Blog 3,650 In A Row…
Without a Miss!!!
That’s right, I have had a blog up here of one type or another every day for ten straight years, as of today, August 1st.
No computer crash (three or four), no power outage (dozens and dozens), no sickness (one night in a hospital), and no moves (3 major moves) caused me to miss a day in ten straight years.
That is flat pure luck. And a lot of help from Kris who nightly asks me if I have my blog done. Thank you!
During the ten years blogging, I wrote eight or nine non-fiction writing books here as a chapter per blog post, plus started three other nonfiction books that turned out to be dated or just too stupid to put into book form. I have done numbers of blog series, written about more workshops than I care to think about, and promoted Storybundles and 35 different Kickstarters.
I have almost never (to my memory) promoted one of my own books on here besides my 70 book challenge, but during that time I wrote hundreds and hundreds of short stories and novels and published upwards of 400 different major books (70 in one year alone and yes, I went past Asimov’s total of books published years and years ago.)
In these last ten years I published 63 issues of my own magazine, worked on 40 or 50 Fiction River anthologies, and edited 19 issues of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine.
I was 61 years of age when I started this streak, I am 71 years of age today. In those ten years I also ran over a hundred 5k races and a marathon and four half-marathons.
I sometimes did more than 2 posts a day, but never missed a day having at least one. My word count for these blogs every year was over a quarter of a million words per year. Sometimes much higher, but my recorded best year for word count on this blog was 410,000 words.
Yes, I plan on keeping on. Maybe do some more writing books here, climb on my old soapbox at times, and answer questions where I can.
I am stunned that I made this ten years. Without missing one stupid day.
So as I sometimes say to others, “Onward.”
38 Comments
topaz
Congratulations Dean.
Kathryn Kaleigh
Wow! Congratulations! The formidable power of a streak!
dwsmith
Got that right, Kathy. Amazing power in streaks, big and small.
Jon Auerbach
Happy birthday and congratulations Dean!!!!
Cheryl
Periodic retrospection can be pretty damn cool. ::applause:: and looking forward to the Onward!
Em
Congratulations! That’s a fantastic milestone to achieve.
Mike Southern
Happy Birthday, Dean. And may you have many many more!!!
Fabien
Well that’s impressive Dean. The web changed a lot in those last 10 years, many platforms emerged, became trendy, and then died in the meantime.
Congrats.
dwsmith
Not counting the thousands of writers I have seen come and go, and all the good friends that have left the planet. Dave and Eric in just the last nine months.
Kat Faitour
Bravo!!
Bob Mueller
You inspired me to try this a couple of times, but I could never get myself to keep up the work. Then back in April, I wondered if I could just do one post a week instead of every day? 13 weeks later, the answer is, yes, I can. I jot a hundred words or so every couple of days and by Sunday, I’ve got an 800 to 1200-word post to put up.
In the process, my fiction writing has taken off. By fits and starts at first, but now I’m consistently getting about a thousand words of fiction per day, which is a huge improvement for me.
I guess my point for other readers here is that while Dean’s amazing streak can be as intimidating, if you know you can’t do it, try to step back and see if you can do some variant of it. And if you can’t, that’s okay too. But BICHOK is always the best way to write.
Have a great week, everyone!
dwsmith
Bob, great way of looking at it. Keep it fun.
Mihnea Manduteanu
If this is not an inspiration on the power of a strak, I don’t know what it. Congrats!
Mary Louisa Locke
Congratulations!
Your posts inspired me to start a daily diary on Facebook in August of 2020, (which I recently I have been putting up on substack), and this has been very rewarding. It motivates me to get out and do a daily walk (so I can find things of interest to photograph and put with the posts.) And it has helped me be accountable about my writing, since I try to set out weekly goals and then report on how successful I have been in meeting the goals. I am 72, and these posts also let me be quite frank about how I am maintaining a balanced life as a writer as I age (particularly since I have health issues that keep me physically isolated because of Covid.) I hope that 8 years from now I will be celebrating 10 years of posts and celebrating still writing in my 80s.
