The Daily Journal

"Flogging the Freelancer" is a blog post a day on freelancing in the gig economy. Browse the archives here.

There's a really lovely piece in today's WSJ: "The Power of Daily Writing." It's about a man who's been journaling since February 24, 1964.

His first entry began:

“I have decided to be a writer. I will it, thus: I am a writer. Now—by definition if for no other reason, writers are distinguished chiefly by the fact that they write. I must write—two hours a day until I finish school.”

On day 27 of my endeavor to blog every day this year (I already missed one day, but, oh, well), I've found the process to be most beneficial.

Here are a couple tips I'm learning along the way.

Start early

Do your writing early in the day. It's easier to access the unconscious that way. You will tend to write faster, better, and from the heart. As the day goes on, your willpower to resist revealing yourself grows stronger, and you lose your connect to the dreamscape of your psyche.

Make it matter

There's no point in writing every day if you do so without bravery. Write about things that make you feel imperiled. Make a fool out of yourself. Confess secrets. If you never risk anything, you're not evolving, and if you're not evolving, your wasting your time on this planet.

Experiment rigorously

Yesterday I posted a comic I drew on a dry erase board hanging in the garage. The comic took me maybe 20 minutes to do, and after I photographed it, I erased it. That allowed me to create, but in a way that seemed to use a different part of my brain. Because I write so much, seeing something externalized visually was newly cathartic. Also, I thought the comic was sort of embarrassing and crudely done, so it was good to share it, despite its lack of perfectness.

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