Write it Up...

Okay so writing. My goal was to write more days than I didn't and I was thinking I should aim for five days a week. I did write more days than I didn't, but I didn't quite hit five days a week. I missed it by 8 days, which I only have 5 more days left in this month so the best I can do is be short 3 days. Which, honestly, isn't terrible. But it's still a miss on the number portion.

Writing has been a challenge for parts of the year. Enough that at one point I really thought about wrapping up this blog and being done with it. Trying to write about what's on my mind, without being constantly bitter and angry, while also getting the over abundance of thoughts out, has been a struggle. I've written about it a lot. Which is kind of ironic and also the only way I was getting any writing done so I'll allow it. But I came close to being done with it all together.

Fiction has just cratered. I haven't posted a new fiction piece to the blog since October. I have one I started and then didn't go back to. I'm working on wrapping up a story I've been writing for Dana for a year. But it's been hard to tap into my muse. I've been (as you know) going back and picking up some old favorites of mine and reposting them. It's a trick that's worked for me in the past. Just a reminder that I CAN actually do that. I can write fiction, and I'm actually not too terrible at it, even if it isn't everyone's cup of tea.

So where does that leave me for 2026? Well...

I'm not quitting. Even though I was close this year, I want to give it at least another year. I do enjoy writing. I really like when the fiction is flowing. I like when I write something that means something to someone else. It's really the best gift I have for connection. I'm much cooler online as the song goes. I think part of the ennui is the new site. Like I mentioned, it's not as interactive as it was when I was posting from the old one on to Facebook. Facebook made it easier for people to comment. And I could see if someone was sharing the blog on their own page. Lots of dopamine hits.

And that's a big part of it. Not just that I enjoy writing, but it's good for my brain. It keeps me on a more even keel. As much as anything else I do in my daily life writing keeps my brain calm. It helps me figure out what I need to do or if I need to do anything. Writing is my processing mechanism. If I am not writing my mental health is struggling. Not sure the chicken or the egg of it, but it's almost always a dead giveaway. If I'm not on vacation and you see a week go by without a post it's not a good time in my head.

I'm going to aim for more days than not again. I'm also going to aim for at least one fiction piece a week (on average). Five days a week writing still seems a good goal and I came close this year even with the doldrums patch so I think it's a solid doable number. So 260 blogs with 52 of them being fiction, plus Dana and I are continuing our exchange, hopefully I'll have the story I've been writing all year to her wrapped up soon and I'll make the call on if I post it over here or not. It might be a Dana exclusive forever.

I am open to topic suggestions for nonfiction (and fiction, but those are hit or miss on if I can actually make something out of them so know that you can suggest but if it doesn't latch it doesn't mean it was a bad idea, just not an idea my imagination could work with). I looked at the Question of the Day calendar when we were in the mall for Festivus dinner and it was as lame as I had feared. Like I don't know that you want a blog on "What is the oddest thing you've ever found in your pocket?" though there is a short story out there about odd things showing up in pockets that is pretty good (If I could remember the title I'd tell you, it's one of the short stories Wil Wheaton reads on It's Story Time with Wil Wheaton).

BUT ANYWAY...

The calendar questions didn't really grab me like I had originally hoped they would for nonfiction blog posts. I'll probably find a website of ice breaker questions and use those. And, again, if you have anything you want to me write about I will. On the OG blog I wrote specific things about religion and politics and personal philosophies around different things all by request. And I get that I've been writing for so long now that there just might not be any topic out there that you don't know exactly what I think about it.

So 2026 writing: More days than not. At least 260 blogs for the year with 52 of them being fiction. Averages out to five blogs a week. Continuing the exchange with Dana. Answers the "Does this benefit me" question with this is good for my brain.

Not really any sort of change, just an acknowledgment that it's beneficial to my head and that I need to keep making it work for me even when it's difficult.

(also, today is Brent and my 39th anniversary. It's a crazy big number. Three sets of thirteen year cycles. 3 and 3 x 3. One year short of a round number. Lots of cool numbers things. And also just the fact that we've been married for 39 years and he's still around and still seems to think I'm the bee's knees. It's better to be lucky than good and I was most definitely lucky when I chose him)