Cody and Damian on the swing
01 August 2007

So G. and D. (to use their nomenclature) made a wager — they both must write a blog entry so many times each week for one year or lose some nominal amount of money.  I like the wager because I get a tiny update on their life almost every day — a little note (sometimes just a small paragraph, sometimes an essay) tacked on the web bulletin board saying “hey, this is what happened today” or “this is what I was thinking today.”

And of course the wager — the idea of posting almost daily by requirement — made me start thinking about posting daily and not just when the muse comes calling.  Sometimes my posts are very mundane (“Matt and I went to HEB today.  We ran into Sarah Q.”) and sometimes I try to write something a little more poetic or meaningful — something that creates feelings or ideas.

What if I was required to post daily?  What if I had to force creativity?  Thousands of writers do that daily as their career.  But could I?  Would it be enjoyable to read or would the posts soon become dull and banal?

And, finally, is this the worry of every writer and would-be writer?  If I’m forced to create, will it be dishwater?