Nothing Profound Here

by Michelle Lasley

Michelle Lasley is a mother, wife in Pacific Northwest learning to balance green dreams with budget realities.

March 25, 2011

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Pacific Northwest: 1841 Map of the Oregon Terr...

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I like to write. I like words, and I like thought exploration. I am an introvert, so daily processing is a must for my sanity. As such, writing serves as a useful tool for something I can do by myself to process, as I’ve said before, all those daily inputs in order to make sense of the senseless.

I saw the “Post a Day” and “One a Day” challenges on January 2nd. I’ve needed/wanted motivation to write daily for some time. It’s commonly stated that if you want to be called a writer, you must write daily. Free writes, simple exploration of thoughts, branching out into new literary territory – these are all up for grabs for the self-proclaimed writer.

I’m not comfortable calling myself a writer, just like I’m not comfortable calling myself an artist even though I can sketch better than the average bear. But, I do enjoy writing. So, to do something, you must practice. Practice is best had daily. When I saw the challenges, it seemed a natural merging of my wants with a public accountability system. So, I signed up. I’ve been successful in posting more than enough posts for a post-a-day. There have been a few times where I haven’t had time to write on that day, but I wrote more than one on a previous day so I use the “scheduled post” option WordPress graciously gives to allow for a seamless post a day.

But, how much of this writing is worthwhile? I imagine it is a good conduit for family living far away to keep light tabs on the life happenings here in the Pacific Northwest, with commentaries on birthdays and job changes. I’ve written a few things that I found were enjoyable to read, maybe thought provoking, and even, yes, a little profound. Writing a post a day though – not everything is profound.

The lack of profound thoughts is something I’m … adjusting to right now. On one hand, I’d like every post to be a quality post. But, to achieve this challenge, most things posted are simply to get that post a day done so I can state that I’ve done the thing I said I would. This is an experiment in habit forming and word tests. I am experimenting with the discipline of putting “pen to paper” or “fingers to keys” or “butt to the chair.” I’m experimenting with doing what I’ve wanted to do for a very long time: write.

Thank you for following along. Thanks for commenting, when posts justify comments. Thanks for telling me about how you’ve been keeping up in conversations outside the realm of the Internets. It’s all motivation to keep up the habit, to practice, to experiment, to write.

So, I would rather have more than just “I don’t want to write posts.” Sometimes, they will be, in keeping with the habit. But, I did have some guidelines in mind when I accepted this challenge. The basic guidelines being I want my posts to be between 500 and 750 words. More than 750, I’m being too verbose. It’d better be a damned interesting post if I’m going to spend that many words on a daily thing, that I would like read. Less than 500 seems like cheating. I’ve admitted they exist and will continue to exist because habit forming trumps quality. But, the idea is that 500 words is a good cut off for an essay. A good cut off for exploring a thought through, explaining my pros and cons, or describing the alliteration of a thought.

While there might not be anything profound here. I’m hoping for consistency and something fun to read. You can help keep me accountable by commenting! (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)

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