Managing what I measure by looking back and moving forward

How do you decide when it’s time to stop? When enough is enough? When it’s time to change? Conversely, how do you know that it’s all just fine as it is and that the right thing to do is simply more of the same?

I have arrived at a crossroads with this blog.

I began it off the side of my desk five years ago; while May 1, 2018 marks the official beginning in my calendar, my staking my claim post was April 15th, my first semi-regular post not until September 30th, and my first public A Post a Day in May series not until the following year on May 1st. Since then, I have found my writing rhythm, my writing voice, and, thanks to you, my readers.

When I began the blog, I had a 5-year plan in mind, hence the blog’s name: Five Years a Writer— a five-year-long runway that would see me take off from full-time college teaching to wherever retirement from that would take me. Today, almost two years into retirement and five years after launching the blog, I’m at a decision point: to close up shop; to launch a new blog; or to continue with this blog.

Closing up shop is nonsensical: I’m only just finding my writing stride and this blog, with its now-weekly posting routine, keeps my writing mind engaged and my writing fingers oiled. Given that, launching a new blog would be misplaced effort: Why divert a going concern just to take on the trials of a new enterprise with all that it would entail — new name, new focus, new routine, new readership. No, not a sensible idea. 

My plan is to carry on, continue with the name, and plan for another five years of writing my way into the future. Because, as any writer knows, it’s in the writing of it that the story unfolds. I hope you’ll join me for the journey. 

Five years in and onwards to five years more! #amwriting #amplannning #Writer

I believe in planning, in articulating goals, and in marking milestones. It’s how I measure my achievements against my ambitions. At the end of the day (life), I don’t want to look back and wish I had done things differently or done different things. I suppose it’s my way of having a bucket list and checking things off.

As a writer marking a 5-year milestone on this blog, I have been measuring my progress by looking back on the 298 posts and more than 100,000 words I have written since April 2018, and I have been assessing what I have achieved as a developing writer. For the record, I lay out my findings below, because my learnings are the foundation on which I will continue to develop my voice and my skill as a writer.

May 1, 2018

A Post a Day in May — year one, by email: my partner, Val, my mother, Anne, and my writing pal, Deborah, were my only readers

Life unfolds day by day, but sometimes it’s useful to map it out in a five-year chunk. It can be valuable to look at today and then look ahead and articulate where you want to be…five years down the road. Visualize that place, then put a plan together to get yourself there. My father taught me this life-shaping tactic.

    And this is where I’m at: Making a five-year plan focused on having my own writing be a main stream of paid work by the time I leave Red River College, which could be anywhere from two to five years away.

    At the time of my so-called retirement, I want to be in a position to make a smooth transition away from the institution into other meaningful work based in my own non-fiction writing (details to be figured out over time). To arrive at that point, I need to consciously (and conscientiously) work at it. Five years is long enough to achieve that, yet short enough to manage.

    I will get there with focus, friends, and perseverance.

    To get me started I’ve committed to A Post a Day through May: 250-word personal mini-essays. One per day. Sent out into the world. A writer needs readers, and you are that for me. No feedback necessary, though it’s welcome.

    The trick to daily writing is to just do it. Focus. And finish. #notperfectbutdone

2023 assessment: It’s really all throat-clearing, just setting the stage and laying out the plan. Thank goodness my readers were long-suffering and generous in playing along with me.

May 1, 2019

A Post a Day in May — year two: first time going big-public on my blog

I have pledged to write a new post for this blog every day in May.

    This is the second time I’ve committed to an intentional daily writing practice, with actual readers in mind, during the month of May; the first time was last year. That time, I emailed my daily writing to three selected readers - my partner, my mother and my writing collaborator. It was a great experience for me, as I developed a routine of daily writing that became both pleasurable and productive. Out of that commitment and routine came the public launching of this Five Years a Writer blog later that year.

    This year, I’ll use this blog to share my pieces, which will be public (to the extent that anyone out there actually reads Five Years a Writer, of course). Regardless of the who and the size of my readership, I shall enjoy putting thoughts into coherent form and sending them out into cyberspace every day.

    Just as ‘you cannot be what you cannot see’, so I believe that ‘you have to do the thing you want to be’ — merely thinking about it isn’t going to get you there. Well. I want to be a writer — in my mind, my routine, and my identity. To become that — to genuinely feel honest about describing myself as a writer, I need to actually write. This year’s A Post a Day in May is one more step in the journey of becoming what I want to be: a writer.

    For better or worse, I’ll publish one piece every day. Maybe a short essay, maybe a rant, possibly a haiku — who knows: maybe a short story. But one piece of writing. Every day.

