Post of a thousand days

As the saying goes, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Likewise, a blog begins with a first post and a lot of optimism, determination and willingness to learn.

My initial post went up November 20, 2009. It was an essay I had already written. As it seemed in keeping with the title "Essay-eh," which had been in my mind for awhile, I simply typed that first piece in. No categories, no links, no illustrations. Yesterday, nearly four years later, I completed my thousandth post.

For nearly four years, I've blogged through thick and thin. First I posted only when inspired, then I committed to the daily practice, even when it was a slog to blog. That's when the real learning began. Today it's hard to remember what the archive looked like when it contained only the first post.

It was the beginning of 2011, while I was with the Writers's Studio at SFU, that I set the goal of doing a daily entry for the whole year. By then, I had already moved into working with brief series of posts. My routine consisted of composing several initial drafts at a single sitting on the weekend, then scheduling them ahead to come up at the same time each day.

As well as producing daily writing, I continued to hone my editing skills by looking at the posts as they come up. It's only once a post is published on screen that I get a sense of how it looks on the page. Then, as I proofread for errors, I work to make it look better.

Sometimes, when my stats tell me that readers are looking at old posts, I go back and look at them too, and take the opportunity to do further editing. As with any self-editing, it's much easier to see how work can be improved when a certain amount of time has passed.

My other writing has moved forward too. I am now well into the third draft of a novel I started around the same time I began blogging. A historical story that deals with personal secrets kept against a background of national secrets, it is provisionally titled Joan, Joan and Joan.

Though I never intended the daily posting to continue beyond 2011, I found that after I let myself off the hook in early 2012, I missed the regular routine of creating blog posts, so I went back to daily production. Now well hooked on excellent discipline of daily practice, I intend to keep on blogging.

I've set myself a new goal. Before the end of this year, I want to select some of my favourite posts and organize them into a small book, just to celebrate the accomplishment: a thousand posts and counting.