Do It Anyway 2

It’s Day 9, and working on this (pre) #the100dayproject has already shed a lot of insight into my writing and creating process. I didn’t approach it with a game plan, as I normally do with my other writing projects. The only parameters were to write and finish a piece every day (ideally to post and share online). But I didn’t restrict it to a topic or type of writing (so yes, quotes and brief reflections count). It’s currently writing-process and creativity focused, though I’m allowing room to change and expand later on.

Here’s what I notice so far:

- I love to vacillate between digital and analog tools (something that Austin Kleon talks a lot about). I freewrite in my Morning Pages or I journal, and I notice that an idea is taking shape. I’ll then switch to typing out a more polished version of that idea on my iPad or computer.

- The depth of the piece or an idea largely depends on the container of time. The depth of my work depends on whether I wake up early and have an hour to write, if I have only 15 minutes, or if it’s the end of the day (see previous post). In her book Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott writes about filling a one-inch picture frame. Essentially, I’m writing to fill up whatever frame I’m given with. I like that a lot.

- Reading good writing or hearing writers talk about their writing process via podcasts like this and this are incredibly motivating. It keeps the inspiration going, and it feels like I’m part of a larger community of writers. You know that feeling when you are motivated to work out when you’re in the gym surrounded by people killing it on the cardio machines or when you stay on track to study when you sit at the cafe amongst other people furiously typing away on their laptops? It’s like that for me. The good kind of peer pressure and accountability.

I’m excited by what else will unfold in the next several weeks of this challenge. If this is how it feels now, I can’t imagine where I’ll be 100 days later.