week 11/26

National Write Down Your Story Day!

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On this National Write Down Your Story Day, I thought I’d take this opportunity to introduce my Substack friends. I began using Substack in order to follow a few outstanding journalists and activists: Jim Acosta, Michael Fanone, Terry Moran, Katie Phang, and others.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to write and publish there even though I made a couple of posts exploring and thinking out loud, and I still don’t really know. I already have this website; I don’t think of it as a blog since I do a whole host of topics as you know.

Last week, I used World Book Day to write about my journey in the writing of my own book, and I think my plan is to keep the Substack related to writing.  Most of the content will be crossposted here as well.

Crossposts will be noted in the tags.

Nothing ever goes as planned.

Life happens.

I feel today that I am more me than I’ve ever been.

My Substack will eventually get a name, a theme, perhaps even a logo that makes me happy. There will be a FAQ, but the big points can be found here on my FAQ page (link in the menu).

With today’s post on Substack, I mentioned that I have three major works that I am focusing on:

  1. A labyrinth prayer book.
  2. A book about my relationship with Wales. This is a multi-genre memoir, spiritual, and travel book.
  3. A book about St. Kateri Tekakwitha and her shrines.
  4. There are other smaller publications planned related to some of the major topics I cover on my website. Examples of these are mental health, food, and spirituality.

Now, go ——- write your own story down!

100 Day Project – Halfway There

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Within the last fifty days, I shared with you my intention to begin and complete a one hundred day project following Suleika Jaouad’s The Book of Alchemy. I’ve read her chapter introductions, and then each of the ten essays by various authors, absorbed their stories, dove into the prompts, and for the most part wrote for as long or as short a time that my essay needed.

Before I get into the weeds of this project and process, I would like to readily admit that I think I’ve succeeded in my non-stated goals. I am writing every day; not just these prompts, but working on my book, writing posts to publish on my website, taking notes for future writing projects.

Because the authors are so varied in their backgrounds, their writing styles, and the stories they choose to share, one thing that I’ve been doing is thinking and contemplating what I want to write about, how much of my personal experiences I want to share, and really concentrating on continuing to grow as a writer. I’m seeing that many of the prompts can be blended together, I can create multi-part essays and longer pieces, and there is a lot of inward looking. I can see going back again to some of the prompts and expanding what I’ve already written, starting the prompt anew, continuing or creating a chapter/monthly series on one or more of the prompts.

I do intend to share some of what I’ve written with the world.

Word counts are not the end all be all of writing. I could easily write over 1000 words a day, but is it worth reading? Not if it’s crap. Having said that, it’s still important to have touchstones to know where I am in the writing process. While the essays I’ve written with these prompts can be left as standalone pieces, some may be refashioned, edited, and of course, everything can be made better.

For the fifty days so far, I have written approximately 25,133 words, which amounts to 503 words per day. Some days there were a hundred words written, some seven hundred, and there were one or two days when over a thousand words were completed.

While the book gives you no special rules, and you decide what you want to get out of the project, I started with six simple suggestions that I fashioned for myself. They were to keep me on task, accountable, and focused.

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