Day 107

Day 107:

It's been a week since the 100th day, and I've continued to make posts on here each day (again, Day 105 is held for moderation). However, I've noticed a concerning development. I haven't touched the original 100 days yet, even though that is what I said I'd make into a book and publish. The last week or so has been quite crazy, but this is a concerning trend that I'd hoped would not emerge. It's also very important that any pages that I do post get my full effort and attention. Maybe it's just my own bias, but I believe that the quality of the writing has been going down, and not up. Also, there is much more rambling, jumping around between random points, and not being especially easy to understand, or entertaining.

I could give up the time I spend on these to give to the book, but that could descend into poorer time management, and not working on either the book or writing a page, defeating the point of the whole project. (I think this is going to be one of those pieces where I think aloud for a few paragraphs, then reach a decision). Has the point of the project evolved over time, though? I said that I wanted to write a book with this, but writing things that I know won't go into the book instead of working on the existing manuscript seems completely pointless. If the point was to gradually get better at writing with this format, then it does seem to be starting to outlive it's purpose. Strictly speaking, as long as I write 'something', the exact parameters of the challenge are met. Watch this.

Day 1982:

Something.

...

If I get to this point, whilst it would be ironic, it would likely feel like a failure. The spirit of the challenge will have been broken, and I probably won't have published a book. Maybe I could use this challenge and maintaining the streak to incentivise more work on the book. For example, "I must do at least a thousand words or related work on the book before doing this." This could incentivise rushing more than anything, though. While it is sometimes in the nature of this challenge to feel slightly rushed, the analysis and formatting work should not be rushed, since it would not be the best I could produce. 

The nature of this challenge also means that I haven't had any sort of break from writing, which probably isn't great long term. It doesn't matter how much commitment or love you have for a project, if you constantly work on it for months or years on end, you and it will suffer. Especially in creative work, charging the batteries and seeking new inspiration is important. But is that true in this case? Surely the point of this is to try new things and gather inspiration? Instead of working on one large book or project, we have taken lots of little ones; short explorations of different themes or ideas. That hasn't been true recently though. I seem to have settled into a particular style. It's a shame, because it's the one that I think has produced some of the most boring days (and one or two of the best). They also take longer than a lot of the other days, because they are far, far longer. Perhaps, then, it would be best to use this format exclusively for exploring new or interesting writing ideas. Ok, that makes sense.

Now, do I continue with the daily format, or only write when a new idea comes? Well, it would be very hard to come up with something new and interesting everyday, especially when I don't have a lot of time at all. Maybe I could plan days away? A set limit of one per week, perhaps? Hmm, then I'd probably take days when I didn't need to... This is why I take so long to make a decision about anything. Deciding what to have for breakfast can be like this, you know. Exploring each possibility and factor, and what will happen as a result of having the Cornflakes...

Ok, let's carry on with the daily stuff, but I'm not allowed to use this talky-tone anymore. It must be something different. They don't have to be long, I can connect days up, and I must do some book work beforehand. Ok. Good.  

Also maybe I should remove Grammarly, it could be denying some exciting breakages of usual grammar.