Self-Issued Challenge: Write 50 Articles before the end of the year.

In otherwords, the next two months. With a satisfying number combined with a culturally significant deadline, I’ll minimise delay and maximise motivation. Supposedly.

“The shorter path to maximized quality is in maximized quantity, and executing on the feedback after each finished product. (Some may say that this is a less refined form of deliberate practice.)” 

-Herbert Lui

Historically my writing has had 1-6 month extrinsic deadlines, with word counts 1,000-5,000 on average. Classic highschool and university work, the most successful of which was analytical essays. I’m going to make 50 pieces of writing with no set tone, format, word count, theme, topic or voice. 

Perhaps a story to further justify my thought process here. It’s hard to lose the looming shadow of academia, “cite your sources” and all the rest.

Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and rewards) of Artmaking 

"The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality.

His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pounds of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot – albeit a perfect one – to get an “A”.

Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes – the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay."

I've built up an unshakable trust in mistake-making when it comes to artistic practice. And yet, it’s funny looking back my confidence (and best grades) were consistently in art theory, not practical skills.

I’ll define this project like a Visual Arts Student, just for old time’s sake.

Future Self Q&A

1. Does the process get easier or harder overall? 

2. What usually preludes sitting down to write?

3. Are there any discernible themes or patterns? 

4. I’m going to try to write whole first drafts at once, with only 1-2 edits before posting. Does that last?

   
   

5. What did you enjoy writing most, and which are you most proud of? Are they the same, why/why not?

1/50