My 100th Post for Bohemia by Jim McKeown

January 1, 2013 by rabbitreader2 | 2 Comments

I can’t believe I have written 100 posts for Bohemia.  I would never guess, but WordPress© – in all its wisdom – says it’s so.  Who am I to argue with a social media engine?  As I am typing this post, Word© tells me I have written I have written 36,916 words for Bohemia’s blog.  You can count and add the words for the rest of this blog.

In addition, I have written 411 posts on my Book Blog, www.rabbitreader.blogspot.com, and I passed many milestones there without so much as a yawn.  I keep those in a separate document for each year.  My 2012 Reading journal has just shy of 25,000 words, and since I have one review to finish, and another to start, I will easily clear that hurdle.  My reading journals date back to January 2007, and from then until December 31, 2011, I wrote 115,248 words.

Recently, www.LibraryThing.com awarded me a badge.  I have written 548 reviews of books I have read there – these are not in addition to RabbitReader, because I began posting reviews about a year before I began the blog.  The “badge” was awarded for posting book covers other users can also use.  Whoopie!

None of this counts the poetry, fiction, and non-fiction I have written over the years – that is way too much math for me – and of course it counts none of the words I have written for classes I have taken since 2007.

I was thinking about all this when considering resolutions for 2013.  One thought revolved around writing every day.  I cannot remember any of the dozens of authors I have met, or heard speak, or read about, who did not say write every day.  However, since I have probably written well over 200,000 words in the last five years, that figures out to about 110 words per day, 365 days a year.  Subtracting days traveling, days spent only reading, days I was too busy with work for my classes, and days I simply had nothing worth writing about, I bet I probably averaged 125 words on each of those days.  Not half bad if I do say so myself.

I have to attribute this, what IMHO I call impressive output, squarely on the shoulders of Bohemia.  The magazine has inspired me in so many ways, on so many days.  I shudder to think what my product would be without Amanda prodding and pushing me to write more and to get things finished, so I can go on to the next job.

Writing is lonely – another gem I picked up from dozens of writers.  Gene Fowler (1890-1960), an American journalist and essayist, said, “Writing is easy.  All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.”  I think I enjoy that aspect of writing the most.  When I am lost in a poem, a review, a story, an article, or a note for a friend’s birthday or funeral, a family member’s lost dog, or a congratulatory card for a graduation, I am in a world of my own creation.  I control everything about that world, and nothing can change that.

So, if you have ever had a notion to write a poem, a review, a story, by all means, dive in head first with all your might.  It will be an aggravating swim.  It will make you howl with frustration.  You will lose sleep, maybe anger a friend, a lover, a sibling, or a stranger.  But when you see something youwrote in print, when someone says they like what you wrote, when someone asks for an autograph, it will all have worth beyond your wildest expectations.

Happy New Year, and happy writing, reading, photographing, drawing, painting sculpting, carving, and just plain thinking!

P.S. – This blog post has 643 words for a grand total of 37,525.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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