myself into?