500 Words — Day Fifty: Finale
Well, here it is. I have known that this day was coming for awhile now. I really felt that I was losing a lot of steam since the move over to Columbus and I just haven’t really had the time or energy to really write anything that I felt was really worth writing about. My focus has been a lot on trying to recalibrate towards time management and trying to get a good deal of sleep while also spending a little extra time to spin up on the new job. And if something needs to get the cutting block, it is going to be the hobby that adds the least to my life. The job gives me money, running is good for physical activity and health overall, and sleep is so important in maintaining my mental fortitude that I would prefer to try and get as close as possible to eight hours of sleep every night. I could cut out reading, but I read like 10 pages a night, so that takes significantly less time and effort than writing and I always enjoy it, so I’ll keep reading every night prior to going to bed.
Now, am I quitting writing altogether? No. I’m going to keep writing. But I’m not going to force myself to write 500 words each night 4 to 5 times a week. My goal is not to become a writer but to stay sharp in terms of the writing craft and give myself an outlet to express myself on the blank canvas that is a word processor. I don’t think I am ever going to write a book, but I want to transition to writing that is more sporadic and a little more focused and structured. Why? The first thing is that I’m a programmer by heart and I love things that have more narrow and specific focus and adheres to a strict structure. Good design always makes me happy. And the second thing is that I really need a more flexible schedule given all the stuff I do (and want to do).
So what to expect? Less frequent posts that are longer focusing on something that I care about. Hopefully, I’ll care about whatever that thing is, so the energy will be aligned with the writing and overall quality will be better. Also, if you haven’t noticed that a lot of these posts don’t go into a lot of depth simply because I don’t have any time to do research or preparation as well as the fact that I have 500–1000 words to fit my writing in. There are some topics that I’ll find a great deal of interest in and find that I’m 600–700 words in and need to wrap up so I avoid going too deep so I can finish up (and go to sleep).
However, if my math is right, I have written at least 25,000 words in the last couple of months which blows my total out of the water for last year. I’m not sure what I’m going to write about next, but I can promise that it will hit that 500 word minimum and hopefully be something that not only interests me, but hopefully continues to provide some value to the people that somehow keep reading these things.
