Saturday, March 8, 2014

The Streak is (Back) On!



By
Scott D. Parker

Well, I’m back at it. After I accidentally broke my streak, I frankly took some time off from writing. Yeah, yeah, I know I shouldn’t have, but it’s my choice. No deadlines, no contracts, I’m just writing for the love of writing and, as December edged to January, the love started to fade. Yes, I showed up every day and some days were better than others, but I wanted the break.

I read more, I thought about the story I was stuck on less, and didn’t regret the breakage at all. Yes, the guy I’ll be on 31 December 2014 will curse my past self because 2014 will not be a 365-day writing year, but I’ll get over it. 

A funny thing happened, however. The inner urge to write began to assert itself. I found that I missed the daily writing sessions, even if I wasn’t exporting very many good words each day. What started out in 2013 as an experiment (How many days in a row can I write?) morphed, over time, into a habit. I have the habit of writing in my internal hard drive and I found that I not only wanted to write but needed to as well. It’s a nice feeling to have.

I only started up again on Texas Independence Day (i.e., 2 March) so I’m not that far along, but I’m already aiming at a new number: 256. That’s one day more than my previous writing. If my calculations are correct, sometime on 13 November, I’ll have a new streak in place.

Actually, I already do: 6. And I’m happy with it. You know why?

Progress.

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