A Post a Day Keeps the Doctor Away #

Starting today, I will write one blog post a day through the month of November.November 1 was a Saturday, so I’m starting on the first weekday. Why? I’ve often given the standard daily-writing advice to many people, including my students, but have not often followed it myself—a fact that I am upfront about with anyone to whom I dole it out. Relatedly, I am on sabbatical right now, but have found myself failing to carve out the kind of intentional writing time that is exactly what such a break is designed for. The hope is that this low-stakes daily-writing practice will “grease the groove” and get me back in the habit of all forms of writing.

Why now? It happens to coincide with The Inkhaven Residency, a fellowship where bloggers apply and commit to a residential program with daily blog posts. Although I’m not wild about the Rationalist world that sponsors and runs the program,It takes place at the Lighthaven complex, which you can read more about in this New York Times piece. I do like the emphasis on a steady practice for honing the craft of writing. You are what you repeatedly do, and I am not happy with the lack of consistent writing in my life. The timing is also perfect: I just returned from two trips in OctoberMost recently, a colloquium at Georgetown. and have a lighter travel calendar in November. Seemed serendipitous.

Some parameters for myself:

  • Aim for 500 words daily. This will be rough though. I am not a believer in length minimums, since one cannot prejudge the length required to adequatly express a given thought. That being said: I want to express some non-trivial thought daily. A single link with a one-sentence comment would be too thin. Similarly: more than one post a day is also allowed.
  • Only on weekdays. Enough said. Regular practice is important, but so is balance, and I have other activities I want to do on the weekends.
  • No full pre-writing. While I see the value in doing this, and have taken random notes about things I’d like to write,For instance, some retroactive trip reports. my goal is not to have produced X number of posts for this website. My goal is to cultivate a daily writing practice. The process, not the output, is what matters for me.Why post at all then? Accountability’s a hell of a drug.
  • Content: no promises at all. Some posts will be quasi-academic, some will be link collections, and most I have no idea what they will be.

With that out of the way: écrivons!