By Gwen Morrison

Project 365 is a promise. Project 365 is 365 days of writing. Inspired by the recent film “Julie and Julia,” I launched a blog as a way to make myself accountable to my goal: To write every single day for 365 days.

And why did I set this goal? Well, I’m a writer, but I’m also a mother, a wife — and I have a full-time job in online marketing. Like most women, I find it hard to juggle all of the things I want to do — and have to do — in my day. And so, it’s a choice. Do I watch a repeat episode of “Two and a Half Men,” or do I sit at my computer and write for an hour? The easy answer, for me, was to curl up on the couch for a little mind-numbing TV time. No thinking needed. But deep down, I knew I was cheating myself. I had an unfinished manuscript — characters who were waiting for me to finish their story.

So I decided that the only way I would be true to the promise, to write every day for 365 days, was if it were visible. If I made a commitment to myself — and maybe to others, if they found my blog, and followed my progress — and as soon as it was LIVE, I couldn’t go back. And so the blog was launched as a way to keep me focused on my goal: to write every day, no matter what. I had to change my schedule, and change the way I looked at the 24 hours I’m given every day. Now, I get up at 6 a.m. and I check e-mail, scan Facebook, write the blog update for the day before….and then I write. And, I’m finding that it’s a lot harder than I thought to be disciplined, even with a process.

Every day, I write about what I accomplished that day — the good, the bad, and the ugly — as I work my way through my second novel, and other small writing projects along the way. Readers will get a birds=eye view of the novel writing process, if they subscribe to the blog. Ask 10 writers about their process for writing a novel and you’ll get 10 different answers. My journey will be unique, and I’m hoping to pick up a few followers as I make my way towards the finish line.

Novelists are distance runners, the long-haul truckers of the literary world. You can’t sprint through a novel; there are just too many characters to bring to life, too many plots to “thicken,” and story lines to merge. It takes endurance to reach the finish line. It takes commitment to go the distance.

That’s where Project 365 comes in. The journey of a writer takes discipline. If you are a writer, you write.  Every day.

For those of you who are even the tiniest bit interested in my progress, I invite you along for the ride. (www.gwenmorrison.com/blog)

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