So thanks again for your inspiration.
Mary Louisa
dwsmith
Mary, if I had looked out ahead, I would have given up, to be honest. Too big an elephant. I just did it one day at a time and never paid attention much to the length of time except to note the passing of time, like this post. Today back to just today for me. Not looking ahead at all. Just have fun it as it sounds like you are doing.
Kris Rusch
Hell of an impressive accomplishment, Smitty. Congratulations. You did it all through force of will, determination, and a sense of fun. There’s a reason the ringtone I chose for you on my phone is the Superman theme song…😇❤️
dwsmith
And many, many days over that time you saved it by asking me if I had it done. Thank you!!
Amy Keeley
That’s stunning, all of it: the streak and the number of books *and* the races/marathons. Congratulations!!
dwsmith
Thanks, Amy.
Robert J. McCarter
Now that’s a streak!! Way to go Dean!
Laura A Ware
Wow, I’m impressed! That’s quite a streak you’ve got! Here’s to year 11!
dwsmith
Laura, yup, onward…
Kayla
I want to start a writing streak. I am 29. If Dean can do it at 61, I can do it and almost 30 with bunches of time on my hands and no job. Hmm, need to think of a nice beginner word count to start off with, but to be able to take Sundays off.
Kayla
Congratulations Mr. Smith and happy birthday if today is your birthday. I saw it in the comments.
dwsmith
Nope, my birthday is in November. But this is the 10th birthday of my daily blog, so that counts. (grin)
djmills
Impressive! And I learned a lot by reading your daily posts. Thank you.
Happy Birthday, Dean.
Catherine
Congratulations! What a beautiful number! What a great trail of works behind you – and more to come!
Keith West
Congratulations! That is an impressive, and encouraging, accomplishment.
E. R. Paskey
Congratulations, Dean! That is an impressive streak and great inspiration! That’s a lot of races and books, too! Wow.
Checking out your blog has been part of my daily routine for more than ten years. (I can’t believe it’s been that long either.) I’ve learned so much from you and Kris.
Thanks for everything you do for writers. Keep on keeping on.
Martin Barkawitz
Congratulations, Dean! That is very impressive. You are an inspiration to all of us!
Aniket Gore
Congrats Dean.
Heather H.
Fitting. I listened to you saying this today, in my workshop assignment:
“Start a streak. There is nothing more powerful you can do for your writing. Nothing more effective in wiping out the ‘I can’t!’s’
So your assignment is to come up with 2 writing related streaks you could start right now, or one publishing related streak and one writing streak.”
You walk the talk. Streaks need a good way like this to track, I think. For sharing, celebrating, if nothing else. Congratulations!
I started 1 tonight and broke a long-time ‘can’t’.
Thank you.
Anne
Congratulations!
Vincent Zandri
Nice work Dean. Trying to do the same with my YouTube videos. Started back around April of ’21 and have only missed about 5 days. But I’m trying to keep the streak alive. You’re the inspiration as always:)
Laura Eaton
Congratulations, Dean! What a huge accomplishment. You deserve tons of applauds and many pats on the back. Ten years of blogging without missing a single day takes great dedication and determination. Thank you for everything you taught and shared with us these past ten years.
Karen
Wow, Dean, Congratulations! Thank you for your persistence! You continue to be a big inspiration to me! And thanks for bringing us along on your journey. You’ve inspired more people than you will ever know!
I can’t wait to hear about your next challenge and to see how this year’s ends up!
Karen
Jamie DeBree
Congratulations and well done! That is an amazing feat, and definitely something to be proud of.
It’s also very inspirational to the rest of us, and I enjoy reading your daily posts in my feed reader – it’s part of my morning routine.
Onward, indeed!
Kat
Huge congrats on the 10 years, Dean! Excellent streak. Been fun to watch. And motivation to keep my own streak going! Almost 4 years of writing new fiction every day. As a previous sprint writer, I’m pretty proud of this streak. But it’s the power of the streak that’s kept up that consistency. Thanks for teaching that, with actions as well as words.