It crept up on my, but I awoke this morning with a feeling that the date, February 27, was vaguely familiar. I couldn’t quite place at, not at first, and then around mid-morning, it hit me. It was 2 years ago today that I began my efforts to write every day. It was also 2 years ago today when I first started to use my Google Docs Writing Tracker.

Prior to February 27, 2013, I’d tried on a number of occasions to start a streak where I wrote every day. I was never successful. However, in the 2 years that have now elapsed since February 27, 2013, I have written every day, except for 2; that’s 728 days out of the last 730. What’s more, I haven’t missed a day since July 21, 2013. As of today, I’ve written for 586 consecutive days.

How’d I do it? Well, I’ve talked about here and here, so I won’t rehash it all in this post. But I do want to point out once again the cumulative effect of writing a little bit every day. In the last 2 years, I have written a total of 631,960 words. I’ve averaged 865 words/day, which for me amounts to about 35 minutes per day. I’ve sold around 15 stories and articles during that time.

For me, the most important thing is practice. I’m a believer in Stephen King’s advice that to be a good writer, you need to read a lot and write a lot. Every bit of writing I do is practice. I make mistakes, and I try to learn from them, and hopefully, as with all practice, it is making me a better writer.