Day One.

I’ve been awake for less than 60 seconds, the text on my screen is so jumpy, blurry and doubled up that I can hardly read what I’m writing. But that’s OK.
That’s sort of the point of this exercise to begin with.
I should get back to writing … I must get back to writing.
It’s something I’ve found myself thinking with increasing frequency and urgency recently.
And surprise, surprise, I’ve had nothing to show for it.
I got off the phone with Rand Fishkin yesterday (check out my full interview with him here), and I got thinking about content again. We talked about building a business, diversity, depression and SEO.
We also spoke about the need for consistency, persistence, habits and routine.
Routine … I think that’s the key word here.
I can write. I have written. It’s hard for me to write. I’m not all that good at writing.
And here’s the tragic part: I have a 400 page novel that needs to be reworked sitting in my bottom desk draw right now. It’s been 24 months since I’ve opened up the Word file to give it any attention. Had I written just 200 words every day (I’m at 194 words right now and 4 minutes in), I would have written 146,000 words by now, enough words to fill two full length novels.
It’s depressing.
So I decided to write something short six days of the week (save for Saturday), without planning, without pressure, without expectations and without any readers. It’s for me, not for you.
I’m using the mostdangerouswritingapp (the best tool ever invented for bloggers with bad writing habits), set at 5 minutes. The picture in the beginning will sometimes reflect how I’m feeling.
Today it does.
If I get nothing done the rest of the day, at least I’ll know that there were 9 productive minutes (4 minutes for grammatical editing and finding a picture).
That makes me feel better.
I’ll probably write about the things I know best, like digital marketing, web design and how to be a lousy husband.
But I dream a lot and I may write about that too.
But that’s OK, right? This is a selfish exercise, meant as a gateway through which I’ll start producing and writing real content.
That will be useful and practical to readers.
Oh God.
