In the early days of October 2022, I decided to start writing blog posts every day. Let that sink in for just a moment. I decided, of my own free will, to take on the task of writing what amounts to an essay, every day.

A little bit of inside information might be helpful. I spend a lot of time writing my blog posts. I spend probably too much time writing my blog posts. I write each paragraph, then read each paragraph. I change each paragraph, then read each paragraph before I change it again. Why? Because I think about you reading my blog posts. I worry about how you will interpret what I write, so I have to change what I write to match what you read.

You’re wondering what I hoped to accomplish by writing a blog post every day, so I will tell you. I thought I might gain a ton more followers by writing more posts. I didn’t. I recently went through my followers list and discovered many of them don’t exist anymore. So not only did I not gain a bunch of new followers, I discovered I didn’t have as many as I thought I had.

I recently read a post about bloggers using artificial intelligence to write their posts. That means computer programs are writing the posts. There is no one sitting at a keyboard, sweating over putting words together that make sense. What kind of nonsense is that? I don’t get it!

I thought blogging was about putting thoughts into written form and setting them free in the digital blogosphere of the interweb universe. I even read that these computer programs can write music. What the heck?!!

So, I was faced with the question, every morning, as a matter of fact, why I was working so hard to write a blog post every day. I pressed through that inner discussion most days by ignoring it. I finally decided it’s a waste of energy for me to continue posting every day.

I follow a few bloggers who mostly repost the writings of others. That is a completely legitimate practice, and I am not disrespecting them in any way. They seek out quality content and share it. It results in blogs being followed that might not otherwise be discovered.

I have read a lot of material about blogging, and what I have discovered is that most “how-to” blogs say pretty much the same thing. Furthermore, I have discovered that a lot of money is made, not by writing interesting posts, but by selling the how-to plans to others who want to learn how to write quality content. That is also a perfectly legitimate practice. I’m just not interested in trying to do it myself.

I had a friend in college who said the three ultimate questions of life are: “Who cares? So what? And what difference does it make?” Even though the questions are sarcastic and cynical, writers have to face all of them at some point to decide whether writing is worth the work.

When I ask myself, “Who cares?” while I’m writing, I have to be satisfied with writing because I care. If I think, “So what?” I am forced to improve the way I write. When I think about any difference my writing makes, I must accept what I write as a path to either changing or solidifying what I think.

Did it hurt me to go into manic overdrive for one hundred and twenty-five days? Nope. Did it change anything? Nope. Am I going to continue writing every day? Nope.