Writing Every Day for a Year: A New Brand of Insanity

I’ll lead off this blog post by explaining the exact details:

My New Year’s resolution for 2019 was to write every day for a year. I decided in advance that I would allow myself days off (Nationals, Play Performances, Cons, getting my wisdom teeth out) just in case. But In the end, I’d still guess that I’m in the 345-355 range, writing at least two sentences per day, and usually more.

By a fairly reliable method, I’ve figured out that I created about 51 new completed story documents during that time. Some of these have more than one story, and there are several long, in-progress documents with other stories, so that averages out to at lest one story per week, since I write primarily one-shots when I’m not writing my novel. I also started adapting a new screenplay and edited old writing. I’ve created probably 10 new characters, and written about… well, at least two of them. Right at the beginning of the year I started to write my second novel. We won’t talk about how much of that I’ve written.

As you might expect, I learned things through this process. During these last few days of the year, I’m taking some of my writing time to organize a list for you.

• I don’t recommend doing this… but I also do

I can absolutely tell you that the quality of my writing suffered from this. Focusing on quantity and speed made me put a little less effort into making everything a perfect work of art. In theory, that can be fixed in editing, but when I’m mostly writing one-shots because long projects require more contemplation, the editing doesn’t really happen either.

The reason I might still recommend it is actually a payoff I’m still waiting to see. My hope is that I have built enough of a habit that I won’t go full weeks or months without writing. Going through the grueling process of writing something every. single. day. will hopefully make a normal writing pace seem much more manageable. Also, the ability to write something that isn’t perfect is incredibly valuable, because otherwise you just never write.

• Writing what you want to read is just as important as everyone has told you

When you’re trying to find something to write every day, and your brain can’t handle one project for that long, you start to figure out what is the easiest thing to write. Important information on how my brain works: I write best when I’m working on at least three projects. Preferably writing all three at once. As I’m writing this blog, I have written in two other story documents today, and I’m feeling much better than I did at the beginning of this month when play performances kept me from focusing on more than one one-shot at a time.

So the best way to get my brain to concentrate on something when I’m six months in and done with writing is to find something I really want to read. For me, that means injuring characters and writing angst for the most part. Sometimes that means injuring the same character in different ways in different universes over and over again. It’s a wonder my characters do anything for me. But in the end, I get stories I actually care about and want to go back and reread once I'm done with them, which is better motivation to get them done.

• Mental breaks are important

The other reason my writing suffered that sometimes you really just have to give yourself a break from what you’re writing. Just like you need a break from people you spend time with in real life, you can also need a break from your fictional characters. (And maybe they need a break to recover from being injured for the fifth time in a month.) This also contributes to why I work on multiple projects at once. I do have a need to keep being productive all the time, but detouring to other stories can help provide breathing room for a story I’m stuck on.

• Sharing is caring

There were a few people I shared stories with for the first time this year. There are people who have read my stories before and very kindly asked for more. There’s the one certain person who has read every single completed story I’ve ever written and some not-completed ones. As a rare extroverted writer, the only way I can write at all is if I know someone is going to read my work. At the same time, why on earth should I write 50+ stories and not share them with more people?

One of the things I learned this year that would take a much longer blog post to explain is that maybe, just maybe, my writing is more important to other people than I’ve been thinking. In a lot of ways, it’s just been a way of getting the stories out of my head so I can make room for other things. But there’s a good chance that God gave me that need to get the things out of my head for more reasons than my own personal sanity.


Since sharing is caring, and there are some lovely people who might read my blog and care to read more, I’m going to provide a guide of easy-to-understand stories that I could share with you if you let me know you’re interested, and a few with direct links so you can read them right away.

If you want something that needs no other explanation, you can read my horror story from this year. Though the characters in my story this year were inspired by some of my original characters from other stories, (the only way I was able to even come up with an idea,) I always try to write my horror story so it’s self contained.

For a story that technically requires some context but is easier to explain, I have a RWBY fan fiction I posted this year. I actually want to write a fan fiction in my own preferred genre (hurt/comfort, sibling feels, friendship feels) in this fandom, but along the way I came up with this idea.

Some people out there have read my novel (and for those who still want to, I’ll probably do a new edit in the new year. Hopefully a quick edit…) and I do sometimes write additional one-shots for those characters. I have a few of those to choose from. Of ones I can definitely share, there are two Valentine’s Day one-shots, a story about someone being sick that is somewhat close to the above fan fiction, an incriminating kissing story, and a one-shot that’s kind of a prequel to my second novel.

Speaking of incriminating kissing stories, I do occasionally write romantic one-shots. I managed to round up three of those that I can survive sharing with people, though one is an overlap with the previous category. They’ll require some more explanation because they’re my original characters, usually in alternate universes, but sufficiently standalone.

As we get deeper into original stories that take more explanation, I’ve got three options. The first is - kind of out of character for me - set in a perfectly normal everyday life. I’ve just, you know, decided to have one of my characters get in a car accident. There’s some drama. The second is much more typical of my style, and involves superpowers and runaway children. Also involves several characters who actually belong to Zella. (Well. So do others. Complicated technicality.) The third is a spy story. Because everyone loves a good spy story. But it definitely drops you right in the middle of everything.

So that’s it, that’s my review of writing every day for a year. I appreciate all the people who knowingly or unknowingly supported me. I appreciate all the people who knowingly or unknowingly hung out with me late at night when I was actually writing on my phone because I needed to get words in. I appreciate the people who have already read some of these stories and any of you who read them now. I promise I won't do this again. Thanks for being around to get me this far.