    Let’s see where this goes, shall we? Thanks for reading.

2023 assessment: Setting the stage, laying out my plan and staking my claim as wanna-be writer — not that much different from the private 2018 round. I can remember feeling trepidatious about making this public commitment in 2019, while also knowing that without such a public declaration I feared that I would not push myself to grow my identity and skills as a writer.

May 1, 2020
A Post a Day in May — year three

It’s May 1st and, in my corner, that means it’s time for another round of A Post a Day in May. I take on this challenge because I want to be a writer and, to be a writer, a person has to write. Self-evident, of course, but without a plan of action, the want remains in the realm of fantasy. But I want it for real.

    This will mark the third year that I’ve taken on this personal challenge of writing something every day in May and sending it out to readers via my blog. Last year, the stress of the daily deadline was outweighed by the satisfaction I felt from meeting my daily goal and the response I got from readers.

The 2020 Brief

    Over the past few weeks, I have been catching up on episodes of The Great British Bake Off from which I have learned much about baking (that I likely will never use) and a great deal about friendly competition, personal fortitude in the face of steep expectations, and the importance of following instructions. Which brings me to, what in the show, they call ‘the brief’.

    Which brings me to this blog and my commitment to this year’s A Post a Day in May pledge. Here’s the brief I have set myself:

• Post something every day that is worthy of being read
• Keep it short(ish)— there’s already too much to read out there for us all to keep up with
• Write about what strikes my fancy, but also revisit some core themes over the course of the month; for example --
• Lessons from the Arts
• COVID-19 Contemplations
• Writing as a Tool of Transformation
• Leadership by the Letter
• Include an image
• Bonus mark if I write one piece of fiction (not my comfort zone) that is worth posting
• There. I’ve shared the brief. Set the expectations. Now all that’s left is for me to follow my own instructions.

    Dear Reader, I hope you’re interested and that you’ll come back tomorrow for Day Two. Fingers crossed there are no dancing maidens, but there is a post worthy of being read.

2023 assessment: My writer’s voice is stronger, more confident in this post and the plan for my readers is more detailed. I aim to deliver not only on content but on the tone and style with which I offer up that content. By this stage, I had learned the value of always including an image with a post to visually illustrate its message: Words are good, but an image that illustrates those words can amplify and beautify them — a bonus for the reader (and a fun task for the writer).

May 1, 2021

A Post a Day in May — year four

If stock is what gives your dish full and rich flavour, then I think it's appropriate — one year into this damn pandemic — to make some stock from the ingredients I've gathered since last year's A Post a Day in May venture.

    What I am working with for my stock today includes —

• Time - quite a lot
• Understanding - to taste
• Appreciation - a good amount
• Privilege - more than a fistful…

    So much time [read full post here]…

2023 assessment: We were heading into the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic and all the restrictions it brought. If I expected my readers to stick with me, I had to deliver something worth their time during those fraught days, so, for me, the daily posts became a way of making sense of that pandemic world from behind a mask. We were in this together, and I felt strongly the inter-connections that thoughts and ideas, woven with words into stories, can create between the writer and their reader.

May 1, 2022
A Post a Day in May — year five
This year’s Post a Day in May begins with the fourth and final instalment (below) in the flash fiction story I wrote during our recent Spark Your Writing course.

    Flash fiction (short pieces, generally under 1,000 words) is an exciting form to work with because the constraint is really tight for the writer. Whether working with just six words or one thousand, the length is the determining factor. Everything the writer wants to say must exist within that word limit. It’s a marriage between idea and craft, wherein the focus is on cutting the extraneous and crafting the essential. For me, that is fun-with-writing.

    Equally fun is the challenge I set myself this month: Post something on this blog every day. The constraint here is the daily deadline, so not every piece will be perfect; I know this in advance. But every day, a piece will be posted.

    The marriage here is between that daily deadline and my commitment to craft the best writing I can within that tight time constraint. It’s like a fitness routine for a writer. And anyone who has ever signed up for a fitness routine knows the excitement of beginning it, the relief of moving past the mid point, and the joy of arriving at the finish line. I hope to see you there, dear Reader! [read the full post here]…

2023 assessment: I have found my stride. I know I have readers. I am broadening my content to include writing I do in other venues. For the first time in May, I am not distracted by a full-time job, I am finding my feet as a community educator and I am meeting other writers through that teaching. I am a Writer.

Conclusion: No more daily posts in May, but an ongoing commitment to writing and to posting weekly. Who knows where these next five years will take us, dear Reader! 

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Land acknowledgement: I respectfully recognize that I live on the original lands of Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.

Photo by Caleb Whiting on Unsplash