Day 1: The Challenge

I have no idea how to do this. How to become a writer.

I can clearly see now that this is what I want to do. Not as a profession — I already have a day job. For me, writing remains a very early morning job, or a whenever-you-can-sneak-in-a-moment job.

But, over the past few years, I have felt called to write -- essays, fiction, poetry, everything. Unfortunately, this tiny spark inside myself gets so often buried by the noise and the everyday responsibilities of life. 

Yet every time I get away from home and work for a while, it surfaces. The need to speak, the desire for understanding, the wish to make meaning and make the world better through writing. 

I have no idea how to be a writer -- except, essentially, to just start writing. 

So, on this very early morning, that is exactly what I have set out to do. 

This morning, after a restful and rejuvenating Thanksgiving break, I woke up at 5:30 AM and wrote. I wrote about my (literal) dreams, the potential pitfalls of writing essays and memoir that involve my own family and experiences, and a list of possible writing projects. 

Of those, the idea of blogging about my 365 days and 365 hours of writing struck me most. I aim to write for one hour per day, every day, for the next year. If that doesn’t turn me into a writer, I’m not sure what will. 

As a self-professed night owl, I hesitate to take on this challenge when the only designated hour I can find to write exists between 5:30 and 6:30 AM. Also, I dislike the idea of staring at a computer screen for another hour each day, especially so early in the morning. Not to mention, doing anything with this level of consistency -- every single day, for an entire year -- seems fairly challenging. 

However, I think all this makes the challenge meaningful. It will push me to commit to my writing and prioritize it highly despite all the other important parts of my life.

So, here goes nothing! 

As my first hour draws to a close, the kittens have settled down in a yin-and-yang cuddle on my lap. Grateful I so optimistically opened the curtains an hour ago, I can see the sun beginning to rise through the window, and I feel equally optimistic about this project.

I have mastered a number of things in my life that I did not know how to do at first: ride a bike with a toddler in tow, fix a garbage disposal, manage a room full of 6-year-olds. I have learned multiple skills by doing. So, hopefully this will prove similar. Or, maybe not. 

Today, I will bring my desk up from the basement (a room far too dark, cold and depressing for this kind of daily challenge) and put it upstairs in the spare room affectionately known as the “book nook.” The book nook sounds like a perfect place for writing, except that my youngest has already claimed the entire room for her rapidly expanding lego collection and my oldest has declared the room as her future bedroom (so she can have more personal space away from said youngest).

But, neither of them woke up at 5:30 this morning, so I feel free to go ahead with my plan! 

And for tomorrow, I’ll face the challenge of doing my one hour of writing with the time pressure of having to leave for work imminently. 

We’ll see how it goes!