I’m working through what the next evolution of this daily blog might (could? should?) be. If you’re following along, here’s the last post. I have no idea how many of these posts it’ll take, but hey, a post is a post.
It’s so tempting to look for the “one right answer.” Generally, I crave a strong theme or constraint driven by the (likely false) impression that it will make everything easier. If I just write memoir (for example) I don’t need to think about what I’ll write. As I mentioned in a previous post, though: I don’t have unlimited experiences to write about, nor the patience to write about them every single day.
So should I start writing a commonplace book? Should I write a more literal diary? A never-ending story? Poetry? I probably couldn’t do any one of those forever, either. Perhaps, though, I could do… all of them. In some way at least, I might have to let go of the idea of “no backlogs,” but I think it would be worth it (and honestly, I couldn’t really tell you why the idea was important to me in the first place).
This feels like a pretty disappointing conclusion to reach in one way, but I think it’s roughly the right one. I want my practice of publishing daily to be sustainable. I want to feel good about it. I want the option of something light for the heavier days, and the freedom to write something heavy on the light days. I want to match my output to my energy. In a way, this daily blog is the rest day, not the all-out.
You might not even notice the difference, but I will. Behind the scenes, there will be a little more structure to give me optionality, and a few things tucked away in the filing cabinet that I can pull out when I need to. I’m hoping that, overall, it will give me a little more time to write some stuff outside of this daily blog, and to feel renewed by doing so. I want to use these rest days so that I can go all-out.
I’ll keep reflecting on this stuff as I try some of these ideas out, because if there’s one thing that this daily blog is always for, it’s for figuring it out. I’m thinking through writing, and just hitting publish at the end. That’s why, no matter what, I’ll just keep writing.