You Don’t Know What You’re Doing Until About Day Seven
When you’re writing—and especially when you’re sitting down to write—I don’t know, maybe you’re going to a writing retreat or a cabin or doing it in the toilet or in your car or locked in the trunk, I don’t know—there’s an aspect of sticking with it through the tough stuff. And the tough stuff is always at the beginning. It’s the bad songs and the awkwardness, until you kind of know what you’re doing.
You can have the best-laid plans. Great ideas. Like, I was going to do this whole jamuary on the MPC, but the OP-1 has really taken over. Fifteen days in—sixteen if you count the pre-writing period—it’s the OP-1. I’ve just got to flow with it. I was prepared with a bailout, and the OP-1 was the bailout, but it ended up being the main thing. That’s not really the point, though.
check out my jamuary2026 playlist HERE!
The point is that after six days, I got into it. The feel and the awkwardness were all gone by day seven. It’ll actually be harder to pick what’s releasable between days seven and fifteen, or however long that lasts. And honestly, who cares? You get this mid-period where things are good, then you’ll have a hit-and-miss period, and then you’re done.
Anything from that first period, you’re mostly just getting lucky. I got lucky with number one—or pre-one—and maybe one more. But most of what I’ll release is going to be from day seven on.
So maybe this is an argument for having a defined period: I’m going to write from here to here, and I’m going to write this many things. That works. A million things work. A lot of things don’t.
But for me, the lesson is simple: look for what works, and try it again until it doesn’t. At some point, it won’t.
This is all just an argument for doing. Do the work, and see what comes of it.