The power of the streak

Sometimes you write because you are moved by the muse, or the moose.

Sometimes you write because you made a commitment to blog every day, and so something has to emerge from your fingers or the streak will be broken.

Both are powerful motivations. I have felt them both, and there’s something peculiar about them.

Sometimes the stuff I’ve written for no other reason but the keep the streak alive is pretty darn good and well received, and sometimes the stuff I’ve written under the spell of the passion is a mess and everyone is too polite to tell me.

No confusion about which one this is: It’s Saturday night, I want to sleep, and I promised myself two years ago that you’d have something to read here Sunday morning. So I’m writing about preserving writing streaks.

The greatest power of the streak, and its greatest benefit, is it keeps me writing, even if I just dash something off about the power of the streak. 

Without the streak, I would just go to bed having written nothing of substance all day.

There you go. In the morning, with more rest, I’ll write something more substantive for Day 822 of the streak. Just my luck, you’ll remember this one longer.