Congrats on your poem-a-day-April venture. As I learned a long time ago, writing is easy until you commit to a frequency to others! Many years ago I was wrestling with a great recommendation by Ray Bradbury. It was 'about to be' the anniversary of my daily Musing column, but I could not muster the nerve to commit to my readers that, in addition to a daily column, that I would do what Bradbury recommended - write a short story a week for a year. I chickened out, and since I'd been playing around with some poems about that time, I thought committing to writing a 'poem a day for a year' would be something I could do, so I committed and somehow miraculously did it. Admittedly, some were short and weak, some were good. I followed up the following year with a self-challenge to write a short story a week - I fell short at 38 in 52 weeks. The reason for my writing - or, 'the moral of this story is' this - writing anything, short or long, every day is easier than we fear. It doesn't always have to be great - it needs to be regular. I'm in my 22nd year of writing a column every day (you can find it here on Substack - https://markmusing.substack.com/ - where I've also begun again (this year's 'commitment to self') project - so there are Poems and Short Stories showing up there too! None of mine would have happened if it was not for Ray Bradbury's encouragement. I'm sure there will be many writers telling their stories years from now, explaining how Caro inspired them! Well done.
Thank you, Mark! I've decided that a poem a day (whether I publish it or not) is a good thing as it gets me in the habit of writing daily. It also keeps me busy. So, I'll write and post a daily poem for NaPoWriMo and continue the habit.
Congrats on your poem-a-day-April venture. As I learned a long time ago, writing is easy until you commit to a frequency to others! Many years ago I was wrestling with a great recommendation by Ray Bradbury. It was 'about to be' the anniversary of my daily Musing column, but I could not muster the nerve to commit to my readers that, in addition to a daily column, that I would do what Bradbury recommended - write a short story a week for a year. I chickened out, and since I'd been playing around with some poems about that time, I thought committing to writing a 'poem a day for a year' would be something I could do, so I committed and somehow miraculously did it. Admittedly, some were short and weak, some were good. I followed up the following year with a self-challenge to write a short story a week - I fell short at 38 in 52 weeks. The reason for my writing - or, 'the moral of this story is' this - writing anything, short or long, every day is easier than we fear. It doesn't always have to be great - it needs to be regular. I'm in my 22nd year of writing a column every day (you can find it here on Substack - https://markmusing.substack.com/ - where I've also begun again (this year's 'commitment to self') project - so there are Poems and Short Stories showing up there too! None of mine would have happened if it was not for Ray Bradbury's encouragement. I'm sure there will be many writers telling their stories years from now, explaining how Caro inspired them! Well done.
Cheers,
Mark
Thank you, Mark! I've decided that a poem a day (whether I publish it or not) is a good thing as it gets me in the habit of writing daily. It also keeps me busy. So, I'll write and post a daily poem for NaPoWriMo and continue the habit.
eye opening you truly had my attention