What I gained by blogging (almost) every day

Wow!  2013 is almost over?  I feel like I just got home from my extended February stay in St. George--

Anyway, I've been thinking about this blogging exercise and here are my thoughts about the thing.

1.  I'm glad I did it.  It was fun, and (surprisingly) it never felt like a burden.

2.  Blogging every day made writing my column easier.  For years I've told my creative writing students that writing is like shooting baskets.  You have to do it regularly to be good at it.  That doesn't mean, however, I always followed my own BRILLIANT advice.  But this year I kinda did, and I must say it made sitting down to knock out a column a lot easier.

3.  Blogging is the writer's equivalent of an artist's sketchbook.   Blogging regularly allowed me to capture moments and half-formed impressions before they flitted away.  Occasionally I was able to make later use of those scraps of writing.

4.  Blogging every day has kept me engaged with my own life.  I had to pay attention to what was going on around me--the weather, the conversations, the craziness, the stuff that otherwise would have scuttled away to my brain's forgotten corners.

5.  Blogging every day meant comments from you.  Thanks for responding.  Thanks for paying attention.  You guys are the best.

Will I blog every day in 2014?  Right now I'm gonna say "sort of."  And by "sort of" I mean I'll blog Mondays through Fridays after which I'll spend my weekends catching up on celebrity gossip and eating nachos.  This, I think, is an excellent plan.

Happy New Year!