Sixty
(Day Sixty)
"How's your blog post going? Is it awesome?"
I've heard this question over and over again from Michael over the course of this 60 Day Challenge. As I got closer to this, the last post of the challenge, the question turned into, "What are you going to write for your last one? It has to be something special, right?"
I hate these questions. I've told him so. I hate them almost as much as I hate being asked if I'm excited about something. These questions ooze with expectations.
Is your blog post going to be awesome?
No, it's not. It's going to be the most boring post ever. I'm going to write about how Clyde smells.
Are you going to write about something special?
No. There's nothing special. I'm going to write about every day shit, like how Clyde smells, and it's going to be boring.
Are you excited about _____?
No. Stop expecting me to be excited. Life is boring.
Of course life isn't boring. All my posts are not boring. But if you expect it to be boring, and it's not, then you're pleasantly surprised. If you expect things to be awesome or special or exciting, and it's not...yeah.
Anyway, going into this project (and this blog in general, really), the whole point was to take away that paralyzing expectation that what I wrote had to be good. I didn't want to freeze because I thought I didn't have something awesome to say or the perfect way to say it. Do you know how many times I've stared at a blank page because I felt like the first sentence had to be just right? I couldn't get anywhere until I said, "Haley, just write something down. Anything." The point was to write even when I didn't feel like it, to write horrible, shitty, boring stuff so I could practice and so many one out of every twenty would be something I'd be proud of, so that I could weed through the muck to find one pretty stone. One good post out of twenty is more than zero good posts out of zero.
So yeah, there are some not great posts in here. But really what surprises me as I look back at the 59 posts before this is that I like quite a few of them. There are some that could be edited and turned into something bigger, or bits from one that might be adapted for something else. There are even some I like exactly how they are. And if you look at the posts, there are patterns that come up: I don't want to write, I don't know what to write about, I complain about how much of a pain this challenge is -- but then I write. I did it. Sixty times in a row. I'm pretty proud of myself, really.
So I think it's been good. I'd like to keep it up, and I think it's important to keep it up. But I also have other things I need to be doing over the next month, so it will be nice to not have to do it every single night. I'm going to give myself the rest of this week off, and then I'll develop a new challenge, whether it's to write 1000 words every night or to write for 30 minutes solid. We'll see. Thanks for hanging in there with me, guys.
This was not special.
P.S. Michael asked me earlier today if I was going to write about what I learned from this challenge, and I said no, because I wouldn't have more than a couple sentences to say. Then I ended up doing it anyway. Once again he gave me a topic, the buttface.
"How's your blog post going? Is it awesome?"
I've heard this question over and over again from Michael over the course of this 60 Day Challenge. As I got closer to this, the last post of the challenge, the question turned into, "What are you going to write for your last one? It has to be something special, right?"
I hate these questions. I've told him so. I hate them almost as much as I hate being asked if I'm excited about something. These questions ooze with expectations.
Is your blog post going to be awesome?
No, it's not. It's going to be the most boring post ever. I'm going to write about how Clyde smells.
Are you going to write about something special?
No. There's nothing special. I'm going to write about every day shit, like how Clyde smells, and it's going to be boring.
Are you excited about _____?
No. Stop expecting me to be excited. Life is boring.
Of course life isn't boring. All my posts are not boring. But if you expect it to be boring, and it's not, then you're pleasantly surprised. If you expect things to be awesome or special or exciting, and it's not...yeah.
Anyway, going into this project (and this blog in general, really), the whole point was to take away that paralyzing expectation that what I wrote had to be good. I didn't want to freeze because I thought I didn't have something awesome to say or the perfect way to say it. Do you know how many times I've stared at a blank page because I felt like the first sentence had to be just right? I couldn't get anywhere until I said, "Haley, just write something down. Anything." The point was to write even when I didn't feel like it, to write horrible, shitty, boring stuff so I could practice and so many one out of every twenty would be something I'd be proud of, so that I could weed through the muck to find one pretty stone. One good post out of twenty is more than zero good posts out of zero.
So yeah, there are some not great posts in here. But really what surprises me as I look back at the 59 posts before this is that I like quite a few of them. There are some that could be edited and turned into something bigger, or bits from one that might be adapted for something else. There are even some I like exactly how they are. And if you look at the posts, there are patterns that come up: I don't want to write, I don't know what to write about, I complain about how much of a pain this challenge is -- but then I write. I did it. Sixty times in a row. I'm pretty proud of myself, really.
So I think it's been good. I'd like to keep it up, and I think it's important to keep it up. But I also have other things I need to be doing over the next month, so it will be nice to not have to do it every single night. I'm going to give myself the rest of this week off, and then I'll develop a new challenge, whether it's to write 1000 words every night or to write for 30 minutes solid. We'll see. Thanks for hanging in there with me, guys.
This was not special.
P.S. Michael asked me earlier today if I was going to write about what I learned from this challenge, and I said no, because I wouldn't have more than a couple sentences to say. Then I ended up doing it anyway. Once again he gave me a topic, the buttface.